Where can I get decent (real) bread?

I cannot eat processed bread it makes me feel ill so I make all my own.
I make sourdough and wholemeal then freeze.
It is something I have just made fit in around my schedule but I appreciate for many people particularly those living alone or arthritic it’s not practical.

Isn’t it so sad that a bakery is a now such a rare thing?

I really feel for you Aely so I’ve done a bit of research on your behalf.
If you click the link you will find an artisan bread maker that delivers nationwide, it’s not cheap but worth a try, you could get a monthly deliver and freeze.

www.petercooksbread.co.uk/shop/f23dztwfsv4xudvq8izgz9hjvzsfmr

If you try it and it’s good please let us know.

Could you use a bread-maker with an extension cable, Aely – so you can place it in your hall or wherever? You'd only have to carry the loaded 'bucket' to and from it.

Anyway, good luck with finding something that works for you.

"Strong" is flour from hard wheat varieties.

It generally contains more gluten - but there's no "extra" added.

There are plenty of no-kneed ways to still make "real" bread... If you can lift the flour bag I think that much strength is enough.

Make your own

last week, organic wholegrain malted organic

Next week, organic wholemeal/rye

I make XL, slice into even slices with electric slicer, bag and freeze

I use a modern panasonic these days after a lifetime of making bread by hand, including sourdough

The chorleywood method should put anyone off cheap commercial bread

Making your own with organic flour and butter or olive oil is relaitively cheap and far superior to shop bought

InnocentBystander

A Panasonic breadmaker and Carr's Strong white/wholemeal flour. You choose which type but is the most reliable in my experience. Panasonic is recognised among experienced users as being the best brand.

If you did want to go down that way, it takes less than 5 minutes with a simple recipe of 3 ingredients[I think] to put the ingredients together for the bread. No heavy work at all, either..

Aely has said that she used to make her own, and explained why she can’t now.

Make your own. Wholemeal is the easiest I find. Water, sugar, salt, oil or butter, yeast and flour. Wholemal flour is the easiest to knead. There are lots of variations and recipes but good breadnwith nothing added is always the outcome. There is resting time and cooking time but hands on work is less than fifteen minutes.

InnocentBystander

A Panasonic breadmaker and Carr's Strong white/wholemeal flour. You choose which type but is the most reliable in my experience. Panasonic is recognised among experienced users as being the best brand.

Doesn't 'strong' used as a descriptor of flour mean that it has a relatively high protein content – i.e. higher gluten than ordinary flour?

Aely I absolutely know where you are coming from.

As a child I loved bread and butter, but as the 1960s and 70s came I went off bread completely. It was only a decade or so later that I realised my going off bread exactly followed the introduction of a new industrial bread making process called the 'Chorley Wood process, which means that the ingredients of a loaf changed to make it prove more quickly and cook more quickly using steam rather than baking.

The ingredients of a Tesco white sliced loaf are as follows:
^ Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Water, Yeast, Salt, Soya Flour, Preservative (Calcium Propionate), Emulsifier (Mono- and Di-Acetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono- and Di-Glycerides of Fatty Acids, Mono- and Di-Glycerides of Fatty Acids), Flour Treatment Agent (Ascorbic Acid)^ Rather different to a traditional or home made loaf - flour yeast, water, salt -

Like you Aely I now find industrial bread difficult to swallow, it sticks in my throat. No other food does.

I have done a bit of experimenting and found that the best search terms to us in google are Artisan bakery county I experimented with my own county and a random selection of counties around the UK, and that was quite effective. Of course it does not automatically follow that you will find a baker locally, but you will at least know where to find one. And real bread is not cheap.

I was forunate to discover real bread again when I moved to my current home and there was a 'real' baker in the village. Sadly, COVID finished his business and he retired, but one of his staff set up in a local small town and now I go there.

We buy a low GI bread from our independent baker.

It is over £3 for a large loaf, but we like it, freezes well and all gets eaten, crust etc.

Their little cupcakes, flapjack, brownies etc sell for nearing £2 each, but don’t buy them.

Yes, expensive stuff, but good quality.

V3ra

Aely have a look at the Warburtons breads, they might suit you.

We like Warburton’s. Also they do gluten free loaves.

I have a bread maker but also buy Sainsbury Ancient Grain loaf.

That is nice bread.

Aely have a look at the Warburtons breads, they might suit you.

Lakeland do a bread maker made of silicon. I have one and it’s brilliant.

You can make bread in an air fryer if you have one.

I think bread making from scratch is easy and once you get in the habit you will find it to be so too.

Paul's makes good organic bread. We buy theirs occasionally:

pauls-organics.co.uk/

Thanks for the link Allira. I have it bookmarked and will check it out tomorrow. Kneading is a problem with limited shoulder mobility. Thank you everybody. I'll pop back in tomorrow. Goodnight.

I'm probably heading that way, Allira, and trying not to go any further. I have the good fortune to be old enough (nearly 77) that during a fair bit of my life "real bread" was all we had, apart from Birthday parties when we would be treated to white sliced. It is only in recent years I started having problems - which disappear when I revert to the old-fashioned stuff. I must admit, I hated Wholemeal when I was young but now I prefer it, for flavour and digestive reaasons. Because of money problems, both my girls got the cheap white sliced growing up and both now have problems. It looks like my little grandson (2 years old) might be the same. He is known to be lactose intolerant which is often connected to Coeliac disease.

Apologies, you don't need gf.

Doves Farm make a no-knead bread mix which looks easy.
www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/wholemeal-no-knead-overnight-bread

Excuse typos!!

Aely I used to buy an easy gluten free packet bread mix called Helen's but I don't know if it is still available.

Therd are packet mixes around, probably easier than making gf bread from scratch if you have no room for a bread maker.
I've never replaced mind which went to the tip after it stopped working.

M&S did a decent gf loaf.

I think that the only solution is to get a breadmaker and make your own so I agree with InnocentBystander.

Sorry about the misplaced apostrophe. It escaped.

Lidl is all sourdough. These days I prefer a wholemeal (but not Hovis which tastes bitter) with a good crust.
One of my daughter's (who is totally Coeliac) saves money by making her own gluten free using a modern bread machine. I used to make my own bread by hand sometimes but frozen shoulders stopped that. She was looking for somewhere I could put a bread maker near a power socket yesterday but kitchens aren't what they used to be. I have the choice, microwave or bread, unless I keep it in the hall and use it in the living room - difficult to carry with a walking stick. She lives 40 miles away or she would make it for me.

I'd get a blood test to find out if you are coeliac if you are having stomach problems after eating bread.