The Grand Breadxperiment - Hovis Fast Action Bread Yeast

Next up, another one of these sachet jobbies - Hovis Fast Action Bread Yeast:

Six 7g sachets, makes up to 10 loaves. Not too sure how they work that out, perhaps some very precise scales, or you just make ten different-sized loaves - in which case they could say, 'makes up to forty loaves'.

But anyway. It seem to have more additives than other yeasts and so was curious to see what sort of effects these might have. I'm not convinced they are particularly necessary but what the hey.

Foamed up reasonably on activation:

No trouble kneading followed by a pretty decent sort of rise:

The risen dough had a slightly odd structure but that may have been due to me not kneading properly. I did the time but maybe not the quality. Who knows. The shaped and then risen tin:

As you can see, I had trouble making it anything other than wonky. It sprung like crazy in the oven and the sides of the crusts split as a result, making it fiddly to cut:

End result - good soft open texture, pleasant flavour and very nice toasted.

The Grand Breadxperiment - Allinson's Easy Bake Yeast

Today we look at Allinson Easy Bake Yeast. This is another one with improvers and so on but doesn't seem to contain anything more suspect than Vitamin C.

Strictly doesn't need activating but went for it anyway. Significant foam:

Had a bit of a job bringing the dough together and so had to give it a lot of force in the kneading to get the final nice smooth dough:

I did also lose the timings a bit as I was making another loaf but I wasn't too far off. Rose like mad:

Once knocked back and shaped it rose madly for the second time:

As I had some cheese left over from a bolognese I chucked it on top and baked:

Colliers cheese is very tasty in this way, I'll probably use it for a cheese and bacon loaf.

Final result - excellent texture, very soft but not doughy.

Rat Playground

Of course, it's not all bread, bread, bread. In preparation for the incoming baby, we'd been given (or bought, I lose track of all the stuff) a Moses basket. No stand, though, so Fran scoured ebay and other sources and we eventually found one. It also came with a Moses basket which seemed handy. Unfortunately, the basket was a bit crushed in one corner and so we weren't too happy about using that one for the baby - especially as we already had a perfectly good intact one.

Well, I say unfortunately.

RAT MOSES BASKET PLAYHOUSE:

Yes, there truly is a use for slightly damaged Moses baskets. I felt that they maybe needed a bit of an explore and I was a bit idle one evening so.. We have egg boxes, Ikea children's storage things and a hanging metal ball with shrimp biscuits in.

First up was the girls, with the exception of Sansa - I'm still trying to get her to trust me and it's going well, other than a single little bite. I think dragging her out of the cage and throwing her into a basket might set her back a bit.

Here's Arya, poking her head up:

This is Broken Sword, she was the most effective at trying to escape:

And last but not least, the delicate and slightly nervy Beneath a Steel Sky:

She's crawling over an upside-down storage thing that's lashed to the base of the basket at a few points. Some treats are hidden under it and the girls didn't take very long figuring out how to get at them.

I then got some of the boys in (after removing the girls, I'm not stupid). Here's the two Bongo Fury boys:

No More Mr Nice Guy:

And Awkward Customer:

Awkward Customer remains endearingly loopy.

They all seemed to enjoy the play.

The Grand Breadxperiment - Morrisons Fast Action Dried Yeast

Now, this won't be a direct comparison as such as Morrisons Fast Action Dried Yeast is a sachet-type. However, I'm mostly doing this in terms of discovering which yeast regime produces the best results rather than being a strict comparison. So, Morrisons.

Firstly this is supplied as 7g sachets which contains the yeast as well as ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and 'bread improvers' - probably extra gluten. Normally I was using 5g of yeast for the recipe so with the weight of the extra ingredients it's probably nearly equivalent.

First thing to note was that this was made on a significantly warmer day. However, as the dough is being risen in a heated microwave chamber this is not necessarily a major factor in the results. Declaring it for clarity though.

Here's the stuff:

Technically it shouldn't need to be activated in water before use but I went ahead and did it anyway. Sue me:

Did foam up pretty well, despite my inability to demonstrate it photographically. Initial mix:

Kneaded nicely as ever to give a smooth, elastic dough. Here's the before and after for the rising. It was substantial, I think more so than the previous experiment:

After knocking back and shaping it into the loaf tin it had another 30 minute rise and puffed up obviously more than the Doves Farm:

Sprung up well in the oven to give a pleasing finished result:

Definitely a noticeable difference in texture and flavour - not as soft as the Doves Farm but that could be down to the oven keeping its temperature better in the warm conditions. Once again, made absolutely perfect toast - the sort of moist, crispy toast that keeps its heat for more than a second and had the most wonderful flavour. Mmf.

Stay tuned for more loaf-related posts.

The Grand Breadxperiment - Doves Farm Quick Yeast

Well, guess what - it's been a while since I posted. This happens, get the hell used to it. Buck up, and so on.

Mostly the usual sorts of things have been happening, combined with the rapidly approaching arrival of a baby. Back to more important matters though - I am starting a systematic test of bread yeasts in the hope of finding a brand and a method that produces consistently good results. These experiments will be documented here in the hope of being vaguely useful to anyone who searches for systematic tests of dried yeasts.

First off, let's define the protocol. I say protocol to make it sound more scientific, but I really mean recipe.

The base of the recipe is from The Fabulous Baker Brothers - a book I can heartily recommend (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fabulous-Baker-Brothers-Tom-Herbert/dp/0755363655). As follows:

• 560g strong white flour
• 10g sea salt
• 300ml tepid water
• 20ml rapeseed oil
• 5g dried yeast

This makes a good-sized 2 pound loaf. For clarity, the flour was Allisons Strong White Bread Flour (the stuff in the pale green pack). The sea salt was Maldon, the water was made from one part boiling water to two parts tap water and the oil was swapped for 15g of olive oil.

Each time I will activate the yeast for 10 minutes in the water with half a teaspoon of sugar - even for yeasts that don't technically need it, I reckon it'll help. Once initially mixed I will allow a five minute resting time for the dough before kneading for 15 minutes and only add additional flour if it proves absolutely necessary. Rising and proving will be done by heating a cup of mug of water in the microwave for two minutes and then placing the dough alongside to provide a warm and humid chamber. So, here goes.

Test 1 - Doves Farm Quick Yeast

Reasonable bit of foaming after activation in water:

The initial mix:

Post-kneading. Was a bit sticky for a while but it settled down and came out quite nice and smooth and springy:

After an hour rising in my microwave humidity chamber. Pretty substantial rise:

Before and after second prove after knocking back and moulding into tin:

Final results. Was baked for 30 mins, starting at 240 degrees with some water in the oven for steam, followed by dropping to 210 after 10 minutes, with a quick open of the oven door to release the excess steam. I technically forgot to slash the dough but it seems to have turned out ok.

Could maybe stand an extra 5 minutes in the oven, but not sure. There's a tiny, borderline hintette of doughiness which I may be imagining.

Overall, Doves Farm Quick Yeast looking good. Up next - Allinsons Dried Active Yeast. Had trouble with this in the past but it may have just been that I wasn't properly warming the dough for rising, etc. Stay tuned.