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Reddit mentions of Bread (River Cottage Handbook)

Sentiment score: 3
Reddit mentions: 4

We found 4 Reddit mentions of Bread (River Cottage Handbook). Here are the top ones.

Bread (River Cottage Handbook)
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    Features:
  • Bloomsbury Publishing
Specs:
Height7.8 Inches
Length5.08 Inches
Number of items1
Weight1 Pounds
Width0.94 Inches

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Found 4 comments on Bread (River Cottage Handbook):

u/Jazz_Black · 1 pointr/manchester

I know you where asking for classes, but I have to recommend the river cottage bread book. Worth a look if you want to get into it.

Link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bread-River-Cottage-Handbook-No/dp/074759533X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414658706&sr=8-1&keywords=river+cottage+bread+book

u/oxfordcomma · 1 pointr/Cooking

Hugh Whittingshal has a plan for a brick oven in his River Cottage Bread book. It has the full plans and directions, though you had better have permanent space for it.
http://www.amazon.com/Bread-Cottage-Handbook-Daniel-Stevens/dp/074759533X/ref=pd_sim_b_2

u/frsttmcllrlngtmlstnr · 1 pointr/Breadit

Agree with the earlier comment of kneading for longer. I've found that I need to knead for anything between 5-15 min if doing it by hand.

While kneading, you're "stretching" out the gluten and it is normal for the dough to "rip" as you put it depending on the flour type. But the fact that your knead is getting tighter (as you mention) indicates that you're doing the right thing as you're on your way to build up an elastic gluten structure. However with low-to-medium gluten content flour (such as rye and spelt) you won't get the same silky-thin elasticity as you get with white flour.

This image shows on the left a wholemeal dough and, on right, rye dough. Maybe it can give you an idea of how different the dough can stretch when using different flour types (spelt should be somewhere between these two).

I've found that using 100% spelt/rye yields a rather heavy brick-like bread and personally I find that mixing 50/50 or 75/25 with (very) strong white flour yields bread and consistency that I like better myself :)

Regarding kneading techniques, I've found it helpful to knead in a push-away-from-you, then bring it back and turn 90 degrees and repeat. Something similar to this if it makes sense.

These images are both from the River Cottage Handbook No. 3: Bread. Pretty good book to get you started and teaches you a few basic techniques (just don't trust their Brioche recipe, it is the devil!)

Tip: You can over-knead, at a certain point the gluten structure collapses and the dough goes from firm to soggy/sticky again. You can't recover from this and the batch needs to be binned. This however is unlikely to happen when you hand knead (as your wrists will usually give up before).

u/Iosif_ravenfire · 1 pointr/Breadit

Get yourself a book as /u/ETABLERT said. The River Cottage Handbook on bread its a good one.

Get a container, some flour from your preferred supplier, a big container and get going! Do some reading, there are plenty of on-line sources, plenty of good books out there.

Starting your own sour dough is as easy as mixing flour and water together.

That said, if you did want to buy a start then Bakerybits.co.uk sell one. I have used them several times, and found them to be really good. The site in general that is, not the starter.