Making bread

[sophiedb]

how do

Someone please tell me where to get the right flour for bread??

I used to just look for string white flour and strong wholemeal flour, but here I can't see either. I'm presuming they exist under a different name ("high grade", maybe?), but don't really want to fork out and end up with a load of useless flour in the larder..

I could go for the assorted mixes available at Bin Inn, but am not a fan of mixes...

thanks, hopefully!

[unar]

I use the Home Brand high grade flour from woolworth for bread (around $1.80 for 1kg or $7 for 5kg), seem to work OK. Haven't seen strong wholemeal though. I usually just mix in regular wholemeal with white flour to make brown bread.

[newarrival]

I have never thought about those different varieties..., can't even remember if there was more than one white flour in Germany :-).
I also use high grade as well as the wholemeal and rye flour which is around and it seems to work fine.

[iondiode]

here is a link, looks like plain flour is "softer" that is, has less protein = good for cakes and strong = high grade = good for bread


Cheers

[Dell]

I use the Home Brand high grade flour from woolworth for bread (around $1.80 for 1kg or $7 for 5kg), seem to work OK. Haven't seen strong wholemeal though. I usually just mix in regular wholemeal with white flour to make brown bread.

Thanks for posting the price of flour. I pay anywhere from US$2.88 (Wal-mart) to $3.80 for 5lbs (2.27K) so flour is cheaper in NZ.

[iondiode]

here is a link, looks like plain flour is "softer" that is, has less protein = good for cakes and strong = high grade = good for bread


Cheers

whoops forgot link

http://www.bakeinfo.co.nz/School-Zon...cs/Flour-Types

[alldone]

High grade white flour is NZ "strong" flour in UK terms. However the quality of NZ flour for breadmaking is lower (less hard) than UK and US. So we found that using plain yeast in our breadmaker did not result in a particularly good loaf. I have found that Bin-Inn yeast with improvers and the cheapest Countdown (Woolworths) own brand high grade flour (about $7 for 5kg bag) makes a good white loaf.

Good recipe for our breadmaker is
1 tsp yeast (with improvers)
500g flour (or more, I just add more water at 30mL per 50g flour)
1/2 tsp salt (low salt bread)
15-20 mL oil (or butter)
360mL water

[sophiedb]

Thanks all - I'm going to try out some baking tonight and keep my fingers crossed for a good result!

[Familyofmonkeys]

If you are using UK recipes, you might find at certain times of year your recipes will need adjusting because in an un-centrally heated home the moisure content in your flour can vary quite a bit through the seasons, and this will effect how well the bread rises. It is often assumed the actual flour or yeast is causing the problem, but often a simple change in liquid content can help enormously, especially in winter. I have posted some old threads/posts on breadmaking plus some tried and tested recipes I use (mainly in 2007/2008). Feel free to PM me if you ever need any troubleshooting help

[Dell]

High grade white flour is NZ "strong" flour in UK terms. However the quality of NZ flour for breadmaking is lower (less hard) than UK and US. So we found that using plain yeast in our breadmaker did not result in a particularly good loaf. I have found that Bin-Inn yeast with improvers and the cheapest Countdown (Woolworths) own brand high grade flour (about $7 for 5kg bag) makes a good white loaf.

Good recipe for our breadmaker is
1 tsp yeast (with improvers)
500g flour (or more, I just add more water at 30mL per 50g flour)
1/2 tsp salt (low salt bread)
15-20 mL oil (or butter)
360mL water

Have you tried adding a little gluten to your recipe?