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Making Bread
Tonight I am preparing for our rations week, so I made my first National Loaf. National Loaf was a bread made from wholemeal flour with added calcium and vitamins, introduced in Britain during World War II. It was introduced in 1942, the loaf (similar to today's brown bread) was made from wholemeal flour to combat wartime shortages of white flour.
Most people had been used to white bread at this point and were not too happy with wholemeal bread. Many housewives had a hard time using it, describing it as dry and grey. It was often called Hitler's secret weapon.
I will admit I cheated a bit using my bread machine to make my loaf. I know not very 1940's, using unnecessary energy and all. I love this magic little device though. I just load all the ingredients in to it and it magically produces a nice loaf of bread.
The recipe I used was an adapted version of the National loaf recipe I have seen all over the internet. Usually the recipe makes 10 loafs. The adaptation makes 1.
National Loaf Recipe
Ingredients:
525g whole meal flour
175g potato flour
14g salt
475ml water
8g dry yeast
1tbsp oil
Directions:
Mix all ingredients in spiral mixer for 3/5 min
Place dough in lightly oiled container, let rest for 45 minutes
Knock back and let rest for another 45 min
Shape in to rounds, Rest 10-15 min, then second shape
Place bread in oiled baking tins, prove for 45-60 min.
Bake at 400 degrees for an hour. Check it after 45mins.
Remove from pan immediately and cool on a rack
My make do National Loaf 1
525g unbleached flour
175g white flour
14g salt
475ml water
8g dry yeast
1tbsp oil
For Bread machine
Put in all wet ingredients.
Add all dry ingredients.
Make a small well in flour, put the yeast in the well.
Set machine to wholewheat.
Press start.
My loaf of bread was far from authentic. I couldn't find whole wheat flour. I was a bit surprised. What I could find was unbleached flour. I also could not find potato flour at our local store so I replaced it with potato buds I had in my cupboard. I eyeballed the amount. But I think I may have over did it because I had to add a bit of extra water while my machine was mixing the ingredients. Once it started rising, there was a bit too much dough, so it ended up hitting the lid of my bread machine. This caused the top crust to be a bit mushy and didn't fully cook. I just cut it off and it ended up being an evening snack.
The resulting bread wasn't too bad. It tastes pretty good as slices relatively easily. The texture reminded me of focaccia bread and it had a slight sour dough taste to it. This does feel a bit like cheating since it is so far off from the original. But hey, wasn't make do the mantra for rationing. I am going to try and track down the proper ingredients eventually and make a proper loaf.
My first taste test was the top that turned out a bit funky, sliced, with a bit of jam.
Well that is all for now darlings. I will leave you with a wartime poster.