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A Few Tips on Baking Bread

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handmadetherapy 2009-06-17 00:44:03 Publish:

It seems that lately I've had quite a few people asking me questions about baking bread. Usually I'm able to answer them to the best of my ability but really, I'm no expert. I thought though that because I post so many bread recipes I would share my tips on baking bread.

Give yourself LOTS of time. Baking bread is very time consuming in the sense that you have to be around. The initial rise can take anywhere from 1-2 hours and if you want a good dough you are going to want to pound it down and let it rise a couple more times before your final rise. I tend to start baking first thing in the morning, and sometimes it's ready by lunch, but usually mid afternoon.

The main difference between Active Dry Yeast and Quick Rise Yeast is that active dry has to be proofed. That means you need to dissolve it in liquid first. Quick rise you can simply add to the dry ingredients and it will work. Apparently quick rise will also make your bread rise faster although I've never noticed much of a difference.

Be prepared to get your hands dirty. I use my kitchen aid mixer for most of the kneading required during bread baking, but nothing works as well as using your hands. Kneading is required to make the dough more elastic and to help it rise, so don't skimp out.

Use quality ingredients. I have found on more than one occasion that buying poor quality flour, yeast, sugar, etc. makes poor quality bread. If you are making your bread from scratch it is already going to be WAY cheaper than buying a loaf in the store so don't be afraid to spend a little bit more on good ingredients.

Know your flours. Some flours have much more gluten than others and some flours really won't rise at all. When trying new flours I generally substitue only one or two cups of whole wheat or all purpose until I know how well it will work. You can find more information about the different kinds of flours here.

Don't forget to add salt! Salt can kill yeast so I always suggest adding your salt to the flour and then adding it to the wet ingredients. However because I do it this way I often (yes often) forget to add salt. It will still turn out but it sure won't taste the same!

Finally... don't be afraid to experiment!! I have one very basic recipe that I simply deviate from as I desire. It's up in my head so it makes it easy for me to just substitute different flours, fats, or sweeteners.

Well, that's all my tips for now. Remember, I'm no expert but I do love baking bread so I hope this helps!

To see some of my bread recipes click here, here, or here!

Comments:

Wow. This was a great post, Hilda. I'm really wanting to get cracking at making my own bread, I just need to get a loaf pan. So I'm really excited to have these tips.

Thanks!

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