Today’s Blog Post Topic
Hi everyone! In today’s blog post, we wanted to tackle a big challenge for beginner bakers: bread baking. Not only is this a difficult skill to master for beginners, but it is a challenge for all bakers. Why is this the case? Well, bread is very temperamental, so it’s easy to mess up a loaf. It’s also often almost impossible to discern why the loaf didn’t turn out right. It could be due to the altitude at which you’re baking, the temperature at which you’re proofing your dough, the type of yeast you are using, the type of flour you are using, or even the way you score your loaf of bread!
The factors are endless but don’t let this stress you out. As with most things, practice will help you improve and learn so that you can slowly master the art of bread baking. We have yet to master it entirely but we have baked quite a few loaves and have some ideas for how you can make the bread baking process easier for yourselves. That brings us to this blog post! We hope you enjoy our 5 top tips for bread baking and put them to good use!
1. Understand the type of yeast you are using!
Most loaves of bread start with yeast, as this is what helps the bread rise. Yeast is a microorganism that converts carbohydrates and sugars into carbon dioxide. In baking, this creates air bubbles which get trapped within the elastic dough and result in the bread rising. Therefore, yeast is known as a leavening or raising agent. When you use yeast, it’s important to keep it at a warm temperature. This is what keeps it alive and helps it to proof the dough. This is why you typically mix the yeast with warm water to start a bread dough recipe and you should later proof your dough at a temperature of 75-82 degrees Fahrenheit (25-28 degrees Celsius) for optimal results. Of course, you can proof at a colder temperature, it will just take longer!
Types of Yeast: Fresh Yeast
The type of yeast you have will change the way you use it in a recipe. There are two types of baker’s yeast: fresh yeast and dry yeast. Fresh yeast comes in a small square and it is wetter than dry yeast. You will want to use it quickly, as it doesn’t keep for very long on the shelf or in the fridge. To mix this into a dough, crumble it into warm liquid ingredients (usually water or milk) and let it melt. Then you can combine the yeast and liquids with the rest of your dough ingredients. Do not heat up liquids to a temperature higher than 96 degrees F or 36 degrees C – this will kill the yeast! Fresh yeast is used very commonly in Scandinavia but less commonly in the US and the UK.
Types of Yeast: Dry Yeast
When it comes to dry yeast, which is more common in the US and the UK, there are also two types: active-dry and instant. Active-dry yeast needs to be “activated” before you can use it as a leavening agent. To do so, add it to warm liquid ingredients and stir until it is dissolved. You can add a bit of sugar if your recipe calls for it – this just gives the yeast more to feed off of. Let this sit for 5 minutes until it is foamy. This is proof that your yeast is alive and well!
Instant yeast does not need to be activated or even combined with liquid ingredients first. You can simply add it to the dry ingredients. You may also notice that some of our bread recipes have different quantities of active-dry versus instant yeast. Because instant yeast granules are finer than active-dry granules, our recipes call for 2 tsp of instant yeast OR 2.25 tsp of active-dry yeast.
2. Use the windowpane test for kneading
Sometimes, you may find yourself with a recipe that tells you to knead dough but doesn’t specify when you should stop or how you should know when to stop. Well, we have a trick for you! As you knead your dough, it develops gluten, which is what makes your dough nice and elastic. You want to develop the gluten enough that it passes the windowpane test, and then leave it to proof (rise) for an hour or two.
The windowpane test is very simple. Take a small piece of dough and hold it between your fingers. Stretch it out into a rectangle until you create a very thin and translucent center. If it breaks before you reach this point, then continue kneading the dough. It should be very stretchy and elastic – that is your key to stop! Of course, this method does not work particularly well with very wet bread dough, so it may not be your go-to trick for every recipe. But it definitely helps for some!
3. Use the poke test for proofing
Now, you’ve moved on to proofing your dough. But how do you know when it is proofed? It’s a tough call, as you don’t want underproofed dough that doesn’t rise enough and you don’t want overproofed dough that may lead to a loaf collapsing. How do you hit that sweet spot right in the middle? Well, this is one of our favorite tips to use to solve that problem.
The poke test is very straightforward. When you have just finished kneading your dough, the gluten is developed and the dough is very elastic. This means that if you poke it then, the dough will spring back immediately. Now, when your dough is proofing, the yeast is eating up all the sugars in the dough and releasing gas, which causes the dough to rise. Once the yeast has consumed all the sugar it can, that’s the point when it should go into the oven, where the heat of the oven will cause it to expand even more.
The poke test tells you that the dough is ready and the yeast has released as much gas as it can. If you poke the dough and it springs back, this means that it is NOT ready – not enough gas has been released. If it leaves an indentation and springs back slightly, it is ready because it has risen as much as it can.
4. Start with less flour than you think you need!
This is an essential tip for bread bakers! When you are following a recipe, it is not wise to add all the flour in one go. Reserve a small amount and you can easily add this in if the dough is too wet. But, it’s much easier to add more flour to a too-wet dough than to add more liquid to a dough that is too dry! The wetness of your dough can vary based on a number of factors: how much water the flour you are using is absorbing, the temperature of the various ingredients, or even the altitude at which you’re baking. This may also mean that a recipe calls for a certain quantity of flour but you need a lot more or less than that for your dough to reach the proper consistency. Therefore, reserve a bit of flour and add it in later on.
5. Different types of dough require different baking methods
Depending on the type of bread you are making and the type of dough you are using, you will use different baking methods. For a wetter dough, like for an artisanal loaf, you need to create steam in the oven to help the crust form, which holds the shape of the loaf intact and gives it a hard crust. To do so, you can either use a Dutch oven or a big cast iron pot to bake the bread in, or you can use an alternative method. We like to put our bread on a baking sheet in the middle rack of the oven and then put a roasting tin below it. We preheat the oven with the roasting tin in there and then pour boiling water into the roasting tin when the bread goes in. This creates steam and helps form a crust!
For a less wet dough, like for a sandwich loaf, you will be using a tin so the loaf will retain its shape. You will also need to shape it properly and create surface tension so that it holds its shape. This type of loaf does not need steam, as it is meant to have a softer crust. This type of dough is also often brushed with egg wash or milk to give it a nice color on top.
We hope these tips are informative and helpful to you as you embark on your bread baking adventures! Good luck and please leave any questions or comments down below!
