Home Made Bread

I love making great food for our lovely guests her at Fields Lodge Bed and Breakfast. It’s one of the reasons we’ve been awarded so many Breakfast Awards and are officially Pembrokeshire’s Finest Breakfast! Every day we make fresh bread–white and wholemeal and I’ll tell you why….

What’s in a loaf

If you look at the back of a loaf of bread in a supermarket, you’ll be amazed at how many ingredients are listed. Some of them I don’t even identify as food. The worst I’ve seen was a list of over 30 ingredients! And sugar! Why on earth put sugar in bread?? Crazy! ( I know why,

 

Crazy…how can that be?

So, we make traditional bread, with just a handful of ingredients.

Traditional Bread

My favourite is undoubtedly to make sourdough, which has only 3 ingredients. The process here is long and relies on a comfortable temperature in the kitchen, which is not ideal for the Aga, and so, for our general day to day breakfast bread, I do use an ‘ordinary’ bread recipe, saving sourdough for special occasions.

And, this recipe works well with ‘supermarket’ flour but, if you know me, we don’t just use ordinary flour and this of course, helps with making a really great loaf.

Meaty, is the way I would describe our bread.

I hope you can identify….I find supermarket bread a bit light, fluffy and not substantial, not filling really-like eating air.

Whereas our bread is like having a meal, solid, strong and, dare I say it, meaty!?!

My preferred flour is a Bio-dynamic Wholegrain (note-the whole grain) that is traditionally stone ground, a little way up the coast from us here, at the oldest working, water mill in Wales.

By using the whole grain, your body is benefiting from the best of the grain. I’ve talked about this before, so check this out 

So, now you know this, you’ll never want shop bought bread again!

What can you do?

Use a Bread Maker

We make lots of bread, and so, for our ‘day 2 day’ bread, I use a bread maker.

I think the important thing here is to be making your own fresh bread. Whether you make it totally by hand, or use a breadmaker isn’t important, it’s the fact you’re making your own that counts.

Over the years, I’ve tried quite a few brands and I find the Panasonic one the most reliable. It’s not just bread you can make either..pizza bases, jams, to name a few.

This is the one I have, and it’s on a special offer in Amazon at the moment (July 2021) (blimey! I can’t believe it’s July!!)

If you want one, then click the link to get the deal-mine is currently mixing as I type! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

So, once you’ve bought your machine, it will come with a recipe book with lots of things to try.

I use my ‘ordinary’ bread recipe, whether I’m making by hand or in the machine.

The instructions are different for by hand, and so let me know if you’d like the ‘by hand’ instructions, as this recipe is written for the machine:

Wholemeal Loaf for Bread Maker

10g Salt

390g luke warm water

20g Olive Oil

140g White Bread Four

420g Wholemeal Four (or rye/spelt etc)

7g sachet of fast acting yeast

 

I’ve listed the ingredients in the order that you want to put them in the bread maker-salt first then wet ingredients, then dry, and lastly the yeast. Make sure the flour covers all the liquid  and then put a little indentation in the flour to pour the yeast into-it’s important not to let the yeast come in contact with the liquid at the loading stage.

Then you’ve probably got a few ‘Menus’ on your machine to choose from. I use the quick cook menu which will cook a loaf in just under 2 hours. The longer cook times, as usually longer ‘proving’ times, which makes the loaf bigger and more airey, but all that does for me is give me bread that’s way too tall for the toaster, so I find the quick cook does the job perfectly. It also gives you denser bread, which is more filling for sandwiches in our packed lunches!

Of course, if you are toasting at home under a grill or on the Aga top, then I would go for the longer cook time-experiment and see what you prefer,

I know on some recipes you see that they will suggest 10g of yeast as wholemeal flour is heavier than white but for me, one sachet(7g) works perfectly fine, so why split another sachet and use half?

Sugar? No thank you!

You might see sugar in some recipes-all this does is make the bread quicker to toast brown, so I refuse to put this in my recipes. Why, oh why are we insisting on putting this ingredient in savoury foods when it doesn’t need to be in there? No wonder we’re all addicted to the stuff (sugar addict in remission here!)

So, just accept that your toast will take a few seconds longer, and once you’re used to this, you’ll really notice it, if you go back to shop bought bread!

Just as I’m finishing this blog, my bread maker is beeping-it’s just finished the loaf and there’s a lovely smell of freshly baked bread here in the kitchen-yum!

I’d love to see your bread making efforts, so do tag me in any pictures you pop on social media, or even drop me an email and let me know how you’re going!

If you’re going to try it by hand, then drop me a line (Info@fieldslodge.co.uk) and I’ll give you the ‘by hand’ instructions, or click  for our free recipe leaflet.

One thing you will need which I find invaluable is a dough scraper-I use it for making my granolas too. Here’s my favourite one, which is on a deal at Amazon at the mo too!

 

Book at stay to try our bread out for yourself 

Debbie, our guest today who inspired this blog for me, said that she loved the texture of our bread and wishes she could replicate it herself…so here you go Debbie-give it a go!

 

Here’s more Fields Lodge Recipes