Help! Bread making

A friend of ours has had some wonderful cruises round the fjords - enjoy

Galen I'm soooo jealous - not of the bread-making, obviously

Sorry! Spelt friends wrong and I haven't had a glass of yet! That will teach me to preview my messages.

Galen you have completely spolt my imagary of you tonight. Getting ready for dinner at the Captains table, and then dancing the night away. Joking apart, our frinds have been on that cruise, and had a fabulous time. Enjoy!! Oh and why not order the bread on-line before you go, and get some Hagen Das ice-cream, they might have run out of strawberries when you get back. What with working and cruising there is no time for all that domesticity.

Galen, sorry you are confused! I am the person who recommended the book. If you have the same one, the answers to your questions are all on the page for each master recipe.
Ingredients say all-purpose or bread flour, so I use Allinson's or locally milled varieties.
There is a box explaining how to adapt the recipe for Canadian flour.
I adjust the amount of liquid (usually more) to make a thick paste-like dough, which can be beaten with 40 strokes of a wooden spoon, takes a few seconds only. The point of no-knead is that you don't need a dough hook on a mixer. The mix will be wet, lumpy and sticky. After rising it will still be sticky, so needs to be shaped on a well floured board.
Where it mentions cornmeal on the tin or board used for resting, I use coarse semolina, which enables to loaf to be slid onto the baking tray or stone for the oven.
I will admit that I was a bit daunted when I first read the book, but it is really very easy. I shape a portion from my refrigerated master dough while my morning bath is running, then by the time I come back downstairs it is ready to be baked.
Good luck!

I'm working all next week. I just want to make sure I've got everything I need for when I return.

Well, you've got time to make the flippin' bread then, haven't you?!

I'm at home!i don't go til next Saturday.
For some bizarre reason I've booked the Queen Victoria to the Norwegian fjords Iceland and the faroes
I normally chase the sun, but I'm on the QE to the Black Sea in October.

Well Galen I have learnt something today. I didn't know what Artisan bread was. I went onto my trusty search engine, and it came up with this. Artisan is a skilled worker or craftsman, however Artisinal bread, is bread that is made by a skilled worker or craftsman. It is a bread which is not mass produced. I thought that it was a specific recipe, but apparently there are many different types of Artisinal bread. I also found a few small bakers on-line, from where you can purchase Artisinal bread. I read your post about ice-cream too, just the job for this weather. We are going on a Rhine cruise soon. Where are you? Happy cruising!!

Hi Galen Hope you are enjoying your cruise If you want to save having any more stress, when you get home, just go to the local store and buy a loaf. Job done!!

It was!
I was confused.
I don't like being confused.
It makes me bad tempered.
Well
More so than usual anyway

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

And I thought it was flippin' urgent!

Have a nice one.

Thanks all.
I'll have a go when i come back from my cruise.

I went to bed so here's the answers. I used English measuring cups and Dove bread flour. It had a softish crust and did not have as open a texture as the YouTube one but that had a very dark crust. I could have left it in the oven for five more minutes easily. It lasted two days because it was eaten quickly. I think it could well have kept three days in the bread bin. I will try with the American cup measure. I've been struggling with breadmaking for a while and this appealed for making with the DGCs.

Galen, the very best book on bread making is by Elisabeth David. It's called English Bread and Yeast Cookery. It has English measures, gives you all the scientific and historical background to every aspect of yeast cookery, is beautifully written and omits nothing.

That doesn't look like enough water for three cups (American measuring cups, which you can buy in the UK, galen, to make your life simpler ). For three cups of flour, I use about 13fl.oz (British fluid oz!) or 350-360ml of water. My bread turns out soft as a result, which is how we like it.

I think North American wheat is higher in gluten than British wheat and that's how they get away with only having all-purpose flour, as opposed to strong (high gluten) wholemeal, strong white, plain (low gluten) and self-raising. Presumably there is wholemeal and white there too. I'll have to ask my sister-in-law.

Galen! Do not fall asleep over that bread dough.

galen Here is a cookery weights and measures conversion chart. it might help.

www.google.co.uk/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=american%2F+imperial+cooking+measures&btnG=Google+Search

I have a set of American cup measures, but as the density of different foodstuffs differs so much, I still cannot fathom how to translate American cups, which are volume measures. Into either metric or imperial weight measures.

That is a cup of sugar which is a very dense material should weigh a lot less than a cup of flour which is light.

I don't think its possible without a having reference charts for the cup measures which cover a big range of products.

Unless someone can enlighten me. I think that's right. +++
night night

I would like to know what the "beat forty times" means though. Does it mean folding over and pressing down, as in kneading, and you count up to forty times?

That's interesting - cooking it in a hot Le Cresuet. Must have the same effect as a breadmaker (covered in). Bet that bread won't stay soft for too long though.

Don't alter the recipe if you use the Canadian. It will be fine.

A richer sort of bread, more like a bun loaf, you can get away with using plain flour. So long as it has enough fat/egg to give it a soft texture. The Canadian strong flour is for everyday bread where only a small amount of fat, or none at all is used.

What flour were you using?