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These hints and tips will be added to as our customers give us valuable feedback on the things they discover about our bread mix.
If you have a hint or a tip you wish to share, please complete the form below.
Accurate measuring using digital (battery operated) scales makes life much easier than guessing with cup measurements. You can weigh your dry ingredients and liquid measures to get the right dough consistency from the start rather than having to mix extra water into a dry dough.
Storage: The ability to store fresh bread may vary with weather and climate. A basic rule is the warmer the temperature surrounding the bread, the 'fresher' it will remain but the quicker it will attract mould growth.
Storage in cool temperatures (for example refrigerators) slows mould growth but also dries and stales bread more quickly.
After the bread has completely cooled from baking, place it in an airtight bag, gently suck the air out and seal with a tie. In moderate warm surrounding temperatures, the bread should be edible for up to three days without reforming. Cooler environments will reduce this and require quick refreshing/reforming in a microwave oven for approximately 10 to 20 seconds per slice. Allow to cool on a rack and enjoy as normal.
Should you knead the dough? Unnecessary, but it should not be a problem if you do.
Unlike gluten based breads which require kneading to develop the gluten to enable it to stretch and give a good rise and light texture, our FG Roberts Cottage Bread Mixes do not need this to attain a stretchy dough.
As long as the dough is well mixed, it only needs a single rise and bake. If you find a light knead is easier than mixing the dough thoroughly in your bowl with a spoon (arthritis sufferers), then mix as best you can in the bowl first, then tip it onto your floured board. By giving it a light knead for a couple of minutes, you will give the dough a better mix before it rises. This will still result in a light, even textured bread.
Freezing: The cooled loaves have excellent freezing and thawing characteristics for at least two weeks. Thaw slowly in a microwave oven or wrap in foil and thaw in a normal oven on moderate heat for approximately 20 minutes, or place on a wire rack, cover with a cloth and allow to thaw naturally.
Sandwiches for lunches: The breads are excellent for lunches when made on the day intended for eating or the day after. They should retain their soft, flexible character and will not crumble. Crusts may be a little dry on day 2 if they are overcooked but in moderate temperatures will not require reforming/refreshing.
Simply slice and add toppings, wrap in plastic and place in lunch boxes or bags.
Yeast: Use a good quality dry active yeast (we prefer the French and Dutch varieties) as this will ensure good and reliable rises with the minimum of yeast and no extra sugar will be required. Keep remaining yeast in a jar in the fridge or freezer (it does not need thawing, just use straight from the freezer) and it should keep in excess of six months in the fridge and 12 months in the freezer.
Bakers compressed or fresh yeast gives excellent results but it keeps for only a few weeks. You also need to use about double the amount compared to dry active or granular yeast, but it can give even better rising, texture and colour to your breads.
Equipment clean-up is extremely easy as the wet dough will dissolve in water after a short period of soaking.
Loaves should be removed from tins soon after baking and cooled on appropriate racks that enable air to circulate evenly. Crusts exit the oven quite hard and crisp but soften substantially at the sides (tinned loaves only) on cooling. Slicing of any kind should not be attempted for at least one hour. Electric knives slice best.
Loaf side-suck: The higher the sides of the baking tins you use, the more the cooling loaves will suck in at the sides
up to around 1cm each side. This can be reduced by removing the loaves from the tins during the final 15 minutes of baking but some suck will likely remain. It is one of the costs of obtaining better keeping bread!
Lower sided tins or pans have less side-suck.
Slicing the bread is best done using an electric knife and only when the bread has completely cooled. We recommend cutting two or three slices and then wiping the blade with a wet cloth to remove vegetable gum build-up before continuing.
Slicing of fresh bread with industrial slicers: At this stage we are unable to determine suitability for this but domestic electric knife experience would indicate some blade crumb sticking evident if sliced before 10 hours cooling.
The toasting ability of these breads is a little longer than equivalent wheat breads but a lot less than most current batter-style mixes, which tend to burn the crusts easily.
Adding seeds: Many varieties of seeds and grains can be added to the dry mix to produce extra healthy and tasty loaves. We recommend starting by adding 10% extra weight of seeds to the dry mix and add extra from there if required. This 10% added should not require any extra liquid, but it does depend on the seeds. Some seeds are water absorbers, linseeds for example, and may require a little extra water for the mix. Some adjustments may be necessary to achieve a moist firm silky smooth dough.
If you wish to add seeds to the loaf top, then just before placing the loaf in the oven, spray or brush water or milk generously over the risen dough and sprinkle on the seeds. The water or milk will help stick the seeds on the dough during baking.
Adding seeds all around the outside of the loaf is an attractive variation. Simply sprinkle seeds onto your board. Pick up the dough, spray the top, roll the wet top onto the seeds, spray the dry section and roll the dough over the seeds and voila!
Added browning: Brushed on milk at the fully risen dough stage will also give extra browning to the bread. Also egg, and or egg white whipped with a fork and then brushed on will give a very golden brown finish but will burn quite easily. This is best added at the last 10 minutes of the baking cycle.
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