Raising agent for brown bread

Logo

Maybe this is a really daft question but I'm trying to make a decent brown bread and had a few failures because the bread failed to rise enough and was very stodgy (BTW I'm trying the healthy option and using 12ozs course brown flour and 12ozs porridge oats). I bought the baking powder in lidl or aldi thinking it would make the bread rise but it didn't. I've also tried baking soda, tesco's dried yeast, bicarbonate of soda and McDougalls fast action yeast but none seemed to give a less stodgy result. Apologies but I'm a novice to this so any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks

Faith

Mod Note: Moved to main Food forum.

phormium

What liquid are you using?

That combination is going to give you a very traditional brown soda type texture, it's not light and won't be with just brown flour and porridge, that is a fairly heavy mix to make rise. Are you trying for soda bread or sliced pan texture?

I actually made brown bread today with that exact combination, equal quantities of brown flour/porridge, made it in a loaf tin and a pretty good rise but never going to be what you would call light and airy.

Stodgy could also mean it was undercooked.

Aimeee

Are you using buttermilk or regular milk? I find the buttermilk or even plain yogurt better especially if mixing in porridge oats. Also have your tin/baking tray hot hot from the oven. I think it gives better rise.
Also I've heard Rachel Allen say that once you mux the wet with the dry ingredients it's imperative that you get the mixture to oven as quickly as possible. Wetting will activate whatever raising agents you use immediately and the faster in the oven the better before they lose the rising magic.

Logo

"What liquid are you using?"
I'm using 12ozs course brown flour, 12ozs porridge oats, mixed seeds, buttermilk and beaten eggs. I don't expect it to rise too much but just confused about what to add to get a brown soda loaf to rise a bit more without over-powering the taste (if that makes sense). I honestly don't know the difference between baking powder, baking soda, dried yeast, bicarbonate of soda or fast action yeast. Are they all the same? What do you recommend to make a more raised loaf?
Thanks

phormium

To get a brown soda loaf you use baking soda, same as bread soda/bicarbonate of soda, all the same thing. Soda works with an acidic liquid such as buttermilk/yogurt/sour cream.

Baking powder is used with non acidic liquids such as ordinary milk.

Yeast is a whole other kettle of fish and liquid is usually water but different type of bread altogether to the ordinary brown soda and different preparation method, proving and kneading needed.

My recipe today (no clue how to post a pic of the finished bread) was 500ml/g pot of greek yogurt, I actually only used half the yogurt and topped it up with buttermilk. All yogurt or all buttermilk would be fine but the tub is handy for measuring, the equivalent gram measures will not be the same, 1 egg. Then you clean out the yogurt pot and add one pot full of brown flour to a bowl, then add one potful of porridge. Sieve in 2 level teaspoons of baking soda (always sieve it or rub between your hands as there is always little lumps which are horrible if you get one in a slice). Stir the dry stuff together just to distribute it all, then add in the liquid and the egg, if it's too thick to mix add another splash of buttermilk or any liquid.

Scoop it into a 2lb loaf tin (well greased, I also shake seeds around the tin cos I like them baked in, you can add the to the mix either if you want). Bake in a fully preheated oven at 190 fan for about 45 mins, run a knife around the tin to loosen the bread and take out of the tin, give it another 10 mins or so loose in oven. If it is browning too much at any stage turn down the oven to 180, ovens differ and some are hotter than others.

Tap the bottom, should sound hollow, wrap it up in a clean teatowel and leave to cool. Done

phormium

You've made me hungry now and I've had to go and cut a big slice of it, nice real butter and some homemade raspberry jam, yum!

Logo

phormium wrote: »

To get a brown soda loaf you use baking soda, same as bread soda/bicarbonate of soda, all the same thing. Soda works with an acidic liquid such as buttermilk/yogurt/sour cream.

Baking powder is used with non acidic liquids such as ordinary milk.

Yeast is a whole other kettle of fish and liquid is usually water but different type of bread altogether to the ordinary brown soda and different preparation method, proving and kneading needed.

My recipe today (no clue how to post a pic of the finished bread) was 500ml/g pot of greek yogurt, I actually only used half the yogurt and topped it up with buttermilk. All yogurt or all buttermilk would be fine but the tub is handy for measuring, the equivalent gram measures will not be the same, 1 egg. Then you clean out the yogurt pot and add one pot full of brown flour to a bowl, then add one potful of porridge. Sieve in 2 level teaspoons of baking soda (always sieve it or rub between your hands as there is always little lumps which are horrible if you get one in a slice). Stir the dry stuff together just to distribute it all, then add in the liquid and the egg, if it's too thick to mix add another splash of buttermilk or any liquid.

Scoop it into a 2lb loaf tin (well greased, I also shake seeds around the tin cos I like them baked in, you can add the to the mix either if you want). Bake in a fully preheated oven at 190 fan for about 45 mins, run a knife around the tin to loosen the bread and take out of the tin, give it another 10 mins or so loose in oven. If it is browning too much at any stage turn down the oven to 180, ovens differ and some are hotter than others.

Tap the bottom, should sound hollow, wrap it up in a clean teatowel and leave to cool. Done

Thanks for taking the time to explain phormium - really appreciate it!
I will try your method tomorrow and might be looking for a nice soup recipe to go with your brown bread:)
Thanks again

Aimeee

Going to steal your recipe phormium also and bake Monday. That recipe sounds very same (if memory serves) to the porridge bread that was doing the rounds a while back. No flour, also using the yogurt pot to measure- two pots of oats instead of half and half. Heavy enough bread though but rises well.

phormium

It's actually based entirely on the porridge bread recipe, by mistake one week I put in brown flour for the first tub instead of porridge so it ended up half and half porridge and flour and I discovered that mistake made a lovely loaf The porridge bread itself while lovely too is very dense and unless you have a particular reason to make it all porridge then this variation gives a much better rise and texture.

Aimeee

Always makes me smile when you discover something pleasant in baking through error. Happens here too.
Going to try it today and looking forward to it. I used to make the porridge bread but as you say when there's no specific need I gave it up.
Thank you for sharing recipe.

Aimeee

phormium wrote: »

It's actually based entirely on the porridge bread recipe, by mistake one week I put in brown flour for the first tub instead of porridge so it ended up half and half porridge and flour and I discovered that mistake made a lovely loaf The porridge bread itself while lovely too is very dense and unless you have a particular reason to make it all porridge then this variation gives a much better rise and texture.

Hi phormium just wanted to say thanks for this recipe. I made it earlier and it will become one of my regular breads. It's a hit in this house. Also no scales required love using cup or in this case tub measurements. It's the little things that please me😊.

Apologies to Logo for intruding here. I hope this recipe works for you.

EugenesDIYDen

For a 1lb/500g loaf, I stir 4 dessert spoons of vinegar into ordinary cream (non skimmed) milk and let it curdle. I use 1 to 2 teaspoons of bread soda. From doing experiments it doesn't seem to make much difference whether you use 1 or 2 teaspoons. This raises the loaf slightly, but not hugely like you get with e.g. Odulum's Bread Mix. In any case I prefer a more solid rather than fluffy brown bread.

EugenesDIYDen

phormium wrote: »

What liquid are you using?

That combination is going to give you a very traditional brown soda type texture, it's not light and won't be with just brown flour and porridge, that is a fairly heavy mix to make rise. Are you trying for soda bread or sliced pan texture?

I actually made brown bread today with that exact combination, equal quantities of brown flour/porridge, made it in a loaf tin and a pretty good rise but never going to be what you would call light and airy.

Stodgy could also mean it was undercooked.

I always have a bit of difficulty getting bread to rise when I use porridge oatmeal mixed with wholemeal flour, probably because the former is too loose and coarse. It'd be interesting to blend the oatmeal and see if it improves things.