Bread Pt 1

So this whole topic today is going to be about bread and how to make it. I'll go ahead and say this is probably my FAVORITE thing to make. I'm one of those people that love to start a loaf in the morning and love on it till it goes into the oven. I think I remember helping my mother knead dough as a small child, watching with wonderment when it rose, and then the warm fresh out of the oven bread with some butter on it. My first attempt at yeast bread was with cinnamon rolls and the first batch I'm pretty sure was a flop. Though, being somewhat persistent like I am, I eventually got them to be pretty damn good. So this is going to be long, pull up a warm cup of tea and lets get talking all things bread!

Types of recipes:

There are two different methods for making all bread and I am sure they have technical names to bakers across the world, but I call them direct breads and indirect breads. It is the most nontechnical terms ever...

In a direct bread the dough is mixed with all ingredients together. It is kneaded once, risen once, then shaped, allowed to rise again, and baked.

For indirect bread the dough starts out with what we call "starters". These are made up to 48 hours before the bread is even put together. The rest of the ingredients are added only after the starter has had time to work. They are then kneaded, allowed to rise, given another 2-3 more risings after the first, shaped, and allowed to rise again before baking.

Both methods yield an awesome bread. When I first started turning out the loaves I always used the direct method....later on down the line when I got more comfortable with my abilities (we're talking years here...) did I make a switch to indirect bread.

Kneading Methods

There is a really fun way to knead bread and a fairly boring way... but all kneading is very important. Thinking back about my mothers bread when I was a kid, she had it wrong. Sorry mom, I really am. Her bread always had a thick thick crust that I rather hated. Sometimes the bread would separate from the crust even. I have since learned that my moms adage of "You have to keep kneading till the dough takes no more flour" was giving her the problem with the crust. I have a point to this.

Kneading is essentially beating up the bread with your hands or by machine. There is a lot of science in it with proteins, gluten, and some chemistry, but I will spare the boredom to the reader and hit straight to the point.. maybe

Under-kneading will make a rough un-put together loaf of bread. Over-kneading will cause the crust problem my mom always had. Personally, I really do like hand kneading bread, but that isn't to say as of late I haven't been using my stand mixer with the dough hook attachment out of sheer laziness.......... It will take a long time for a new bread baker to have an eye for the dough being ready so just be patient.



That is about it to making bread, the rest is all idle time waiting on rising or waiting on a starter to complete itself before mixing. Tomorrow I'm going to make a loaf for dinner so I should be able to get pics... should... and I'll be able to get the recipe up for the bread I'm making!