Share a cooking Skill

[Marble-eye]

I'm sure most of us have certain skills that may be useful to other members, so why not share these skills and we may be able to help each other to save money and indeed make a better product that can be bought.

I decided to start making my own bread quite a few years ago, the idea came about when I'd go down to Big C or Makro to buy my weekly bread and find that they had sold out or the bread was a few days old or as hard as a house brick. So did some research on YouTube and tried many of the recipes and videos being shown, some worked and some were downright failures. However I came across a video called Bake with Jack and 'hey presto' never looked back since, he does a half hour video from start to finish on making a loaf, will add at the end of this waffle.

You may not get it just right the first time, but it is worth the perseverance, but I cannot emphasize enough how easy it is once you learn the necessary skill.

Most members will have the basic equipment which is the most important being a good set of scales, probably set you back 150 BAHT in Big C, using cups to measure the flour is not very accurate. A bowl and spoon for the mixing and of course a bog standard oven for the baking, you don't have to have bread tins as you can make baguettes or cob type bread. The only ingredients needed are flour (I use the Green Swan flour, about 35 BAHT), yeast, a 500 gram packet works out at 150 BAHT, water, salt and a dash of cooking oil. 

Kneeding by hand will take you 8 minutes but should you be lucky to own a Stand Mixer with a dough hook it only takes a couple of minutes and is foolproof. I have owned a bread making machine and IMO they are not very good and so I'll sit back now and await the flak from bread machine owners.

These are the loaves I made yesterday and the whole lot probably cost about 80 BAHT to make, they taste delicious and freeze very easily, this batch will last me about 2 weeks. I cure my own bacon too, just imagine a bacon butty all made by yourself. Happy baking.

 

 

[Faraday]

They look delicious...

[Marc26]

2 hours ago, Marble-eye said:

I'm sure most of us have certain skills that may be useful to other members, so why not share these skills and we may be able to help each other to save money and indeed make a better product that can be bought.

Incidentally I have posted this in the food corner but it doesn't necessarily have to be a food based skill, mods please move if you think of a more suitable place for the thread.

I decided to start making my own bread quite a few years ago, the idea came about when I'd go down to Big C or Makro to buy my weekly bread and find that they had sold out or the bread was a few days old or as hard as a house brick. So did some research on YouTube and tried many of the recipes and videos being shown, some worked and some were downright failures. However I came across a video called Bake with Jack and 'hey presto' never looked back since, he does a half hour video from start to finish on making a loaf, will add at the end of this waffle.

You may not get it just right the first time, but it is worth the perseverance, but I cannot emphasize enough how easy it is once you learn the necessary skill.

Most members will have the basic equipment which is the most important being a good set of scales, probably set you back 150 BAHT in Big C, using cups to measure the flour is not very accurate. A bowl and spoon for the mixing and of course a bog standard oven for the baking, you don't have to have bread tins as you can make baguettes or cob type bread. The only ingredients needed are flour (I use the Green Swan flour, about 35 BAHT), yeast, a 500 gram packet works out at 150 BAHT, water, salt and a dash of cooking oil. 

Kneeding by hand will take you 8 minutes but should you be lucky to own a Stand Mixer with a dough hook it only takes a couple of minutes and is foolproof. I have owned a bread making machine and IMO they are not very good and so I'll sit back now and await the flak from bread machine owners.

These are the loaves I made yesterday and the whole lot probably cost about 80 BAHT to make, they taste delicious and freeze very easily, this batch will last me about 2 weeks. I cure my own bacon too, just imagine a bacon butty all made by yourself. Happy baking.

Looks amazing!

 

Good work.  

 

Do the Thais eat it at all?

[Marble-eye]

11 minutes ago, Marc26 said:

Looks amazing!

Good work.  

Do the Thais eat it at all?

My wife does and loves it, Thai bread can be very sweet and must be full of additives as it never goes off. 

My wife asked me to teach her friend who is married to a Westerner to make bread, the first time she tried she failed and hasn't tried since. You need perseverance and it's so easy to do you'll wonder why you ever got it wrong. 

 

[Marble-eye]

Just to wet the appetite a little more, bread made without bread tins.

[HolyCowCm]

On 1/4/2023 at 8:45 AM, Marble-eye said:

I'm sure most of us have certain skills that may be useful to other members, so why not share these skills and we may be able to help each other to save money and indeed make a better product that can be bought.

Incidentally I have posted this in the food corner but it doesn't necessarily have to be a food based skill, mods please move if you think of a more suitable place for the thread.

I decided to start making my own bread quite a few years ago, the idea came about when I'd go down to Big C or Makro to buy my weekly bread and find that they had sold out or the bread was a few days old or as hard as a house brick. So did some research on YouTube and tried many of the recipes and videos being shown, some worked and some were downright failures. However I came across a video called Bake with Jack and 'hey presto' never looked back since, he does a half hour video from start to finish on making a loaf, will add at the end of this waffle.

You may not get it just right the first time, but it is worth the perseverance, but I cannot emphasize enough how easy it is once you learn the necessary skill.

Most members will have the basic equipment which is the most important being a good set of scales, probably set you back 150 BAHT in Big C, using cups to measure the flour is not very accurate. A bowl and spoon for the mixing and of course a bog standard oven for the baking, you don't have to have bread tins as you can make baguettes or cob type bread. The only ingredients needed are flour (I use the Green Swan flour, about 35 BAHT), yeast, a 500 gram packet works out at 150 BAHT, water, salt and a dash of cooking oil. 

Kneeding by hand will take you 8 minutes but should you be lucky to own a Stand Mixer with a dough hook it only takes a couple of minutes and is foolproof. I have owned a bread making machine and IMO they are not very good and so I'll sit back now and await the flak from bread machine owners.

These are the loaves I made yesterday and the whole lot probably cost about 80 BAHT to make, they taste delicious and freeze very easily, this batch will last me about 2 weeks. I cure my own bacon too, just imagine a bacon butty all made by yourself. Happy baking.

Nice! 

[HolyCowCm]

On 1/4/2023 at 11:18 AM, Marble-eye said:

Just to wet the appetite a little more, bread made without bread tins.

Best thing about fresh baked warm bread out of the oven is adding butter and eating it immediately. It is comparable to a good romp.

[Slacker77]

Looks delicious ME,and what a coincidense , 

Yesterday i told my wife i'm gonna start making bread again because even in my local shop in Stockholm the bread is either finished or hard as a brick and not for talking about the price too silly expensive nowadays 

So when i finish work today i will go and buy the ingredience and make some great bread (hopefully) , will send in some pic's when done 

 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Slacker77

[Marble-eye]

11 minutes ago, Slacker77 said:

Looks delicious ME,and what a coincidense , 

Yesterday i told my wife i'm gonna start making bread again because even in my local shop in Stockholm the bread is either finished or hard as a brick and not for talking about the price too silly expensive nowadays 

So when i finish work today i will go and buy the ingredience and make some great bread (hopefully) , will send in some pic's when done 

Good luck Slacker, look forward to the pics.

Don't forget that this is a basic British bread recipe and doesn't always suit all, I have found that adding whole wheat etc makes it harder to do. There is slightly a different approach to other recipes, but I'd give this recipe a go then when you get more adept try some other recipes.

 

[Rookiescot]

Not sure it qualifies as a skill or if it is useful to others but one thing I was able to do as a youth was to bend iron bars over my manhood.

As I got older I had to stop though.

My arms are knackered. 

[Marble-eye]

12 minutes ago, Rookiescot said:

Not sure it qualifies as a skill or if it is useful to others but one thing I was able to do as a youth was to bend iron bars over my manhood.

As I got older I had to stop though.

My arms are knackered. 

Exaggerating is not a skill, but I do know many people that bend the truth.

[KaptainRob]

Your baking results look very professional ME, top marks! 

We used to buy the country-style cobs from Makro until the price crept up and loaf size slowly reduced.  Others stopped buying and inevitably, yesterday's loaves were still on sale next day ... 

So I started baking wholemeal bread which was fine for my taste but not the wife, it was too dense for her so we checked out Nana Bakery and never looked back.  Fabulous whole wheat and exotic bread products from a Scotland-trained baker here in Chiang Mai.  

Among my regular cooking skills I enjoy baking pumpkin pie and tried using the wholemeal bread flour for the shortcrust pastry one time without great success so I mixed it 50/50 with white flour and bingo, a super result.  Perhaps that may work with bread?

File photo with plain shortcrust >

[yselmike]

I got into the sourdough no knead method a few years ago.The problem I had was that my electric bill went through the roof,I dread to think what it would be at today's energy prices.I did get some cracking bread out of the experience,and just using flour,water,salt,and the sourdough starter with a little oil.Reading the list of ingredients in some of the bread in the supermarket's leaves me scratching my head.

[Slacker77]

Well here's the result of my bread yesterday ,it came out quite ok for not doing this for at least 10 years.just a plain wheatbread and I added a teaspoon of syrup and some chopped walnuts init,it was a great nightsandwich with some cheese and a  cup of tea .

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Marble-eye]

27 minutes ago, Slacker77 said:

Well here's the result of my bread yesterday ,it came out quite ok for not doing this for at least 10 years.just a plain wheatbread and I added a teaspoon of syrup and some chopped walnuts init,it was a great nightsandwich with some cheese and a  cup of tea .

Looks great Slacker.

[KaptainRob]

4 minutes ago, Marble-eye said:

Looks great Slacker.

Yes, except for the walnuts .... hate 'em.   

[Marble-eye]

8 hours ago, KaptainRob said:

Your baking results look very professional ME, top marks! 

We used to buy the country-style cobs from Makro until the price crept up and loaf size slowly reduced.  Others stopped buying and inevitably, yesterday's loaves were still on sale next day ... 

So I started baking wholemeal bread which was fine for my taste but not the wife, it was too dense for her so we checked out Nana Bakery and never looked back.  Fabulous whole wheat and exotic bread products from a Scotland-trained baker here in Chiang Mai.  

Among my regular cooking skills I enjoy baking pumpkin pie and tried using the wholemeal bread flour for the shortcrust pastry one time without great success so I mixed it 50/50 with white flour and bingo, a super result.  Perhaps that may work with bread?

File photo with plain shortcrust >

The Pumpkin Pie looks plumptious. 

Really tricky making whole wheat bread, not a great lover of it, too healthy.

Are you using 100% in your recipe or are you blending it with plain white. I've tried experimenting though and read quite a bit on wholewheat bread making and the more wholewheat you add to the recipe the denser it becomes. I got as far as 20% wholewheat, that was ok for me but it still didn't rise as much as the plain white. A couple of tips I read was to soak the wholewheat flour for about 30 minutes before adding the other ingredients, of course that goes without saying that you subtract the water you use to soak it. Another tip was to add some Vital Wheat Gluton (you only need a spoonful) to assist in the rising of the bread. I have tried this VWG and it seems to help...... well maybe.

Bon appetit. 

[Marc26]

41 minutes ago, KaptainRob said:

Yes, except for the walnuts .... hate 'em.   

I love Walnuts!

Just a pain in the ass to crack them

[Slacker77]

41 minutes ago, KaptainRob said:

Yes, except for the walnuts .... hate 'em.   

understand you KR

probably same when i see bread with raisins 

[KaptainRob]

Just now, Marc26 said:

I love Walnuts!

Just a pain in the ass to crack them

Do lovers of walnuts like eating durian?  

[Marble-eye]

2 minutes ago, Marc26 said:

I love Walnuts!

Just a pain in the ass to crack them

You are not supposed to use your ass, there are nut crackers that will do the job much less painfully.

[KaptainRob]

2 minutes ago, Slacker77 said:

understand you KR

probably same when i see bread with raisins 

I don't like soft fruit, eg raisins in bread.  In fruit cake and puddings yes.  It's the bitter walnut flavour and aroma I don't like.  All other nuts and seeds I enjoy.

[KaptainRob]

1 minute ago, Marble-eye said:

You are not supposed to use your ass, there are nut crackers that will do the job much less painfully.

Paulie's got a hard-ass.   (so his wife tells me)

[HolyCowCm]

22 hours ago, KaptainRob said:

Your baking results look very professional ME, top marks! 

We used to buy the country-style cobs from Makro until the price crept up and loaf size slowly reduced.  Others stopped buying and inevitably, yesterday's loaves were still on sale next day ... 

So I started baking wholemeal bread which was fine for my taste but not the wife, it was too dense for her so we checked out Nana Bakery and never looked back.  Fabulous whole wheat and exotic bread products from a Scotland-trained baker here in Chiang Mai.  

Among my regular cooking skills I enjoy baking pumpkin pie and tried using the wholemeal bread flour for the shortcrust pastry one time without great success so I mixed it 50/50 with white flour and bingo, a super result.  Perhaps that may work with bread?

File photo with plain shortcrust >

Now I have been mulling doing pumpkin pie for 3 years now but haven’t gotten to it yet. Now you give me more of an incentive and gumption to do it. Looks great! 

[Pinetree]

Quickest way to a salmon dinner.  Add milk and butter to a salmon steak, place in bowl and microwave for 4 minutes. Take out salmon and add spices and a little corn flour to the mixture that is in the bowl, ( I add paprika and a little curry powder) micro wave until thickness arrives, poor over the salmon, done, dinner in less than 10 minutes.  Eat with rice if preferred.