Information

Flour Information

The best flour for breadmaking is made from special strains of wheat grown in hot, dry climates, this wheat is called hard wheat and the flour made from this wheat is often called "strong flour" or "breadmaking flour", we always refer to it as "bread flour".

This flour is naturally high in protein (commonly called gluten) whereas soft wheat flour is low in gluten and is labelled as "plain flour" or "cake flour" and is great for soft cakes, pastries, or biscuits. Gluten is the substance in flour that is stretchy and creates the bubbles in your dough that will trap the gas from the yeast, causing the bread to rise and be light and fluffy.

Yeast Information

Yeast is the magical ingredient that makes flour into bread. A living organism that is killed by high heat and will remain dormant if cold, it requires some warmth and food to grow. Dry active yeast is usually found in the form of small granules, and will keep extremely well (1-2 years) if stored well chilled in the fridge or freezer.

Other Ingredients

Bread Improver

Some ingredients help bread doughs rise faster and higher, help the bread keep longer, taste better etc. We use a bread improver, based on soy flour, which contains Vitamin C and enzymes. It is technically not essential to breadmaking but does noticeably enhance the lightness, taste and keeping qualities.

Salt

Bread made without salt is often dry and crumbly, but is always bland and tasteless. Not only does the salt bring out the flavour in your bread, it controls the action of the yeast as well and allows the gluten to mature properly. Too much salt will kill the yeast, but too little will let the yeast grow too fast and the bread can have a sour, yeasty flavour and the gluten structure will be poor.

Sugar

There is no real need to include sugar in your bread, it will make your bread rise a little faster and be a little lighter in texture. You can substitute honey, malt or golden syrup for the sugar, just dissolve in the water and include as part of the liquid measurement.

Tin Information

Bread cooks best, with a great crust and light crumb, if cooked in heavy specialty bread tins.

The heavy tins draws the heat into the centre of the loaf of bread, cooking any loaf in about 30-35 mins, and creating a lovely crisp crust.

Lightweight tins can mean under-cooked loaves, with a soft unsatisfactory crust. We have an extensive range of great bread tins including loaf tins of various sizes, French stick tins, Vienna loaf pans, Cob loaf tins, Bun trays, Pullapart tins, and Brioche tins etc.

To Anne and Geoff, We would just like to say a very big Thank You for all your help with our breadmaker.