I have made my own bread for about 35 years or so and this morning it was time to make another batch. I made my own recipe early on and it has served me very well so again set out at 3am to start on todays bread that will last for quite a few weeks ahead.
I use a 10 liter bucket for mixing as it starts with 7 lb of high grade flour, 12 oz wheat germ and 12 oz of oat bran.
Then 2 big serving spoons each of malt and treacle in 750ml of boiling water to melt in then 750ml of cold water which makes it the right temp for the 3 heaped desertspoons of breakmakers yeast.
When mixed and cut into 3 and kneaded gives me three 4lb dough balls to fill the first 3 long tins I made to get the most use from the oven for each bake.
As soon as the first lot is in the tins I do the same thing again and then a 3rd time to make the nine loaves.
By the time the first lot had risen it was nearly 10 oclock so when they had all been through the oven in the 32 minute cycles they were turned out of the tins and sat on racks to cool till about 4 pm when they were sliced, bagged and vacuum sealed for the freezer. My vacuum sealer with the zip lock bags is a short length of 1/4 inch copper brake line and with the bag nearly sealed shut I can suck the air out and close the bag. Works for all my meat in the freezer as well so no freezer burn on anything.
