More Real Bread

The last of the real bread actually got eaten pretty quickly for bread in our house. Not only the lovely warm fresh stuff out of the oven but the couple of loaves I froze as well. On Wednesday I had the day off work as I had worked the weekend and it was the perfect time to make some more. I was a bit more nervous making these loaves than the last lot because they had worked so well. 

This time I made sure I used the same mixing method (method 2 in the River Cottage Book on Bread), and let the bread rise twice before proving. I improved things slightly in the proving department by reading the book properly and letting the tin loaf prove in the tin as you are supposed to rather than knocking all the air out of it putting it into the tin like last time.

Dan, the writer of the River Cottage book also said that the loaves are happier with coatings rather than naked. I decided to go for one plain loaf, one with a go faster stripe and one with a seedy coat. I mixed together some sunflower, sesame and brown linseeds and added them to the loaves.

The book also recommends that you spray the top of the loaves with water before putting them into the oven. I didn't have a sprayer so I flicked some water over the top instead. I was so impressed with the results, again! The seeds were a tasty welcome addition. The water sprinkling seemed to soften the crust well and the loaf in the tin looked like a real loaf! The crust on that was very soft. Yay for real bread. I certainly aim to continue with home made bready products from now on, they're just so much nice than the supermarket stuff (and cheaper than the 'artisan' stuff too).