Baking Bread at Home Part 1
Hi everyone, I was inspired to write this blog by my friend Jo. Whenever people ask me what I do in my free time, I reply: sometimes I bake, like bread.. and the rest would go 'wow...'. I'm sure at lot of homebakers out there also experience such responses. Baking / making bread is not difficult, it just takes practice. And my friend Jo said, it is so time consuming and we don't have the time... so I wanted to help dispel this myth. Hopefully, it will inspire you to start making your own bread too.
The first order of the day. Please make yourself comfortable before starting. Don't stress.
So in the following paragraphs I will break down the process of bread-making into different factors.
a) Processes
The process of baking bread involves
1. Mixing-5mins
2. Kneading-15mins
3. Proofing (first proof)-1 hour
4. Shaping-5-10mins
5. Proofing (second proof)-1 hour
6. Baking-30mins
While the entire process takes 4 hours (max), the actual working time is less than 30 minutes. The most intensive working periods are in steps 1 and 2 mixing and kneading and then step 4 shaping (not really intensive). Usually proofing takes 1 hour, so during the first proof you can step out for a quick grocery run or a meal or do other things around the house.
b) Mixing and mise en place
Mise en place or not?
Many professional chefs and bakers will stress on the importance of mise en place, which basically means setting up. I think this depends on whether you are someone who can tolerate mess (minimal) and the familiarity of where your things are in the kitchen. Personally, I find that even without the mise en place, it works out fine as I usually put all my baking stuff in one place and I am familiar with where I keep my flour, sugar and salt in the kitchen. Once you are familiar with where everything is and what to do next, there will be very little or no mess in the kitchen.
Weighing out ingredients
When starting out baking, it is good to invest in a small, simple electronic weighing balance. They are usually available in most supermarkets or online shopping portals for around $10. These usually have a tare function to allow whatever is being weighed to be zero-ed, which is useful when weighing multiple ingredients. Not all of us have the entire set of 10 bowls to weigh one ingredient in each bowl.
Measuring spoons are not a must, but at least a tablespoon and a teaspoon would be very helpful in estimating the amounts required.
Proportion of ingredients
The main ingredients for a simple bread are flour, yeast (I use dried yeast), water and salt. These are the same ingredients for a baguette. The other type of bread that we are familiar with would be a white bread, which has additional sugar, butter and sometimes egg. These ingredients are readily available in supermarkets and provision shops.
Typically, for a normal bread the proportion of flour to water in WEIGHT is 100:60-66. Yeast is required to make the dough rise. A pinch of salt will help the yeast in rising the dough, we don't want to put too much salt either, unless you want a salty bread. Typically 5-7 g of yeast is required for 500g of flour, so you can work that out proportionately.
Mixing the ingredients
As you would have seen in my previous posts, usually I put all my dry ingredients (flour, yeast, salt) in one bowl. It is important to keep the yeast and salt apart (or opposite ends of the bowl) in the beginning. If the yeast comes into contact with the salt prematurely (in the dry state), it may become deactivated due to the high concentration of salt. Retrospectively, after the salt is dissolved in the water and mixed with the flour, the concentration becomes lower.
When mixing in the water, I like to use a spatula to mix it in the bowl first, so that it is less messy. For the water, I prefer to measure out up to 2/3 of the flour's weight. For example, for 150g of flour, I will measure out 100ml of water. When mixing, I find that it is better to mix in the water bit by bit and allow the flour to absorb the moisture. We can tell that enough water has been added when the flour comes together and forms a ball of dough. At this point if there is still water leftover, just leave it and don't add more water first. It is not a must to add all the water.
The amount of water that has to be added depends a lot on the climate and weather. If it is very humid, just a 100:60 flour:water weight ratio is enough. If it is very dry, more water may be required. Some other recipes such as foccacia and ciabattas call for much higher water contents of up to 80% and they would be exceptions.
Based on my experience so far, it is better to add less water at first and add in more later during the kneading stage, as opposed to gushing everything in at the start. Once you add in the water to the dough, there is no way to get it out. Being in Singapore with high humidity climate (>80% humidity), I often ended up with a super sticky dough that was very difficult to work with and just stuck to every thing even before I started kneading. Most articles or books advice to flour the surface or add more flour but I will tend to add too much flour and end up with a very closed crumb bread. (Argh)
By this point, you may be wondering what happened to the yeast? I added the yeast together with the dry ingredients. Most recipes mention that the yeast needs to be dissolved in water first and wait for it to bubble and froth before it can be used with the flour. My baking class classmate once told us that she repeatedly threw away the yeast solution as it did not froth. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I started out baking bread with a bread machine, it's a completely no brainer way to make your own bread. And in bread machines, the recipes request us to add the yeast to the dry ingredients. That is when I figured that it is actually not a must to add the yeast to the water. Also, if you add yeast to your measured amount of water then you must all the water into the flour and that would mean that we have less control over the moisture content.
c) Kneading
Now we can tip out the dough onto a clean surface or a kneading mat (these are available from baking shops or online shops). Then we can start kneading. If you wish to, you can rub a bit of flour on your clean hands to prevent the dough from sticking. Kneading the dough does not require brute force, you do not have to be like a Tarzan or be super strong to do it. I used to keep pressing and slamming the dough and would tire myself out within 5 minutes of the kneading process. I actually gave up for a while, and turned to no-knead breads. After reading countless books and articles and watching videos on kneading bread repeatedly on Youtube, I finally got this straight. Kneading is done to stretch and develop the gluten in the flour, and what we have to do is just stretch and fold, turn the dough and repeat. Yes, stretch and fold, turn, stretch and fold, turn, stretch and fold etc.
As the dough will be a bit stiff in the beginning, stretch it out slowly and gently, don't yank at it, it will just break. If there are still crumbs falling out from your dough, press them back and add a little bit of water that was leftover from the mixing just now. This way, you will know that you are not adding too much water based on the original measured amount. Just keep stretching and and folding. Sometimes I use the heel of my palm to push the dough out, with the other hand holding one end of the dough close to me and roll it back towards me, other times I push it sideways in both directions and roll it to 1 side. It doesn't really matter how you do it, as long as you pull the dough out and roll it back. It is also something that gets better with practice so just keep at it.
Keep doing this for 15 minutes. Yup, I used to question this also. But as it turns out, 15 mins is really the magic number to get a smooth elastic dough. And in some articles and videos, the windowpane test is also mentioned. What it means is to stretch a small bit of dough between your fingers until the light passes through it without the dough breaking. I struggled with this a lot, and then I finally read an article / comment that mentioned it was better to knead the dough for 15 minutes compared to the windowpane test, which I agree. The success of the windowpane test can be so subjective and for beginners or homebakers, sometimes we don't even know what it should look like.
So, no choice, have to continue with 15 minutes kneading. For this I bought a cute analog little egg timer to help me because I don't want to keep running out of the kitchen to stare at the clock to see how much time has passed, neither do I want to touch my phone with my floury, sticky hands (and that constant beeping when the timer is up, it simply gets on my nerves!). Of course you can get a digital timer if you like, whichever works for you. (Daiso has many cute ones!)
After 5 minutes of kneading, you will feel the dough start to loosen and soften. It will also stop sticking as much, even if you did not dust any extra flour. The next 10 minutes will require less effort and is easier. At this point I like to start jabbing my fingers into the dough randomly to see if the dough bounces back slightly. When it does it's nearly done! When the timer has crossed the 10 minute mark, it's time to start shaping the dough into a ball. It just means tucking the sides of the dough under a few times and then using the side of your palms, sweep around the side of the dough to make it into a round shape. Put the dough in the bowl and we're ready for the first proof.
I remember being so happy the first time I got it right. The most difficult part is over. See, not so impossible right?
But if you still feel intimidated to do kneading by hand, by all means use the mixer, with a dough hook. For this, just knead for 5 minutes. This is because the machinery will heat up as it runs and the dough softens much faster because of this. As the machinery turns the dough hook at a faster speed, it is also much easier to over-knead your bread.
d) Proofing (first proof)
Proofing is easy. It's just leaving the dough in a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough doubles in size. In Singapore, proofing in a warm place means room temperature. Most articles also recommend covering it with a damp towel. The purpose of the towel is to retain the moisture of the dough when it is proofing. Singapore baking may not need this unless you are in an air-conditioned environment (lucky!). If you are still a little concerned, an alternative is to rub a little vegetable oil on the dough and turn it in the bowl so that the surface is covered.
For me, I don't cover the dough, but I just leave it in my unheated oven with the door closed. Now I just note the time and then I can do whatever I want for the next hour.
e) After the first proof and shaping
Usually I will check on my dough after 45 minutes if I am at home. If you check after 1 hour it's ok too, but there were times I went out and I came back only after 1.5 hours and that is when something went wrong. The dough started giving off an alcohol smell and one would think that this smell would go away after the bread has been baked. It won't. The dough has been overproofed. It was so awful. :( Therefore, it is better to check a bit earlier. More often than not, especially in Singapore 30 deg C weather, the dough would have already doubled it's original size after 40 minutes or so.
f) Proofing (second proof)
Yay, now it's time to punch the dough. Honestly speaking, doesn't it feel a bit sad to punch all the air out again, after all that kneading and waiting, only to make it go back to a deflated lump of dough. When you pour the dough out from the bowl you can now see the thin and long strands of gluten stretching out from the dough. The dough also becomes super soft and has the beginnings of a bread.
The shaping part always holds an air of mystery for me because I'm just thinking, that's it? No need to knead another 15 minutes? So far I did not really knead the dough except for a bit of pulling and rolling. Then just shape the bread in to the shape and size that you want. If you want to roll it out, you can use a rolling pin. Rub some flour on the rolling pin so the dough doesn't stick to it. Then roll it, cut it, whatever, into the shape you want.
Now is the time to place your dough into a prepared loaf tin or lined baking tray. Once you are satisfied with the shapes that you made you can leave them to proof again for 40 minutes to 1 hour until doubled in size. (For me, it's back to my unheated oven).
g) Preheating and baking
For this part, the most important thing is to be familiar with your oven. Everyone has ovens in different shapes and sizes and different functions. Also, we need to take note of the approximate time required to preheat the oven.
For example, I will start preheating my oven (after taking my dough out, of course) about 30 minutes into the second proof so that I will be right on time to bake the bread at the same time the proofing time is up.
Baking has 2 main factors: Temperature and time. Another minor factor is steam. If you bake at a higher temperature, then reduce the baking time. if you bake at a lower temperature, then you need a longer baking time.
I noted some typical timings below and their effects on the bread:
180 deg C, 30 mins: Bread with soft thin crust and soft inside
200 deg C, 20-25 mins: Bread with slightly chewy, thicker crust and soft inside
220 deg C, 15-20 mins: Bread with crunchy, thick crust and soft inside.
If the bread is kept over the next 2-3 days the crust will become chewy. The thicker the crust, the chewier the bread will be.
Steam, or adding water in the bottom pan of the oven when baking, will give a crispy crust. But I often find this effect short-lived and is only present on the freshly-baked to day-old bread.
Finally you will know your bread is ready when there is a hollow sound when you tap it.
h) Cooling and Storing
Once the bread is out of the oven, you need to cool it. I don't have a cooling rack, so I improvised by pulling one of the unused oven racks and placed it on an empty tray. Ta-da, cooling rack.
Leave the bread on the cooling rack to cool completely, probably 1-2 hours, before keeping it in an airtight container. By properly cooled, it means when you touch the bread you don't feel any warmth emanating from it. (This part is difficult, because the freshly baked bread is smelling so wonderful! I scalded myself so many times because I was greedy and wanted to pinch a bit of bread fresh from the oven.) If you happened to cut the bread, just make sure the centre is cooled as well. Plus, if you cut / slice your bread when it is slightly warm, you will end up with gummy bread. It totally sucks, 3 hours of proofing and kneadin and baking efforts to get yummy, crusty bread gone down the drain. So must cool your bread, like until very, very cool. Bread will keep for 3 days when totally cooled, and we didn't even use any preservatives, now that's cool! (Pardon the pun.)
Now we've got the basic process down pat. Seriously, bread is made the same way almost all of the time. The only things we vary are the ingredients and the time, that's how we get different flavours like brioche, cinnamon buns, foccacia and different textures, which I will talk about in my next post!
Read Part 2 Here
Read Part 3 Here
Here are some links that guided me along my bread-making journey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrUdtzXquWk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luqevMbco8Y
Books:
How baking works by James Morton
The return of the naked chef by Jamie Oliver
The first order of the day. Please make yourself comfortable before starting. Don't stress.
So in the following paragraphs I will break down the process of bread-making into different factors.
a) Processes
The process of baking bread involves
1. Mixing-5mins
2. Kneading-15mins
3. Proofing (first proof)-1 hour
4. Shaping-5-10mins
5. Proofing (second proof)-1 hour
6. Baking-30mins
While the entire process takes 4 hours (max), the actual working time is less than 30 minutes. The most intensive working periods are in steps 1 and 2 mixing and kneading and then step 4 shaping (not really intensive). Usually proofing takes 1 hour, so during the first proof you can step out for a quick grocery run or a meal or do other things around the house.
b) Mixing and mise en place
Mise en place or not?
Many professional chefs and bakers will stress on the importance of mise en place, which basically means setting up. I think this depends on whether you are someone who can tolerate mess (minimal) and the familiarity of where your things are in the kitchen. Personally, I find that even without the mise en place, it works out fine as I usually put all my baking stuff in one place and I am familiar with where I keep my flour, sugar and salt in the kitchen. Once you are familiar with where everything is and what to do next, there will be very little or no mess in the kitchen.
Weighing out ingredients
When starting out baking, it is good to invest in a small, simple electronic weighing balance. They are usually available in most supermarkets or online shopping portals for around $10. These usually have a tare function to allow whatever is being weighed to be zero-ed, which is useful when weighing multiple ingredients. Not all of us have the entire set of 10 bowls to weigh one ingredient in each bowl.
Measuring spoons are not a must, but at least a tablespoon and a teaspoon would be very helpful in estimating the amounts required.
Proportion of ingredients
The main ingredients for a simple bread are flour, yeast (I use dried yeast), water and salt. These are the same ingredients for a baguette. The other type of bread that we are familiar with would be a white bread, which has additional sugar, butter and sometimes egg. These ingredients are readily available in supermarkets and provision shops.
Typically, for a normal bread the proportion of flour to water in WEIGHT is 100:60-66. Yeast is required to make the dough rise. A pinch of salt will help the yeast in rising the dough, we don't want to put too much salt either, unless you want a salty bread. Typically 5-7 g of yeast is required for 500g of flour, so you can work that out proportionately.
Mixing the ingredients
As you would have seen in my previous posts, usually I put all my dry ingredients (flour, yeast, salt) in one bowl. It is important to keep the yeast and salt apart (or opposite ends of the bowl) in the beginning. If the yeast comes into contact with the salt prematurely (in the dry state), it may become deactivated due to the high concentration of salt. Retrospectively, after the salt is dissolved in the water and mixed with the flour, the concentration becomes lower.
When mixing in the water, I like to use a spatula to mix it in the bowl first, so that it is less messy. For the water, I prefer to measure out up to 2/3 of the flour's weight. For example, for 150g of flour, I will measure out 100ml of water. When mixing, I find that it is better to mix in the water bit by bit and allow the flour to absorb the moisture. We can tell that enough water has been added when the flour comes together and forms a ball of dough. At this point if there is still water leftover, just leave it and don't add more water first. It is not a must to add all the water.
The amount of water that has to be added depends a lot on the climate and weather. If it is very humid, just a 100:60 flour:water weight ratio is enough. If it is very dry, more water may be required. Some other recipes such as foccacia and ciabattas call for much higher water contents of up to 80% and they would be exceptions.
Based on my experience so far, it is better to add less water at first and add in more later during the kneading stage, as opposed to gushing everything in at the start. Once you add in the water to the dough, there is no way to get it out. Being in Singapore with high humidity climate (>80% humidity), I often ended up with a super sticky dough that was very difficult to work with and just stuck to every thing even before I started kneading. Most articles or books advice to flour the surface or add more flour but I will tend to add too much flour and end up with a very closed crumb bread. (Argh)
By this point, you may be wondering what happened to the yeast? I added the yeast together with the dry ingredients. Most recipes mention that the yeast needs to be dissolved in water first and wait for it to bubble and froth before it can be used with the flour. My baking class classmate once told us that she repeatedly threw away the yeast solution as it did not froth. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I started out baking bread with a bread machine, it's a completely no brainer way to make your own bread. And in bread machines, the recipes request us to add the yeast to the dry ingredients. That is when I figured that it is actually not a must to add the yeast to the water. Also, if you add yeast to your measured amount of water then you must all the water into the flour and that would mean that we have less control over the moisture content.
c) Kneading
Now we can tip out the dough onto a clean surface or a kneading mat (these are available from baking shops or online shops). Then we can start kneading. If you wish to, you can rub a bit of flour on your clean hands to prevent the dough from sticking. Kneading the dough does not require brute force, you do not have to be like a Tarzan or be super strong to do it. I used to keep pressing and slamming the dough and would tire myself out within 5 minutes of the kneading process. I actually gave up for a while, and turned to no-knead breads. After reading countless books and articles and watching videos on kneading bread repeatedly on Youtube, I finally got this straight. Kneading is done to stretch and develop the gluten in the flour, and what we have to do is just stretch and fold, turn the dough and repeat. Yes, stretch and fold, turn, stretch and fold, turn, stretch and fold etc.
As the dough will be a bit stiff in the beginning, stretch it out slowly and gently, don't yank at it, it will just break. If there are still crumbs falling out from your dough, press them back and add a little bit of water that was leftover from the mixing just now. This way, you will know that you are not adding too much water based on the original measured amount. Just keep stretching and and folding. Sometimes I use the heel of my palm to push the dough out, with the other hand holding one end of the dough close to me and roll it back towards me, other times I push it sideways in both directions and roll it to 1 side. It doesn't really matter how you do it, as long as you pull the dough out and roll it back. It is also something that gets better with practice so just keep at it.
Keep doing this for 15 minutes. Yup, I used to question this also. But as it turns out, 15 mins is really the magic number to get a smooth elastic dough. And in some articles and videos, the windowpane test is also mentioned. What it means is to stretch a small bit of dough between your fingers until the light passes through it without the dough breaking. I struggled with this a lot, and then I finally read an article / comment that mentioned it was better to knead the dough for 15 minutes compared to the windowpane test, which I agree. The success of the windowpane test can be so subjective and for beginners or homebakers, sometimes we don't even know what it should look like.
So, no choice, have to continue with 15 minutes kneading. For this I bought a cute analog little egg timer to help me because I don't want to keep running out of the kitchen to stare at the clock to see how much time has passed, neither do I want to touch my phone with my floury, sticky hands (and that constant beeping when the timer is up, it simply gets on my nerves!). Of course you can get a digital timer if you like, whichever works for you. (Daiso has many cute ones!)
After 5 minutes of kneading, you will feel the dough start to loosen and soften. It will also stop sticking as much, even if you did not dust any extra flour. The next 10 minutes will require less effort and is easier. At this point I like to start jabbing my fingers into the dough randomly to see if the dough bounces back slightly. When it does it's nearly done! When the timer has crossed the 10 minute mark, it's time to start shaping the dough into a ball. It just means tucking the sides of the dough under a few times and then using the side of your palms, sweep around the side of the dough to make it into a round shape. Put the dough in the bowl and we're ready for the first proof.
I remember being so happy the first time I got it right. The most difficult part is over. See, not so impossible right?
But if you still feel intimidated to do kneading by hand, by all means use the mixer, with a dough hook. For this, just knead for 5 minutes. This is because the machinery will heat up as it runs and the dough softens much faster because of this. As the machinery turns the dough hook at a faster speed, it is also much easier to over-knead your bread.
d) Proofing (first proof)
Proofing is easy. It's just leaving the dough in a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough doubles in size. In Singapore, proofing in a warm place means room temperature. Most articles also recommend covering it with a damp towel. The purpose of the towel is to retain the moisture of the dough when it is proofing. Singapore baking may not need this unless you are in an air-conditioned environment (lucky!). If you are still a little concerned, an alternative is to rub a little vegetable oil on the dough and turn it in the bowl so that the surface is covered.
For me, I don't cover the dough, but I just leave it in my unheated oven with the door closed. Now I just note the time and then I can do whatever I want for the next hour.
e) After the first proof and shaping
Usually I will check on my dough after 45 minutes if I am at home. If you check after 1 hour it's ok too, but there were times I went out and I came back only after 1.5 hours and that is when something went wrong. The dough started giving off an alcohol smell and one would think that this smell would go away after the bread has been baked. It won't. The dough has been overproofed. It was so awful. :( Therefore, it is better to check a bit earlier. More often than not, especially in Singapore 30 deg C weather, the dough would have already doubled it's original size after 40 minutes or so.
f) Proofing (second proof)
Yay, now it's time to punch the dough. Honestly speaking, doesn't it feel a bit sad to punch all the air out again, after all that kneading and waiting, only to make it go back to a deflated lump of dough. When you pour the dough out from the bowl you can now see the thin and long strands of gluten stretching out from the dough. The dough also becomes super soft and has the beginnings of a bread.
The shaping part always holds an air of mystery for me because I'm just thinking, that's it? No need to knead another 15 minutes? So far I did not really knead the dough except for a bit of pulling and rolling. Then just shape the bread in to the shape and size that you want. If you want to roll it out, you can use a rolling pin. Rub some flour on the rolling pin so the dough doesn't stick to it. Then roll it, cut it, whatever, into the shape you want.
Now is the time to place your dough into a prepared loaf tin or lined baking tray. Once you are satisfied with the shapes that you made you can leave them to proof again for 40 minutes to 1 hour until doubled in size. (For me, it's back to my unheated oven).
g) Preheating and baking
For this part, the most important thing is to be familiar with your oven. Everyone has ovens in different shapes and sizes and different functions. Also, we need to take note of the approximate time required to preheat the oven.
For example, I will start preheating my oven (after taking my dough out, of course) about 30 minutes into the second proof so that I will be right on time to bake the bread at the same time the proofing time is up.
Baking has 2 main factors: Temperature and time. Another minor factor is steam. If you bake at a higher temperature, then reduce the baking time. if you bake at a lower temperature, then you need a longer baking time.
I noted some typical timings below and their effects on the bread:
180 deg C, 30 mins: Bread with soft thin crust and soft inside
200 deg C, 20-25 mins: Bread with slightly chewy, thicker crust and soft inside
220 deg C, 15-20 mins: Bread with crunchy, thick crust and soft inside.
If the bread is kept over the next 2-3 days the crust will become chewy. The thicker the crust, the chewier the bread will be.
Steam, or adding water in the bottom pan of the oven when baking, will give a crispy crust. But I often find this effect short-lived and is only present on the freshly-baked to day-old bread.
Finally you will know your bread is ready when there is a hollow sound when you tap it.
h) Cooling and Storing
Once the bread is out of the oven, you need to cool it. I don't have a cooling rack, so I improvised by pulling one of the unused oven racks and placed it on an empty tray. Ta-da, cooling rack.
Leave the bread on the cooling rack to cool completely, probably 1-2 hours, before keeping it in an airtight container. By properly cooled, it means when you touch the bread you don't feel any warmth emanating from it. (This part is difficult, because the freshly baked bread is smelling so wonderful! I scalded myself so many times because I was greedy and wanted to pinch a bit of bread fresh from the oven.) If you happened to cut the bread, just make sure the centre is cooled as well. Plus, if you cut / slice your bread when it is slightly warm, you will end up with gummy bread. It totally sucks, 3 hours of proofing and kneadin and baking efforts to get yummy, crusty bread gone down the drain. So must cool your bread, like until very, very cool. Bread will keep for 3 days when totally cooled, and we didn't even use any preservatives, now that's cool! (Pardon the pun.)
Now we've got the basic process down pat. Seriously, bread is made the same way almost all of the time. The only things we vary are the ingredients and the time, that's how we get different flavours like brioche, cinnamon buns, foccacia and different textures, which I will talk about in my next post!
Read Part 2 Here
Read Part 3 Here
Here are some links that guided me along my bread-making journey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrUdtzXquWk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luqevMbco8Y
Books:
How baking works by James Morton
The return of the naked chef by Jamie Oliver
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