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LessonsWant to learn how to bake bread? Do it! It is about the cheapest, most enjoyable, most rewarding pastime I can think of. I can't promise that these lessons will prevent you from making mistakes, because making mistakes is just part of learning (and something I still do all the time). But hopefully they'll give you some good ways of getting started and help you improve your understand of what is happening inside of your loaf. Lesson One: Your First Loaf - The place to begin. Lesson Two: Putting Something More in Your Loaf - Once you understand the basic principles of bread, you can begin adding new things to your loaf to get different flavors and textures. Lesson Three: Time & Temperature - Almost as important as what you put in your loaf is how you treat it while it is fermenting and baking. Lesson Four: Glazing - Not as important as what you put in your loaf but still quite important is what you put on your loaf. Lesson Five: Ten Tips for Better French Bread - A solid year of baking French Breads hasn't made me great at it, but I've gotten a lot better. Here are some of the tricks I've learned. Lessons on Special Topics
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ALSO ON |
The first lessom
I followed the instructions completely. The result was a flat, wide loaf. I havn't cut into it yet, but is smells wonderful. What am I doint wron, not to end up with a nice loaf like in the photos? I'm a bit discouraged, but I will keep trying.
Maryd
Flat and wide
Flat and wide probably means insufficient surface tension. Try making the seam underneath tighter. And don't be discouraged, it just takes practice.
Flat bread
To get a nice crown on the loaf requires a few elements.
First is the flours that you use. I always first look to what am I trying to achive. That image stuff may seem trite but I believe it helps in the long run. Some breads are supposed to by flat. Some should be so round that they roll of the bench. King Arther makes a good bread flour.
I am guessing that you are looking for something with a little more crown so the next thing to look at is mixing. If you are mixing by hand there are some things that you can do that can help. Mix it by hand till you are done and then ten minutes more.
What helps creates that nice crown in a loaf is the chains of glutan that are incircling your loaf.
Understand that these chains of protien(glutan) develop from a physical/chemical event in the body of your loaf not nessesaraly related to the yeast blowing out it's CO2. So I always try to slow breads down if I am having troubles getting the proteins to develop. Long fermentation works by give more time to this process.
So after you have mixed your bread well find a cool place and let it rest. If after I have mixed a batch of bread and the temp of the dough is greater than 78 degrees I start over. Then it goes to a nice spot to rest. So often I will hear "Let your bread rise in a warm place" Well that works if it is well developed in mixing. By hand this can be a problem. So simply giving it a little cooler water and then a cool place to rest/develope can really help.
What Floyd suggest is also true. Once it has been mixed/risen and is ready to shape some folks think that the fun is over and its almost ready to eat. Shaping bread is an elusive skill and even Goldelocks would have had a hard time making a good loaf not to soft or to hard but just right so that the tention of the proteins chains in the crown expand concurrently with the CO2 coming from the yeast. Practice practicepractice......
Don't be discoraged by flat loafs. We have all made plenty of them. Use a sharp cheese and say "I ment to do that"
Frank
Mmm...fresh bread!
I'm 16 and I just baked my first loaf of bread (from lesson1). It tasted wonderful! I brushed it with a beaten egg and it came to a beautiful golden crust. It wasn't as round as the loaves shown on the screen but I believe that I may not have let the dough rise long enough. I very excited to try another and give it to my grandmother :)
Congratulations!
It IS very exciting, and I know your grandmother will love your gift of bread when you present it to her. Have lots of fun!
Susan
My Lesson Two Loaves
I read through Lesson One, but decided to start baking with Lesson Two.
I started a little late in the day and our cabin was kind of chilly and it seemed that the risings took a pretty long time. I baked them both on the same cookie sheet at 350 degrees for about 40 mins. I know they could have gone longer, but it was really late and I was tired, ha.
They didn't turn out perfect, but they were still good, and since I'm a novice baker I was very happy and excited with the results. The bread had a good flavor, my kids just gobbled it up the next day.
I'm looking forward to lesson 3. :)
Turkish Pide or Mashatih Ramadan Bread
Hello to all,
and thank you very much for the nice interesting information about preparing the dough and how to knead and fold it.
We have a special bread in the Middle East its called Mashatih Ramadan and then found that its called Turkish Pide
Turkish Panir - Mashatih Ramadan, and its very tasty bread, with sesame seeds and Fennel seeds.
I read very carefully the lessons of making bread, and apply the informaiton on making this dough, couple of changes i added 1 cup of bran to the recipes, and added one cup of starter to the dough as well i have 4 Months old starter in the fridge and every time i use some, i add on it, and its still alive and perfect.
I did soak the flour with the one ingredients and let it combine for 30-40 minutes and it didnt take me more than 5-7 minutes to knead the dough and turn it to a nice dough and let it rest for 2 hours, then i did the folding over 4 times and resting the dough one hour between each fold. and turned perfect .
i even made from the dame dough Oregano Bread. We call it in Lebanon Manakish Zaatar and here are the pictures I took last night after i baked the bread. and I froze the big loaf. also i did the hot water in a pan in the bottom of the oven, and baked the bread at 550F for 10 minutes then dropped the oven to 450F and continued baking till they are done. Perfect crunchy crust with spongy flavor inside.
TuTurkish Pide Bread or
Tu
Turkish Pide Bread or Mashatish Ramadanrkish Pide Bread or Mashatih Ramadan
Turkish Pide Bread or Mashatih Ramadan Bread
I want to thank our friend who gave the full details about how to make a real good bread, I took the pide recipe from the site, and added to it 1 cup of bran, and I used 1 cup of starter and followed step by step the bread lesson, i soaked the flour with the wet ingredients for 30-40 minutes and then it didnt took me more than couple of minutes to end up with a nice smooth dough, i cover it and left it to rise around 1.30-2.00 hours, then i did the folding and again rest the dough for 1 hour , i did this technic for 4 times, and at the end i shaped the dough to one big pide, and 3 oregano bread medium size, and one medium size pide as well, and let them rest again, I did put a hot water in pan in the bottom of the oven and heat the oven to 550F and baked my bread for 10 minutes at this high temperature, then dropped the oven to 450F and continued baking, i didint bother to take off the pan, it was too hot to take it out of the oven, but i kept refilling it with hot water.
the bread came with nice golden crunchy crust and spongy inside, and tasted so good.
Oregano Bread from the same
fresh yeast
in regard to bread making im sad that nobody wishes to use fresh yeast in bread making Why is that
i dont use anything but fresh yeast and my bread is fine
Basic White Loaf
I started a sponge and then realized I hadn't finished copying the recipe I was going to use. I'm a novice so its kind of scary right now.
So I made a sponge:
2 1/4 C. & 2-1/2 T flour
1 3/4 water
2T & 1 t. Honey
3/4 t instant yeast
That is fermenting as we speak.
Then you add:
2 C Flour & 3 T.
1/4 C. Non-Fat Dry Milk
3/4 t. instant yeast
9 T. unsalted butter softened
2 1/4 t. salt
That's where the recipe ends. Would anyone like to help me with the rest?
I'm assuming I put these ingredients in to the sponge, then knead it and let it rise, punch it down and form into loaves?
Rouxbe Freebie
Rouxbe.com is, among other things, an online cooking school. Most of the site is available only by subscription, but they have, possibly for a limited time, a wonderful video tutorial about Wheat available for free:
http://rouxbe.com/school/sections/81/objectives
Understanding Wheat makes one a better baker.
Bill Ross
(Baking today: Bread, Pita Breat and Pizza dough! Gotta get back to the kitchen!)
Sourdough. help!!!!!
I started my Sourdough Starter and on day four I measured 1/4 cup and added 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup flour. On day 5, 6, and 7 I did the same. I measured out 1/4 cup and added the same in water and flour. I don't understand how I am supposed to increase the amount of dough if I keep throwing out all but 1/4 cup. Am i missing something? How do I get enough to make bread? I hope this is not a silly question. Please advise...
re: Sourdough. Help!!!
You will be fine, as will your sourdough. Once you pick your recipe, figure out how much sourdough starter you need (many need only 1/4 cup). If you need more, you can always add more flour and water to your starter without throwing any away. If, for instance, your recipe calls for 1 cup starter, and you currently have 1/2 cup (1/4 starter and you added another 1/4 C water and flour). The day before baking day, add 1/2 cups water and flour to your starter, mix well and then leave on the counter (loosely covered). On the morning of baking day, stir the starter well, then add another 1/2 cup flour and water. Once it has risen and begun to fall again, stir it well and measure it for your recipe. Then put the remainder back in the fridge.
You might, though, consider weighing your ingredients, rather than measuring them. Because 1/2 cup of flour weighs considerably less than 1/2 cup of water, you will be getting a wetter and wetter starter over time, which may result in too much water for your recipe. If it works, great, but a lot of instructional videos seem to have the starter about the consistancy of cooked oatmeal (or even dryer). But as you will find in bread-making, there are a zillion different ways to do it that work, so whatever works for you is the right way.
Have fun!
- Eric
Slashing the bread
Every time I slash, my bread falls into a flat blob. I have purchased bread slashers and used razor blades and have a terrible time doing the proper slash. Now most of the time I just leave it alone & bake as is. Is there a secret to the slash? I do love the way it looks after it's baked (when properly done).
If your loaf is deflating when you slash it,
It is almost certainly over-proofed.
Try proofing it less (to less than doubling in volume) before scoring and baking.
David
Never thought about that!
Never thought about that! I'll give it a whirl--thanks!
help needed
Hello,
I am a amatuer baker and is really keen on making bread. But i face the same problem with my dough everytime...
My dough always become wet and sticky even when i reduced the amount of water stated in the recipe and made them on a warm day. Why is this so?
It seems that the more I knead the more sticky it becomes, and i have to add a lot more flour to make it less sticky. I have never managed to get the smooth consistency from 20mins of kneading, rather i took 40mins and a whole lot more flour to get that consistency :(
is that because i didnt add 'bread improver' or should i just invest in a bread maker instead?
please advise and thank you very much!
Hi, Breadexplorer
Sticky dough might have several different causes. For instance, wetter doughs tend to be stickier than drier doughs. Rye doughs are stickier than wheat doughs. Sourdoughs that are allowed to ferment to the point that the gluten begins to break down can be very sticky.
So, what's in your dough? Post your recipe (ingredients and quantities) and your process (mixing times/methods, temperatures, fermentation times, handling, etc.) and someone here can probably help you unravel the mystery.
One other thought: if you are new to making bread, a dough that feels horribly sticky at your current level of experience may feel slightly tacky in a year or so as you get more experience handling dough.
Paul
more info
ok here is the recipe i used, one of the sweet bread recipes
200g bread flour
1.5tsp instant dry yeast
2tbsp sugar
30g butter
120ml warm water
1 egg and 1/4 tsp salt
1) I mixed warm water, yeast,1 tsp sugar and half of the flour and left it (uncoverd) for 10mins
2) then i added egg and stir using spoon. then added rest of flour, sugar and butter, stir to make the dough.
3) and again, the dough is sticking to my hands so i added about 5 tbsp of bread flour as i kneaded. Kneaded (fold and push, fold and push) for abt 25mins and did the 'stretch' test but i couldnt get the translucent thin layer as i stretch...
4) then covered the dough with clingwrap and let in ferment for 1hr in the oven (40 degrees and switched off)
5) after 1 hr, the dough did rose but the surface is wet.
oh and the temperature that day was sunny 25 degree celsius.
Thank you so much for helping!
Hydration might be higher than you want
breadexplorer,
For the sake of discussion, I'll assume that you are using a large egg, which by U.S. standards is about 55 grams in weight. Whole eggs are somewhere between 70% and 75% water, so the egg in your formula is contributing a quantity of water that is between 0.70 x 55 = 38.5 grams and 0.75 x 55 = 41.25 grams. Let's call it 40 grams, since most of us don't use scales that weigh down to the fraction of a gram.
The formula calls for 200 grams of flour. It also calls for 120 ml of water, which we'll assume is equal to 120 grams. So 120 grams of water in the formula, plus another 40 grams of water contributed by the egg, give a total of 160 grams of water. In bakers percentages, the dough has a hydration of 160/200 = 80%.
A dough with 80% hydration is apt to be somewhat sticky, even allowing for the fats in the butter and the egg yolk. (Note that even the butter adds another 4 or 5 grams of water to the dough.)
So, you can either add flour to get the dough to a more manageable hydration, or subtract water. Let's pretend that you want your dough to be about 65% hydration, which would be much less sticky. You could add another 45 grams of flour, for a total of 245 grams. Your hydration would then be 160/245 = 65%, more or less. Or, you could deduct water. A total of 130 grams of water (90 for the formula, plus the 40 from the egg) will yield 130/200 = 65%. Or you could jigger both the flour and the water values.
Your addition of 5 tablespoons of flour during kneading amounted to 40-45 grams. In effect, you adjusted to about a 65% hydration level on the fly. (And no, I hadn't yet run the numbers on your adjustment before offering the hypothetical 65% example.)
The main thing is to know the weight of the water, then divide that by the weight of the flour to figure out the hydration. A 65% hydration dough, while being much less sticky than the current 80% hydration dough that you are working with, should still be reasonably moist. Try a batch at that hydration, then decide if you want it wetter or drier.
You could get away with much less kneading than you have been doing. There's a video of Richard Bertinet working a sweet dough, which would be fairly similar to your forumla. If you watch that, you'll see he gets to the desired degree of development very quickly and easily. Another approach would be to do 2 or 3 stretch and folds at 30 to 45 minute intervals during the bulk ferment. Either approach would be much less effort for you.
Happy baking!
Paul
water in bread
I have tried most every way to make bread, but they always come out fairly flat, only about 2-3 inches high, I have a great crumb, and it looks and tastes great, but I can never get it to raise up to what I see othe loaves look like. I live in Nashville, and am wondering if there could be a problem with the water, and should I try bottled water?
Thank you
Hi pazerbob
If the discussion about hydration, above, doesn't help, please post both your formula and your process so that other readers have a basis for offering suggestions.
Paul