Baked anything tasty lately?

Alun

About the only thing I bake is bread, and I'm starting to get royally hacked off with the almost total unavailability of both bread flour and dried yeast in the shops. Occasionally you'll find somewhere that has 16 or 15kg sacks of flour available, but yeast seems almost impossible to find. I mean, what is happening? Is the entire nation suddenly baking their own bread at home? I don't think so judging by the stocked bread shelves in the supermarkets, so what's the story? I've got a few bags of flour left, and two sachets of yeast and then that's it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Dizzyblonde

I think a lot of people who never bake panic bought lots of yeast and strong flour, and because bread is freely available they'll never even use it

Alun

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I think a lot of people who never bake panic bought lots of yeast and strong flour, and because bread is freely available they'll never even use it

That's what I suspect too. Dried yeast doesn't last forever though, so possibly a lot of it will go to waste eventually.

phormium

I buy fresh yeast normally and because I never use a full pack of it each time I have a stash of it in the freezer, turns out to be handy now!

Seamai

Runaways wrote: »

Gonna try a soda bread with chia seeds today cos it looks simple enough.
Famous last words

It is pretty easy, you'll find lot's of recipes on line with lots of slight variations, I use 100% wholemeal and a treacle in mine, some will substitute some of the brown for white, just play around with it till you find what you like, lots of possibilities, walnuts, sultanas, pumpkin seeds.
I do a white one also with dried cranberries and rosemary.

rubadub

Alun wrote: »

I've got a few bags of flour left, and two sachets of yeast and then that's it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

The "no knead" recipes use very little yeast. I think you could also grow your own from the yeast using the dried yeast.

Seamai

rubadub wrote: »

The "no knead" recipes use very little yeast. I think you could also grow your own from the yeast using the dried yeast.

Has anyone here tried the "no knead" bread? It looks too good to be true.

AndyBoBandy

I went down there to make a cup of tea!!

Came back 30 minutes later with a carrot cake in the oven and no tea!!


....gonna be working overtime at the gym when it reopens!!

PARlance

Pretty excellent if I do say so myself, 2nd attempt at baguettes and have just finished off a chorizo, salchichion and iberico cheese sandwich.... held together with some real Irish butter.

Still purring!

Alun

rubadub wrote: »

The "no knead" recipes use very little yeast. I think you could also grow your own from the yeast using the dried yeast.

I use the standard recipe for my Panasonic breadmaker, and I use much less than a single sachet for each loaf anyway, usually 1 - 1.5 tsp depending on the recipe.

Anyway, I've just found some dried yeast so I'm happy now for a while, until the flour runs out that is And no, I'm not telling you where

rubadub

Alun wrote: »

Anyway, I've just found some dried yeast so I'm happy now for a while, until the flour runs out that is And no, I'm not telling you where

Pallas foods were doing collection points and had lots of options. Asian supermarkets often have large tubs of yeast, and east european shops. I have plenty myself, I had pots of Allinsons I use for brewing cider. I am going to try a wholemeal no knead one, it was the only flour left the other day.

Alun

Yes, I saw the post on Pallas foods, but those were all big catering sized packs of both flour (16 - 25kg) and dried yeast (500g). Dried yeast goes off once opened, even the 8g sachets need to be kept in the fridge after opening if you don't use a whole one in a day or two.

Ryath

I got a block of the fresh yeast from them. Kept 1/4 in fridge and froze the rest.

Does any one know if gem semolina is suitable for pasta and pizza making or is it different from the semolina flour used in Italy.
Use to buy it mostly in little Italy when I lived in Dublin but have never seen it anywhere since I moved down the country. Have a notion to make some fresh pasta and it's very handy for dusting when rolling out pizza bases.

New Home

Ryath wrote: »

I got a block of the fresh yeast from them. Kept 1/4 in fridge and froze the rest.

Does any one know if gem semolina is suitable for pasta and pizza making or is it different from the semolina flour used in Italy.
Use to buy it mostly in little Italy when I lived in Dublin but have never seen it anywhere since I moved down the country. Have a notion to make some fresh pasta and it's very handy for dusting when rolling out pizza bases.

It's just semola ground to a finer powder (hence, the -ina). This might not be made with durum wheat, but egg-based pasta isn't usually made with durum wheat and it can be made with normal flour (not self-raising!), too. Knock yourself out!

Dizzyblonde

I came across this brilliant thread on Twitter about making your own fresh yeast:

https://twitter.com/shoelaces3/status/1244252079041974272

tangy

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

If it is too big, I’ll stick it in the shed for when I build my pizza oven in the garden.

Will make a great snow shovel :rolleyes:

Gloomtastic!

tangy wrote: »

Will make a great snow shovel :rolleyes:

The pizza oven might get built before we have a big snowfall again! :rolleyes:

Runaways

Seamai wrote: »

It is pretty easy, you'll find lot's of recipes on line with lots of slight variations, I use 100% wholemeal and a treacle in mine, some will substitute some of the brown for white, just play around with it till you find what you like, lots of possibilities, walnuts, sultanas, pumpkin seeds.
I do a white one also with dried cranberries and rosemary.

It came out more like cake. Really tough crust n too doughy inside. It all got eaten though.
My pal says I screwed up using butter and buttermilk rather than regular milk. I think I just went to hard on the kneading.

It’s almost all eaten though butter n raspberry jam

rubadub

Alun wrote: »

Dried yeast goes off once opened, even the 8g sachets need to be kept in the fridge after opening if you don't use a whole one in a day or two.

Have you had trouble with yeast before? or just going off the usual advice, since I do hear that a lot. I had yeast which was years out of date and it worked brewing cider just fine, very active. The current yeast was from a tin, the tins come with plastic caps to keep fresh, I think moisture is the real enemy. I do keep mine in the fridge.

My no-knead one has probably doubled in size since earlier, it was 4 cups of flour, 2 cups of water, 2 teaspoons of salt and 3/4 teaspoon of yeast (no sugar at all). https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/no-knead-cast-iron-whole-wheat-bread/

Yeast I used is at least 6 months old, maybe a year. The fridge will also help keep it dry. If I had a cardboard container I would put it into the smallest size jar it would fit in. Another trick would be having lots of small jars, like hotel jam jars and put it in each and seal immediately and store in the fridge or freeze.

You can see in the comments here that people have had success with old yeast
http://www.eatbydate.com/other/baking/yeast/

Alun

Just ordered some flour here ... https://www.ballymoreorganics.ie/ following a post in the COVID-19 Supermarkets thread.

Alun

rubadub wrote: »

Have you had trouble with yeast before? or just going off the usual advice, since I do hear that a lot.

Very definitely experienced it myself, but to be clear it's more to do with the sachet contents losing their effectiveness once opened, nothing to do with the sell by / use by dates. It does work, but nowhere near as effectively as when freshly opened or kept in the fridge if opened.

Seamai

Runaways wrote: »

It came out more like cake. Really tough crust n too doughy inside. It all got eaten though.
My pal says I screwed up using butter and buttermilk rather than regular milk. I think I just went to hard on the kneading.

It’s almost all eaten though butter n raspberry jam

I just use the following for the basic dough

450g Wholemeal Flour
350ml Buttermilk
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon Treacle
1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt.

I prefer to use a loaf tin and put a clean damp tea towel over it the second it comes out of the oven to keep the crust from getting tough.

Runaways

Seamai wrote: »

I just use the following for the basic dough

450g Wholemeal Flour
350ml Buttermilk
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon Treacle
1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt.

I prefer to use a loaf tin and put a clean damp tea towel over it the second it comes out of the oven to keep the crust from getting tough.

Didn’t know about the treacle thanks. Could I use maple syrup instead do you think?

Gloomtastic!

rubadub wrote: »

Have you had trouble with yeast before? or just going off the usual advice, since I do hear that a lot. I had yeast which was years out of date and it worked brewing cider just fine, very active. The current yeast was from a tin, the tins come with plastic caps to keep fresh, I think moisture is the real enemy. I do keep mine in the fridge.

My no-knead one has probably doubled in size since earlier, it was 4 cups of flour, 2 cups of water, 2 teaspoons of salt and 3/4 teaspoon of yeast (no sugar at all). https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/no-knead-cast-iron-whole-wheat-bread/

Yeast I used is at least 6 months old, maybe a year. The fridge will also help keep it dry. If I had a cardboard container I would put it into the smallest size jar it would fit in. Another trick would be having lots of small jars, like hotel jam jars and put it in each and seal immediately and store in the fridge or freeze.

You can see in the comments here that people have had success with old yeast
http://www.eatbydate.com/other/baking/yeast/

Really useful post thank you. Was starting to panic a bit.

AndyBoBandy

Today’s Carrot Cake

Seamai

Runaways wrote: »

Didn’t know about the treacle thanks. Could I use maple syrup instead do you think?

I like the taste of treacle but I've used honey and golden syrup so I'm sure sure maple syrup would work as well.

Tree

Ryath wrote: »

I got a block of the fresh yeast from them. Kept 1/4 in fridge and froze the rest.

Does any one know if gem semolina is suitable for pasta and pizza making or is it different from the semolina flour used in Italy.
Use to buy it mostly in little Italy when I lived in Dublin but have never seen it anywhere since I moved down the country. Have a notion to make some fresh pasta and it's very handy for dusting when rolling out pizza bases.

I buy semolina in the asian food shops, the coarse stuff by East End is great for pizza peels and teh fine stuff makes good pasta.

Gloomtastic!

Pizza peel from Pallas is the perfect size for a home oven. 26 inches from tip of handle to end of blade.

rubadub

rubadub wrote: »

My no-knead one has probably doubled in size since earlier, it was 4 cups of flour, 2 cups of water, 2 teaspoons of salt and 3/4 teaspoon of yeast (no sugar at all). https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/no-knead-cast-iron-whole-wheat-bread/

Happy with how this turned out and would make it again. It was this flour
https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=251968858

I have no "dutch oven" so did in in my instant pot bowl with a metal sheet as a cover, foil can be used. As per recipe 30min covered 15min uncovered (so 45min total 230C,) they say 15-20min uncovered and I was worried it was a bit underdone and some might have wanted the extra 5min but I like it. I dusted the bottom of the instant pot with flour, I thought it had stuck badly but just had to run a spoon around the side and it was just 1 spot that stuck and it fell out easily. (I baked in the oven not in the instant pot!)







(the attached images below are just the same ones as above)

Shenshen

Next lunchtime bake : Stewed apple pie with rum, cinnamon and raisins