The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

What can I do to improve the flavor

herculeorama's picture
herculeorama

What can I do to improve the flavor

I love home baked bread. Sometimes I knead the dough by hand and sometimes I use my Kenwood bread-making machine on dough cycle. The general measurements for my dough are:

All purpose flour(maida in my country) 500 gms

Water 300 ml

Butter or Olive oil equivalent to about 20-30 ml

Salt 1 teaspoonful

Yeast(DCL Active dried Yeast) 1 teaspoonful

Sugar 2 teaspoonfuls

What I find is that the bread tastes a bit too yeasty. So I need some advice on how to reduce the yeasty flavor. Should I reduce the amount of yeast and prolong the time of the first rising? [I normally allow an hour for first rise. Then punch in , stretch and fold and give shape and let it rise for about an hour before I put in the oven to bake - I have an electric oven National]. Or should I avoid sugar altogether? Any suggestions are welcome but might take time to implement as I only bake on weekends.

 

Thanks.

 

jaxler12's picture
jaxler12

The easiest way to get more flavor out of your bread is to add a preferment. A preferment is basically flour, water, and a tiny amount of yeast that is prepared ahead of your final dough. The preferment will give the bread more flavor and will add strength to the dough. Here's a link that describes preferments in much more detail: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/professional/preferments.html

Sourdough is also another preferment option and adds a whole new dimension to home baking. There's tons of info on this site if you're interested in going down that path. 

Josh

Hope this helps!

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

how about tea or soup instead of water?  A different AP flour perhaps.  Brown sugar instead of white.  There are nut oils, walnut or even grape seed oil.  Hemp oil?  Sesame oil?  (<Might want to blend that one if it's toasted.)  

It could be that the yeast seems like a strong flavour because the flour is so bland.  I would stick to the yeast amount suggested by the bread machine.

 

herculeorama's picture
herculeorama

Thanks for the replies. In the place where I live, the only flours available is the APF and whole wheat flour. We don't get much else because people here mainly cook flat Indian breads. And we also don't have any specialized bread outlet here. Those that we have calling themselves bread shops serve very very ordinary breads. So I'll look into the preferment article and see if I can make it. I had tried making the sourdough but it turned out to be too sour and frankly I lost the patience too. And I feel it requires a lot of patience and caring to develop a good sourdough starter.

We get sesame oil here and olive oil, groundnut oil, coconut oil and sunflower oil. That's about it.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

get some wheat germ and bran and dry toast them in a pan until lightly browned.  You can also dry toast some of the flour.  i also sometimes take 20 g of flour and add 20 g of water to it and bake it in a 150 F oven for 2 hours, stirring and adding more water every time I stir.  You can also dry toast millet, amaranth, poppy and sesame seeds either with Toadies or by themselves too.

White bread made with commercial yeast is really bland and needs some help flavor wise,

rudirednose's picture
rudirednose

... being from Germany I'm searching for the explanation of "Toadies".

Is this the way 

"get some wheat germ and bran and dry toast them in a pan until lightly browned."

to make Toadies????

Thx

rudirednose

 

Bob S.'s picture
Bob S.

Non-fat dry milk and dry buttermilk is often added to white bread to enhance flavor and nutritional value. For 500 grams of flour, start with 15g of dried milk product. Yogurt or other cultured milk products can also be used in bread recipes. Just remember that fresh milk and yogurt is about 88% water.

Bob

herculeorama's picture
herculeorama

I'll try the dried milk powder. Thanks.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Roughly.  Perhaps some herbs or some local grasses can add flavour, fruit yeast waters or local nuts.  Have a chat with your local store and see what you can get your hands on for reasonable prices.  What is available locally?  What spices are available?  What other flours?  Rice? Tapioca? Buckwheat? 

herculeorama's picture
herculeorama

I am from a city by the name of Surat in India. We get a lot of spices in India. We don't have Tapioca flour in my city but rice flour, yes. But how does rice flour help? It doesn't have gluten AFAIK.

Arjon's picture
Arjon

In addition to the possibilities that others have already mentioned, you can add things like olives, sweet or hot peppers, hot sauce, herbs, spices, nuts, cheese, etc. Personally, I've fooled around by adding small amounts of miso a few times, although my aim is more to boost the umami than to provide a distinctive flavor. 

Frequent Flyer's picture
Frequent Flyer

Try increasing the salt by 1/2 teaspoon and eliminate the fat and sugar.  Stretch and fold 3 or 4 times with a 10 to 15 min rest between each stretch and fold and place in the fridge overnight.  The next day, let the dough warm for an hour or so and shape.  After the loaf rises to 1 1/2 its volume, bake at high (450F) temperature and a water pan for 15 minutes.  Remove the water pan, and bake to 200F internal temp.  Cool.

FF

 

 

herculeorama's picture
herculeorama

Thanks Frequent Flyer for the suggestion. Let's see. Today I have tried the variation of making a preferment last night. Made the dough in the morning. No sugars no fats. Asked my wife to bake it after it had risen. I'll know when I get home as to how it turned out. (I am a doctor and so have to attend to my patients too!)

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

mix the flour with water and let it hydrate for hours (6 to 24) overnight or all day in the refrigerator,  then spread it out and mist with water and sprinkle with the yeast.  (or make a yeast and water paste to spread onto the dough)  Roll up and knead adding salt (same spreading out, roll up and knead)  to tighten up and flavour the dough.  Depending on the amount of yeast used, the dough will rise accordingly.  

Herbs are good for flavouring.  Non gluten flours or toasted flours can also be added but good to stay under 30% of the total flour content (at least in the beginning) or risk radical differences in crumb.  Boiled peeled root vegetable water, is also a nice water substitution (potato, yam, carrot, radish, tubers) and may include some of the root puree.  Coconut milk, soya (in all forms) also can be included.  

If the flour is low protein (anywhere from 7 to 9%)  I like to weigh a chicken's egg with the water and stir well before mixing up the dough.  The proteins in the egg help with the dough protein matrix.  :)

herculeorama's picture
herculeorama

Thanks to your inputs, it tu8rned out quite good. No yeasty taste anymore! Lovely chewy outer crust and soft inside. I'll tell you what I did after your inputs.

PREFERMENT:

This was the night before. 50 gms APF + 50 ml water + a pinch of yeast. Mixed everything together, covered it and let it rest overnight.

DOUGH:

Next morning, about 11 hours later, mixed the preferment with other ingredients:-

450 gms APF

300 ml of water

1 teaspoonful of salt

5 gms of active dried yeast.

Everything mixed in the bread machine on dough cycle. After 1 & 1/2 hours, Stretch & fold and shaping the dough. Let it rise for an hour and then baked at 230 deg C for 10 minutes and then 200 deg C for about 15-20 minutes. I had put a dish with water in the oven. Here are the pictures -

 

PetraR's picture
PetraR

Beautiful, I think I try you recipe next week.

YUMMY looking bread.

herculeorama's picture
herculeorama

Thanks PetraR.

It sure was very Yummy! Couldn't have been possible without the guidance of the members of TFL.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

(Reminds me of my first baguettes!)   Nice even brown crust and good looking crumb.  

You will find that the poolish will vary with temperatures, the warmer the air/dough temp the shorter the fermenting time.   How long the steam pan stays in the oven effects the crust texture.  The longer the loaf is steamed after the initial oven spring, the thicker the crust.

herculeorama's picture
herculeorama

Thanks Mini Oven for the suggestion. We will now be having summers and the temperatures are likely to shoot up to 36 to 42 deg C. I remember last year I had to use a couple of ice cubes while making the dough because of unusually high temperatures.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

is a nice flavour booster too.  (may turn the bread green)   Anything used to flavour rice can be used to flavour bread.

Poolish preferments are often made with half the recipe flour.  Try a larger poolish with the next loaf, using 100g flour and 100g water and compare.  Next time 200g flour in the poolish (with 200g water)  to find what you like.  :)

herculeorama's picture
herculeorama

Good suggestion Mini Oven. Will try that.