Bread

Add a tablespoon of (slightly crushed) fennel seeds and olive oil to your dough.

Yeah, Greek bakeries (there's one on green lanes, Haringey end) sometimes have something along those lines. Its a bit like very dense brioche though.

I bit your idea again @pharoahsanders, 1/3 wholemeal sour loaf with a little yeasty cheat. Made a significant dent this lunch complementing a tub of leek and potato soup I found in the freezer. Stuffed.

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new favourite bread, er I mean thread

Thanks for the info, I'm hoping Whole Foods (very near me) might have something...

Mind you, it might be fun trying to make it myself!

I've been making bread for a while now, and I never get big air bubbles like you chaps are getting, I have a mucn more even texture, no matter what I do...any suggestions on what to change?

I'm quite new to baking so can only advise with limited knowledge. The technique I follow is:

1. Mix flour/s, salt, yeast, water, sourdough starter.
   
2. Leave for 30 mins
   
3. Kneed for 10-15 mins until elastic
   
4. Leave in fridge for 8-12 hours (overnight)
   
5. Remove onto lightly floured surface, shape into ball or baton and place in a proving basket for 1-1.5 hours
   
6. When risen by double, dust with semolina flour, slit and place in a preheated large heavy casserole dish with lid at 210°C for 15 mins, then 30 mins without.
   

Paging @PaulHollywood. (I have been using no yeast, just starter. After kneading, leave to rise on countertop 4-6 hours, shape, into banneton, then maybe another hour on the countertop then into the refrigerator overnight. Bake next morning)

Caraway seed, that's the answer, it's kinda aniseed-y but mellower. Popular in Germany where it's called kümmelbrot or something like that @schick

I used caraway in something the other week. Was yummy.

I have also been struggling a bit for volume with my sourdough (though the crumb's been great). Am just using a rye starter, with maybe 75% strong white, rest wholemeal.

I'm thinking that relocating my second stage prove to the fridge might give more structure. Any views?

What do you mean by a rye starter. Do you mean a starter only fed rye?

How long after feeding are you using the starter?

Had a bread experiment last night, using the bread maker as I was feeling lazy, also wanted to test some dries yeast that I had as having used the yeast on a quid dough breadmaker setting it came out wierd.

So added an extra half teaspoon of yeast this time and threw in 100g of sourdough. Then I decided to trick the machine to do two mixes. A breadmaker usually uses fast action yeast so single knead, no knock back and then bake, but I used the bread machine on a quick setting to just mix the dough and then turn the machine off and use the fact that the machine warms the mix to do a first prove of 30 mins. Then I turn the machine on again and use a setting with the longest prove, that happened to be the french bread setting and off it went.

Did you know that tesco* will give you yeast for free. *tesco with an actual bakery not one that just reheats, and the bakery staff have to be there. So far I have found that Lewisham is one.

Has anyone had any success with naan bread and could recommend a recipe?

I'm thinking that relocating my second stage prove to the fridge might
give more structure. Any views?>

@Dumps, I have been doing second prove overnight in the refrigerator and am happy with the results. Give it a go.

Have you got a tandour, then they are never the same IMO

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/oct/02/how-to-make-perfect-naan-bread-recipe

The flour I use is a mix of atta flour and bread flour as I buy atta flour in 10kg sacks as it is cheap. Then I like making chapatis as they are quick and easy to make. Also sometimes I add yoghurt/greek yoghurt in to the mix along with some crushed garlic.

That's excellent information - thank you. I'll look into that!

This worked really well, cheers Tim. Hadn't risen much by the morning so needed to give it another couple of hours in the warm. But oven spring was considerable. Will post in a sec.

http://s1240.photobucket.com/user/lady1101/library/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-01

"This album is Private".

Have followed this thread with interest, and have made forays into bread making when time permits at weekends. Recently discovered wholemeal spelt, which has a lovely taste and almost cake like texture in the mouth.

The loaves I'm making are solid in that wholemeal way, not stodgy at the bottom, but dense none the less - any tips for greater rise?

Wholemeal spelt is fairly dense as a flour and doesn't have the elasticity of white gluten, therefore tends to produce heavy loaves. Having said that I might re-investigate spelt sourdough soon as it's been a couple of years, and the flavour is excellent.

thanks bainbridge, i have read that the addition of cider vinegar aids the rise, so am going to add 1 tsp to the next bake

^^ Also a decent source of protein, if you're into that.

Some times I add bread flour to make the bread lighter

I will add in a proportion of white wheat at some point during the experimentation, just want to see how good I can get a 100% wholemeal spelt