My second year anniversary is coming up next month, living in Belfast and a person can only stand so much toast in a lifetime before losing her sanity. The Ulster fry is great but the be honest your bread tastes like shit. I tried buying at the local bakeries and the problem with that bread that it needs to be consumed the day it was baked, the next day it is a dry piece of brick with no flavour and can be used to commit the perfect homicide.
So I decided to make my own bread, because eating cereal, porridge and toast will drive me nuts if I want to live here longer.
Asda offers a wholemeal bread mix that only has you add warm water. First time baking so it is a trial and error process.
One bag of mix needs 350ml of warm water, which was too much in my opinion making the dough extremely sticky. Next time I will try 320ml.
By lack of a loaf tin I used a oiled cookie tray and tried to shape it in a bloomer.
After covering it with a damp cloth for over 45 minutes, the package suggested 30 but I ended up finishing my mission on Destiny. ;) It became twice the size and it was ready for the oven. As my oven is the oven from the hellmouth it is hard to get the temperature right. I turned it down a few degrees to make sure it didn't burn the loaf.
After 30 minutes this UFO was the result. The crust is nice and crusty and the smell is not bad, a tangy sour like wholemeal needs to be.
As the dough was a little too wet, the structure of the bread is a bit sticky, not as dry like store bought. I do not have a bread oven so I am not complaining.
Just a smudge of butter and good old Gouda cheese from Lidl (not that cheddar shit, that stuff is like plastic). And I am quite satisfied with my first loaf of wholemeal bread. The mix was good, just don't follow the instructions to the letter or you will end up with a slightly wet dough.
Taste I give it a 3 out of 5 because it is too wet. Crust is awesome though. Overall waaaaaay better than toast.
I am going to attempt to use different types of flour to find the one I like the best. Next up will be Tesco or Marks & Spencer.
'A good baker will rise to the occasion, it's the yeast he can do.'
