Where can I get decent (real) bread?

I have terrible shoulder problems too but I make this loaf a lot. It’s literally 3 x 10 seconds of kneading, basically pushing it around with your hands. It reminds me of the bread mum got from the bakery and our treat was the corner cut off and buttered. So delicious. Here it is www.nigella.com/recipes/old-fashioned-sandwich-loaf

I think I have now checked all the posts I missed before and I have pulled up the links and bookmarked them. The Hambledon Bakery looks lovely. Wish we had something like it here. I am in the N.E. Hants corner, an area almost surrounded by Surrey. We have excellent rail links and a motorway cuts the town in half, but buses are poor and I don't drive any more so I can only shop locally for daily food needs.

I have just checked the Gluten Intolerance/Coeliac figures for the UK. It is estimated the level is now around 1% of the population and that it takes on average 13 years to be officially diagnosed - by which time of course, your gut is wrecked. I remember when it was so rare that sufferers could only get gluten free bread on prescription from the Chemist. I think the problem is being made worse by the practice of adding extra gluten, to be able to puff up the bread more. Are they determined to kill off their customers?

I notice "FriedGreenTomatoes" posting... A bit off the subject, but I love fried green tomatoes. A nutty flavour quite unlike red toms. I'm looking again at how I can perhaps sort out/rearrange/dump some of the stuff that's in my kitchen to make room for a bread maker. The space problem came about partly when I had to resite my gas boiler (new regs) and lost a cupboard and worktop space in the process. Plus I make a lot of jam and bottle home grown fruit - all takes up space.
Now, I must go back and read some of the posts I missed...

Today, after Church, with help of small children. Messy, I know.

Perhaps try 600g 00 flour, 240ml warm water, 1t yeast, 1t sugar, 1t salt. Allow warm water, yeast, sugar to rest in bowl on worktop for 10 min. Stir in flour, salt. Form to a ball, place back in well oiled bowl. Cover to protect from draughts. Wait an hour. Form with your oiled hands. Wait 45 minutes. Bake at 220 for 25-30 minutes.

Easy, cheap, works every time.

anna7

www.sustainweb.org/realbread/ascorbic_acid/

Ascorbic acid is just vitamin c. It's not harmful. I'm sure I've read bread recipes where they have advised adding half a tablet of vitamin c in the past. It's a long time since I've made bread at home.

I went on a bread making course about 10 years ago, it was very interesting to learn from a professional, I had been doing an OK job but my end product is now much better.

I taught myself how to make sourdough during lockdown, there was a lot of trial and error, the hipsters had turned it into a dark art!
My starter is now very well established and needs little care, it is a 24 hour process but so worth the effort.

I would say to anyone with the time give it a go.

Here’s some I made earlier!

Forgot to say that the real bread website has a map of bakers etc.

Ascorbic acid and use in commercial breadmaking:

Strengthened gluten. Greater loaf volume. Finer crumb (i.e. smaller, more even cells/bubbles).

You may like to see this about the campaign for real bread:
www.sustainweb.org/realbread/real_bread_loaf_mark/

LovesBach

We have used a breadmaker (Panasonic) for years now; a few weeks ago I bought bread, and it was so sweet it was inedbile. Bread made in a machine is easy - a few minutes to throw the ingredients in, no stirring, at least half the price of shop bought bread so the machine pays for itself quickly.
Most importantly the ingredients are pure - yeast, bread flour, a tiny amount of salt and sugar, one ounce of butter, and water. No preservatives.

I had a Panasonic but it started making very odd noises and just stopped working.
It hasn't been replaced yet.

I believe the flour used stirring bread up at home has higher protein, is healthier than the flour in store bread,. Store bread is made in machines, not by stirring flour into water with a spoon.

Inedible. I will get the hang of typing - or reading my efforts properly - one day.

We have used a breadmaker (Panasonic) for years now; a few weeks ago I bought bread, and it was so sweet it was inedbile. Bread made in a machine is easy - a few minutes to throw the ingredients in, no stirring, at least half the price of shop bought bread so the machine pays for itself quickly.
Most importantly the ingredients are pure - yeast, bread flour, a tiny amount of salt and sugar, one ounce of butter, and water. No preservatives.

Delila

I think ascorbic acid is vitamin C

It is and it is added to bread so that the bread making process is speeded up, see my link above.

I find Hovis sliced loaf delicious ( sliced version) wholemeal.
It isn’t bitter and is easy to digest.

Should have added Ascorbic acid is the giveaway as this is the additive used in the Chorley wood process
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process

Allira

Beechnut

FriedGreenTomatoes2

In a good way Beechnut or is something wrong?

Nothing wrong. It was when they were saying what their names were. Although I don’t actually know how to pronounce the name I read it as I saw it.

The children's names?

I wondered if they're pseudonyms, or do you think they are real?

Crikey! Real I think. 😮
Poor lad.

Anyway, for people who don’t have an artisan bakery near them I thought I’d recommend this as a decent alternative.

I've a book by the Fabulous Baker Boy's. One does meal-type stuff whilst the other is a fabulous Baker.
There are some brilliant recipes in their books for all sorts of bread, including some fab sour dough recipes with hints & tips.
Highly recommended.🙃

I think ascorbic acid is vitamin C

Should have added Ascorbic acid is the giveaway as this is the additive used in the Chorley wood process
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process

This one is illustrated by an unwrapped loaf

Wholemeal wheat flour, water, wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate*, iron*, niacin*, thiamin*), mixed seeds (5%) (sunflower seeds, brown linseed), yeast*, sea salt*, wheat gluten, wafer label (potato starch, water, sunflower oil, colour (carbon)), flour treatment agent (ascorbic acid).

Still not brilliant.

M0nica

Delila

I get a decent organic wholemeal seeded bloomer from Waitrose, but their unseeded version unfortunately seems to have been discontinued. Also, good bread is available from a small local bakery which supplies village shops.

Unfortunately the list of ingredientswanders a long way from flour, seeds, yeast and salt.
wholemeal wheat flour, water*, mixed seeds (19%) (sunflower seeds, golden linseed, millet, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds), wheat gluten, barley malt extract, sunflower oil, yeast*, sea salt*, spirit vinegar, fortified wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate*, iron*, niacin*, thiamin*), wheat flour, flour treatment agent ascorbic acid*

Unfortunately most, if not all of the nice crusty unwrapped loaves you see on supermarket shelves will be processed and steam cooked to some extent. The loaves, afe finished off in a baking oven to get that nice crustiness.

To get 'real' bread, it has to be from a local artisan baker, or however they might describe themselves.

I think that’s the seeded half bloomer Monica, similar ingredients but a very different, wrapped, loaf.

I make a whole meal loaf that does nor require needing. It contains only flour, dried yeast, salt and water. It is a wartime recipe.