Brown Bread Disaster - Can anyone help?

Electric

Hi,

Ok so tonight I've made my 6th loaf of brown bread and like each of the previous attempts it cooks on the outside (it's got a perfect crust) but no matter what I do it remains raw, doughy and basically uncooked on the inside.

I've tried raising the temperature of the oven, lowering the temperature, covering the mixture with tin foil. Hell I've even tried different recipes and ingredients and it still keeps happening.

Has anyone got any ideas on where I'm going wrong or any suggestions on how to make sure the bread cooks properly?

Am starting to lose my wick with this. I hate having to dump loaf after loaf so any help would be excellent!

Cheers!

P. Breathnach

Soda bread or yeast bread?

The Sweeper

Leave it in for longer.

Magic Monkey

...and let it cool completely after you remove it from the oven. Don't be tempted to cut it before it's cooled down fully. And bake it in the lower third of the oven.

olaola

Is your mixture too wet to start with?

P. Breathnach

... and if you bake it in a tin or pan, take it out about two-thirds of the way through and continue baking it in a tray or, preferably, a wire rack.

Kurumba

This is the recipe i've been following recently and its worked perfectly every time. After it comes out of the oven (and i've tested the bottom of it to see if it sounds hollow) i wrap it in a damp cloth and leave for a few hours.

Basic Brown Soda Bread Recipe
Basic Brown Soda Bread (commonly known as "Brown Bread")
This simple, wholesome bread can be eaten fresh with butter, jam or cheese and is delicious served with a bowl of home-made soup. It slices better if left to cool and "set" for at least four hours. This recipe makes one large loaf.


1lb / 450g coarse wholemeal flour
6 oz / 175g plain white flour
1 rounded teaspoon bread soda
1 teaspoon salt
¾ pint / 450ml buttermilk (approx.)

Method
Preheat over to 400 °F / 200 °C / gas mark 6.
Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir in enough buttermilk to make a fairly soft dough.
Turn on to a work surface dusted with wholemeal flour and knead lightly until smooth underneath.
Form into a circle, about 1 ½ " / 4cm thick, and put onto a baking sheet. Mark a deep cross in the top with a floured knife. Bake for about 45 minutes, until bread is browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Cool on a wire rack, wrapped in a clean tea/dish towel to keep the crust soft.

Ponster

Does anyone have a recipe for a bread machine or does the above one work?

Have yet to find buttermilk in France

P. Breathnach

Ponster, I think soda bread is so easy to make that I don't think of using my machine for it. I bypass the kneading out part to cut down on cleaning, and the bread seems not to suffer -- just mix well in a bowl and tip out onto a floured (or oiled or non-stick) baking sheet.

Substitutes for buttermilk include sour whole milk, yoghurt + milk, fresh milk with cream of tartar, or lait ribeau (easy to find in Brittany; don't know about Paris).

Electric

It's soda bread. I've tried leaving it in the oven for longer and taking it out of the tin 2/3's of the way and putting it on the tray.

The recipe I mainly use is the one from the Odlums website the Brown Sesame Loaf one. I don't think the mixture is too wet cos I use what's called for in the recipe though I might try and cut down on it a bit and see if that helps.

Thanks for the recipe Jessie it'll try it out and report back.

Fingers crossed it'll work am dying for some fresh brown bread with melty butter and ham

ambman

300g strong flour
225g wholemeal flour
7g salt
8g bread soda
12g fat
12g caster sugar
450g buttermilk


just bring it together. the worst thing you can do is overmix brown soda. round it up cut a cross on top and bake at 200c for 25 to 30 mins. to make sure its baked properly tap it on the bottom and if it sounds hallow it ready.
enjoy and dont forget to toast some.

Minder

Electric wrote: »

The recipe I mainly use is the one from the Odlums website the Brown Sesame Loaf one. I don't think the mixture is too wet cos I use what's called for in the recipe though I might try and cut down on it a bit and see if that helps.

The recipe on the odlums website calls for a carton of natural yoghurt - what size is a carton? Since that is the only ingredient not measured in grams or millilitres, I think it may be the source of your problem. IIRC the amount of liquid should be equivalent to about 80% of the dry ingredients for a soda bread (I'll check this). So for 450g of flour and 300ml of milk, that leaves 60g of yoghurt to make up the liquid (ignoring the egg).

I had a quick look at a recipe for Soda Bread from Dan Lepard - his recipe has liquids at 66% - so 450g of flour to 300ml of buttermilk.

Electric

Thanks for that, I hadn't thought about the yoghurt I just assumed that one of the normal cartons would suffice. I use hazelnut yoghurt instead of natural yoghurt would that make a difference too?

Minder

Hazelnut yoghurt could add an interesting flavour to the bread, but the quantity needs to be small - a couple of tablespoons maybe. If you are already using the yoghurt in small quantities, try reducing the milk by 50ml.

Electric

Will do! Thanks

Bunny Lane

Electric wrote: »

Hi,

Ok so tonight I've made my 6th loaf of brown bread and like each of the previous attempts it cooks on the outside (it's got a perfect crust) but no matter what I do it remains raw, doughy and basically uncooked on the inside.

I've tried raising the temperature of the oven, lowering the temperature, covering the mixture with tin foil. Hell I've even tried different recipes and ingredients and it still keeps happening.

Has anyone got any ideas on where I'm going wrong or any suggestions on how to make sure the bread cooks properly?

Am starting to lose my wick with this. I hate having to dump loaf after loaf so any help would be excellent!

Cheers!

The same thing happened to me! Until I discovered that your dough should be quite dry, if you re make soda bread (with no yeast) then the dough should be dry and hold its shape- most recipes add too much liquid. Also if you ve a fan oven, try 160 degrees.
Let me know whether u got this message and how u got on! Good luck!

Faith

Bunny Lane, welcome to boards. It's generally unacceptable to respond to threads that have had no replies for more than 6 months. As this thread is 5 years old, I'm locking it on the basis that the original poster has surely solved the issue by now.