Tips from a Baking class
Source of Recipe
Glennis
List of Ingredients
Whatever liquid used in the recipe should be 105-110 degrees and no hotter. Yeast dies at 140 degrees.
Yeast is what makes the bread rise, sugars feed the yeast and will make it rise more quickly, salt slows the rising process. The correct balance is usually what appears in the recipe.
To make any bread recipe a "speedy" recipe, increase only the yeast by up to one-half.
It isn't necessary to "scald" milk these days. Warming it is fine.
"Instant" yeast can be mixed into the liquid with the flour.
Always use at least half white or bread flour if you plan to add any other kind of grain flour to the mixture.
Usually, you will knead a dough until it will take on no more flour. The amount of flour a dough will absorb depends on the weather as well as the flour itself and how it has been stored. When a soft dough is being used, there will be specific instructions referring to a "soft" dough and a definite amount of flour to be added.
When you first add flour to the liquid, that first beating is to promote development of the gluten (which is what makes the dough stretchy and allows it to rise). The stickier and glueier the dough is at this stage, the better. There are even special high gluten flours you can buy (if you're making a rye bread, this is a good thing to add to your basic dough) that will improve the elasticity of the bread dough.
Why does bread rise twice? The first time is to lighten the dough and develop the yeast, the second time is to prepare the loaf for baking. The dough will continue to rise in the over for a few minutes (until the yeast dies at 140 degrees).
Recipe
Tips from a Bread Baking Class
Crust Treatments
Soft: Brush with cream or milk before baking.
Crunchy crust: Place a pan of water on a rack below the loaves.
Egg Glaze: Brush with an egg yolk beaten with a tablespoon of water (makes it sticky enough for poppy seeds or sesame seeds to stay on the bread!)
|
|
member logon
