Ever since Jon and I got married I've been trying to learn how to make good wheat bread. To say the least... it has been an adventure. We've eaten more dense wheat bricks over the last four years than we have moist, delicious slices of bread. But I'm getting better... much better.
My Dad's new wife is a really good bread maker and over Christmas I watched her make bread. I've discovered that you really have to watch someone make bread to learn how they do it because invariably they don't always follow the recipe or they do something important that they won't ever tell you. Anyway, after her lesson my bread has been turning out so wonderful. I still have a lot to learn about 1,000 more loaves of bread to make before I feel like an expert but I thought I'd share with you some of the things she taught me (or that I've learned from my grandma who is also an bread baker extraordinaire) that have made a big difference in my bread making. Please feel free to add any other tips that you have!
1) Keep your yeast in the freezer and only use SAF yeast. This is the best type of yeast and it keeps longer and best in the freezer not the fridge.
2) Start your bread by adding your warm water, 3 cups of flour, and your yeast. Mix it together on low till it makes a slurry. You can also add in the honey/sugar and oil now too if you want. The slurry seems to make the yeast activate well and I've noticed that if I skip this step my bread won't rise very high.
3) After you have all the ingredients mixed in, except the flour, start the mixer on low and then SLOWLY add the rest of the flour. Don't turn the mixer up to high until you've added quite a bit of flour. The slow setting stretches the gluten fibers in the wheat resulting in moist fluffy bread. When you can tell that your machine is having a hard time mixing it and you can see the gluten fibers stretching then turn it up to high and continue adding the flour slowly.
4) Don't ever follow the recipe to determine how much flour to put in. Just keep adding flour slowly until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. You want enough flour to clean the sides off but not so much that your dough isn't sticky.
5) Let the dough mix on high for 10 min. Don't worry if your dough is semi-sticky because during this ten minuets it will start to get less sticky. If it is still really sticky after five minutes of mixing add a little bit more flour.
6) Don't add your dough enhancer until after all your flour is added and your dough has been kneading for at least 5 minutes. You want to make sure your gluten fibers are good and activated before you add the enhancer.
7) Heat up your oven to about 175 degrees (or just warmish) and then turn it off. Stick your loaves in there to rise. After they have risen leave them in the oven while you heat it up to 350 degrees-- don't count on them rising more once you've heated up the oven because sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Also if you start the bread in a cold oven you'll need to cook it for five minutes longer than the recipe calls for.
8) Eat at least one slice of bread, preferably with butter and honey, immediately after it comes out of the oven.... oooh, yum!
Okay so there are all my bread making hints. They have made a big difference for me but I know that bread making differs at every elevation and temperature so you might have to experiment to find out what works for you. My dad's wife also suggested taking a bread making class at your local Bosch store which I think would be a great idea because you really have to see bread made well to learn how to make it.
I took this picture of the bread a few days after I made it and it had gotten a little squished on top.
So use your imagination and picture it super fresh and steamy.
Here is my favorite bread recipe that I got from my Grandma. It is half white and half wheat and even though I really like whole wheat bread this is by far my favorite because it is usually really moist and light.
2 1/2 cups warm water
1 TBSP salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil or applesauce
1/4 cup honey
1 TBSP dough enhancer
1 1/2 TBSP gluten flour
1 TBSP yeast
3 cups white bread flour (not just white flour but BREAD flour-- it really does make a difference)
3 cups whole wheat flour (may need more to get to right consistency)
Let rise for 30 min and bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins.
1 comment:
What a luscious loaf of bread. The photo looks great. I'm not the expert bread maker, but I learned that you MUST use bread flour. They sell in the grocery store in a yellow package instead of white and it says Better for Bread on the package in big letters. It's flour made from hard wheat and it's the best for bread. I'm glad to be related to good bread makers.
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