Ugh. What was I thinking of? The more I think about it, this recipe, whilst it might have tasted good, never had the pedigree to be a good looking blog post from the start.
From now on I vow only to decide to bake things that at least stand a fighting chance of being pretty.
Normally I would bin stuff that turns out like this but a) it’s my Fresh From The Oven entry and my good friend Helly at Fuss Free Flavours is hosting this month so I didn’t want to miss and b) I never claim to be any kind of “expert” so here is the proof.
Helly gave us free rein to make any kind of (hideous, disastrous) bread this month but stipulated that we should be able to trace exactly where our flour came from. This malt loaf flour has stamped on the pack that is a blend from three different mills in Oxfordshire. I would trek downstairs to check but since it’s nearly midnight I’ll assume it’s enough detail to say it’s from Lewknor.
At the Masterchef Live show back in November, I came across the Wessex Mill flours stand who were selling malt loaf bread flour. Nostalgic for Soreen and keen to buy things that I don’t normally see in the shops, I pocketed a bag and looked forward to making my own home made malt loaf that would eclipse the sticky wodges from the supermarket.
Only like Monster Munch and Oreos, somethings are pointless to make yourself when they taste better out the packet and aren’t expensive anyway. Malt loaf would appear to stand in this category.
I wish I could tell you it tastes good but I reckon it needs loads more sugar and also dried fruit (oddly absent from the ingredients list).
You may laugh louder when I tell you that this is the malt loaf upside down. It looked even worse the right way up. I hate cookery errors. I’m too busy for them.
I have been testing out a Morphy Richards bread maker which I was sent to review. Today is not the review. I have had two pretty disappointing experiences with the bread maker so far but I will put these down to arrogantly trying to run before I can walk and persist in making some more straight forward loaves before I cast final judgement.
The recipe on the flour bag did warn that less water may be required for bread makers but advised trial and error with your own machine.
My first attempt using the bread maker had occurred when the whole family were ill. I know I keep banging on about the whole family being ill, it’s kind of had an impact on life round here. Thankfully I am better. The boys are still lurching from post viral hangovers into the next bug appearing without any gap in between. We’re not normally like this.
Anyway, whilst we were running on empty and were too dead on our feet to make it to the convenience store, I decided to use the new bread maker only to realise that it required skimmed milk powder for all the bread recipes. The only thing I could make from the instruction manual without dragging myself to Spar to buy Marvel was the gluten free fruit cake you see above. It was pretty funny looking but we ate it anyway. I guess if you had serious medical grounds to go gluten free you’d be glad of a cake like this but I found it a bit grim. I’m also disturbed by the mark left in everything by the dough hook, it’s like a scar.
I’m not writing the bread maker off yet by any means, enough people I know swear by them so you will hear more about this soon.
No recipe today. I’m assuming noone out there is masochistic enough to make this.
In the meantime, what are you views on bread makers? Do you have any tips or stories for me?
And while we’re at it, should I hide my disasters? Or do you prefer to see them? Even if I am growing alarmed at their frequency lately.
Other Maison Cupcake baking disasters include:
Burnt Hot Cross Buns That Were More Like Rock Cakes
Burnt Stollen (there’s a theme here)
More sucessful bread maker recipes include:
Sunflower Seed Bread in the Bread Maker
Share your highs and your lows Sarah. I made this decision when a walnut loaf I made (for Fresh from the Oven incidently) looked fine superficially but had a gaping hole underneath where it had glued itself resolutely to the baking tray. The feedback I got was overwhelming – and helped me to look forward with pleasure not dread to the next challenge.
I adore malt loaf and wish I could buy malt here so sorry your recipe didn’t work out (the flour looks gorgeous).
On the topic of bread makers I do not have one and will not buy one. Bread should be put into a hot oven. The bread makers warms up slowly to bake and affects the texture of the loaf. It’s easy to recognise breadmaker-made bread because of this. Making the dough in the bread maker but taking it out and baking in an oven seems to work though.
Hope your family get well soon.
That’s really interesting what you say about needing a hot oven, I hadn’t thought about that.
god forsaken skimmed milk powder… who has this in the house… and then it goes off so quickly… the only loaf you can make without the powder is the french loaf, which always comes out OK but it has that bread-maker taste and texture…
I had one for years… now gathering dust in the garage. I’d rather have the odd failure from hand made than the bread-maker stuff… plus you have to pull that paddle from its arse every time.
… shame about your malt loaf… looks OK, how did it taste?
It wasn’t sweet enough by far. I like your terminology!!
I think I will stick to my guilty pleasure of Soreen in future by the sound of it!
Have never used a breadmaker (or wanted to!) so can’t comment there but its always reassuring to see other people have ‘fails’! I was in a hurry last week and used greaseproof instead of baking parchment to line my loaf tins by mistake = bread was stuck like glue and I had to saw off the sides and bottom of my loaves! 🙂
Oh no that sounds a right mess!
You really don’t need to add milk powder to any bread recipe; I think that the reason that most of the breadmaker recipe booklets suggest adding it is because it a) gives a softer crumb (i.e. more like shop bought than traditional home-made bread), and b) it helps it to keep fresh for slightly longer. Freshly made bread never lasts long in our household anyway!
I’m not keen on the spongey texture of bread-maker bread, or the fact that it doesn’t have a decent crust (I like to have a good chew to a proper bread crust). It hadn’t occurred to me that both these faults are because of the slow temperature rise – doh! Plus digging the paddle out of the bottom of the loaf is just a right old pain, and the slices that have the paddle hole are ugly.
Like others, I only ever use my bread maker for making dough (and haven’t even bothered using it for that in over 2 years). Don’t know why I don’t get rid of it and free up some cupboard space! The Kitchen Aid is my dough-making friend these days.
Having made a third attempt that looks like it’s going rapidly wrong this evening I’m starting to lose faith on the whole idea. So many people are saying the machines are only good for mixing and give a disappointing result for baking. I’m definitely coming round to the idea that it’s not worth the work top space…
I just made my first loaf of disastrous Cranberry Pecan Sourdough. I was trying to replicate the loaf I love at WHole Foods. Needless to say, it more resembled a brick. Love hearing you have blunder loafs also. It makes me feel better.