Baking Bread at Home Part 2
As a continuation of my Baking Bread at Home post, I want to touch on the different ingredients that could be added to a yeasted bread dough and affect it's texture and taste.
Salt: As mentioned above, some salt is required to help the yeast along in the proofing. Typically a pinch of salt to about 150 g of flour is enough, so if you are working with 500g flour, around half to 3 quarters of a teaspoon would be sufficient. When added to the flour as dry ingredient it should be kept away from the yeast.
Egg: Eggs are usually used in enriched doughs like white breads (Pullman loaf) or brioches. Enriched doughs contain yeast inhibitors (prevent the yeast from proofing the dough) like fats from milk and butter, therefore eggs are added to help with the rise of the dough.
Sugar: Sugar is also a yeast inhibitor. So try not to add too much sugar, or if you do use sugar, please ensure that you add other yeast improvers like salt or egg. Usually bread dough with sugar will not rise as much as those without.
Honey: I am not sure if honey is a yeast inhibitor, but sometimes I prefer to use honey in place of sugar to give a better taste to my bread. When adding honey in the place of sugar, I add it at the same amount. For example, if the recipe calls for 20g of sugar, I add 20 g of honey (just guess-timate). However, because honey is in a liquid state, we need to be careful in adding water and mixing the dough, we don't want to add too much water.
Milk / Butter: Milk and butter are definitely yeast inhibitors, but this way they also help to give a softer dough such as Brioches and cinnamon buns. I found that adding a little butter (about 20g to 150g flour) could give rise to a softer bread, this is especially good if you want to make a soft bun or dinner roll.
Tangzhong: After talking about all the things that worked for me, we finally reached this one, that failed me catastrophically every time and I tried so many different recipes. Tangzhong is the method of "cooking" a small portion of flour in water or milk over low heat until a roux is formed. It is then cooled and added to the dough when mixed in. It is recommended to do this to get soft fluffy breads like Hokkaido rolls and milk buns. Failures aside, Tangzhong is a yeast inhibitor and prevents the dough from rising too much. However, we should note that tangzhong are mostly used in bread recipes that already contain milk, butter and sugar. Therefore the dough alone would already have four yeast inhibitors. I ended up with a crumbly bread every time, which I attribute to the over-inhibition of the yeast. For beginners I definitely would not recommend this method as a first try.
Vegetable oil (sunflower, canola etc.) vs Olive oil: When bread recipes call for adding vegetable oil, it is usually to maintain the moisture, so minimal amount is often used. Olive oils, which have a stronger taste, are used in larger amounts in breads such as focaccia and ciabatta to give a distinctive flavour.
Fillings: Of course, we don't always want to eat plain bread, it can get boring. Adding chopped nuts, seeds or dried fruit can greatly improve the flavour of the bread. When adding chopped nuts and seeds, we should take into account the dry ingredient weight and adjust the amount of water accordingly. When adding cocoa powder, I find it useful to count cocoa powder as part of the flour's weight so that the bread still maintains the adequate amount of moisture. When using dried fruit, we should note that most dried fruit contain sugar, so we should reduce the additional sugar content. As dried fruits are dehydrated, they will draw moisture from the bread dough. Therefore, it helps to re-hydrate the dried fruit by soaking them in some water for 20-30 mins before adding them to the bread dough. They can be added at the kneading stage if you want them to be homogeneously mixed in the bread. If you want to use them as a filling, just put them during the shaping stage, after the first proof.
Rye / Wholewheat / wholegrain flours: These breads can be added to the normal wheat flour for better flavour and texture. Similar to the cocoa powder, it should be counted as part of the flour's weight. For example, for the original recipe of 150 g flour (vs. typically 90-100ml water), we can change it to 120g wheat flour and 30g rye / wholewheat flour and 90-100ml of water. Slightly more water may be needed here, but as mentioned, we need to observe during the actual mixing process. Also, bread dough with wholewheat or rye flours added may take slightly longer to rise to double in size as they have lower gluten content. Unless you are aiming for a very hard bread, don't add too much rye / wholewheat to the flour. The ratio above is ideal so far based on what I have tried, adding a bit of butter (like a teaspoon) helps to keep the bread soft. Also I tend to bake it at a lower temperature (180 deg C).
The return of the naked chef by Jamie Oliver
How baking works by James Morton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TFAZyRCqM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luqevMbco8Y&list=PLuJ6gyh_lhwxoW7pWxtEbiaTCkSZ6vQB5&index=39
Salt: As mentioned above, some salt is required to help the yeast along in the proofing. Typically a pinch of salt to about 150 g of flour is enough, so if you are working with 500g flour, around half to 3 quarters of a teaspoon would be sufficient. When added to the flour as dry ingredient it should be kept away from the yeast.
Egg: Eggs are usually used in enriched doughs like white breads (Pullman loaf) or brioches. Enriched doughs contain yeast inhibitors (prevent the yeast from proofing the dough) like fats from milk and butter, therefore eggs are added to help with the rise of the dough.
Sugar: Sugar is also a yeast inhibitor. So try not to add too much sugar, or if you do use sugar, please ensure that you add other yeast improvers like salt or egg. Usually bread dough with sugar will not rise as much as those without.
Honey: I am not sure if honey is a yeast inhibitor, but sometimes I prefer to use honey in place of sugar to give a better taste to my bread. When adding honey in the place of sugar, I add it at the same amount. For example, if the recipe calls for 20g of sugar, I add 20 g of honey (just guess-timate). However, because honey is in a liquid state, we need to be careful in adding water and mixing the dough, we don't want to add too much water.
Milk / Butter: Milk and butter are definitely yeast inhibitors, but this way they also help to give a softer dough such as Brioches and cinnamon buns. I found that adding a little butter (about 20g to 150g flour) could give rise to a softer bread, this is especially good if you want to make a soft bun or dinner roll.
Tangzhong: After talking about all the things that worked for me, we finally reached this one, that failed me catastrophically every time and I tried so many different recipes. Tangzhong is the method of "cooking" a small portion of flour in water or milk over low heat until a roux is formed. It is then cooled and added to the dough when mixed in. It is recommended to do this to get soft fluffy breads like Hokkaido rolls and milk buns. Failures aside, Tangzhong is a yeast inhibitor and prevents the dough from rising too much. However, we should note that tangzhong are mostly used in bread recipes that already contain milk, butter and sugar. Therefore the dough alone would already have four yeast inhibitors. I ended up with a crumbly bread every time, which I attribute to the over-inhibition of the yeast. For beginners I definitely would not recommend this method as a first try.
Vegetable oil (sunflower, canola etc.) vs Olive oil: When bread recipes call for adding vegetable oil, it is usually to maintain the moisture, so minimal amount is often used. Olive oils, which have a stronger taste, are used in larger amounts in breads such as focaccia and ciabatta to give a distinctive flavour.
Fillings: Of course, we don't always want to eat plain bread, it can get boring. Adding chopped nuts, seeds or dried fruit can greatly improve the flavour of the bread. When adding chopped nuts and seeds, we should take into account the dry ingredient weight and adjust the amount of water accordingly. When adding cocoa powder, I find it useful to count cocoa powder as part of the flour's weight so that the bread still maintains the adequate amount of moisture. When using dried fruit, we should note that most dried fruit contain sugar, so we should reduce the additional sugar content. As dried fruits are dehydrated, they will draw moisture from the bread dough. Therefore, it helps to re-hydrate the dried fruit by soaking them in some water for 20-30 mins before adding them to the bread dough. They can be added at the kneading stage if you want them to be homogeneously mixed in the bread. If you want to use them as a filling, just put them during the shaping stage, after the first proof.
Rye / Wholewheat / wholegrain flours: These breads can be added to the normal wheat flour for better flavour and texture. Similar to the cocoa powder, it should be counted as part of the flour's weight. For example, for the original recipe of 150 g flour (vs. typically 90-100ml water), we can change it to 120g wheat flour and 30g rye / wholewheat flour and 90-100ml of water. Slightly more water may be needed here, but as mentioned, we need to observe during the actual mixing process. Also, bread dough with wholewheat or rye flours added may take slightly longer to rise to double in size as they have lower gluten content. Unless you are aiming for a very hard bread, don't add too much rye / wholewheat to the flour. The ratio above is ideal so far based on what I have tried, adding a bit of butter (like a teaspoon) helps to keep the bread soft. Also I tend to bake it at a lower temperature (180 deg C).
Finally I will also leave links to the useful videos and books that helped me so far:
The return of the naked chef by Jamie Oliver
How baking works by James Morton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TFAZyRCqM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luqevMbco8Y&list=PLuJ6gyh_lhwxoW7pWxtEbiaTCkSZ6vQB5&index=39
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