Tips for Baking Bread
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I love bread. I always have! I remember my mom telling me and my sister we could only have 2 pieces of bread at a restaurant before or meal, otherwise we would ruin our appetite. She was right! (Note it had nothing to do with depriving us or body shaming issues. Please donāt read into that.) Bread is so good, bull fill you up pre-meal if you arenāt careful. I have the same issue with chips and salsa ;)
Through the years, I have felt the need to avoid bread here and thereā¦mainlllly because of society and their own issues and relationships to carbs. Nowadays, I eat it when I want it, though I do try to stay away from having it more than once a day. Iāve found that I feel better / my ulcerative colitis doesnāt give me as much trouble if I follow this protocol. To be honest, that practice has gone downhill during COVID-19 / Coronavirus, as one of our latest hobbies has become bread making.
I say that like it is annoying; however, Nick has been the one spearheading it, which has been fun. Iāve always been more of the baker in the relationship, so it is cool to watch him get the experience. I want him to feel confident about baking! Iāve done pretty much all the baked everything you can at least once. While I have messed with dry yeast packets, I had never made a bread starter, it has been something new we can do together. Nick gets most of the credit for it, though, as he did most of the āstarterā work.
Nick has always expressed an interest in bread making, but it wasnāt until this pandemic that we really made time for it. What really pushed us to finally take the plunge was when Mr. Holmes Bakery released bread making kits. Sure, we could have purchased the ingredients ourselves, but finding yeast and flour right now can be pretty challenging. We may or may not have a 15 lb bag of flour from Costco right now. LOL. Fortunately / unfortunately, I donāt think we will ever go back to our way of life before our bread starter. It is honestly so tasty and satisfying, I canāt explain it.
Like I mentioned, we purchased our bread kit from Mr. Holmes Bakehouse. It was $25 for flour, yeast, and bread flour. We bought it from them, because it is a bakery we love and we donāt want to see them go out of business. Honestly, the best part of the kit (besides not having to hunt for yeast), is that it comes with guidance! The box includes instructions for how to break bread, but you also are signed up for their newsletter. They email tons of different recipes, which is fantastic, as their pastries are SO DELICIOUS. One of the first emails we received was how to turn our white bread starter into a sourdough starter. (side note - you can sign up for their emails even without buying the kit. Do this for yummy recipes!)
Why sourdough? Well, Nick and I love sourdough bread, but it is also said to have less gluten compared to other breads! It still isnāt a good idea to eat it if you have celiac disease; however, if you are trying to keep your gluten intake lower without completely taking it away, it might be a bread to consider! Personally, my stomach feels best when I donāt have a ton of gluten, so I was 100% down trading in our white bread starter for a sour one. You know what is really cool about sourdough? YOU DONāT NEED YEAST TO CREATE A STARTER!
HOW TO MAKE SOURDOUGH
Iām not even going to try to type it out for you, because it is honestly really nerdy. ALSO, other people are way more experienced than me. King Arther Flour has been our favorite resources for sourdough and creating a starter. Read it once, then read them again, to make sure you understand all the steps.
FAVORITE YEASTLESS DOUGH RECIPES:
As mentioned, you can always use yeast packets. That is what I have typically done when baking croissants; however, Iāve also done a lot of work with yeastless dough! Nick and I have made a lot of yeastless pizza dough, which I mentioned here. Iāve also made quite a few batches of self-rise biscuits. Self-rising dough is a great way to go around the mess of yeast and still get a risen and fluffy texture. Anddd biscuits are like the easiest bread you can make, so no excuse buying packaged biscuits anymore! They donāt have to be perfect shapes and literally only have 3 ingredients.
Self-Rise Biscuits (you can also make these without self-rising dough and they still taste greatā¦just arenāt as tall / fluffy.)
TIPS FOR BAKING BREAD
Make sure you have enough flour. If youāre making a starter, you have to feed it quite often. I thought we had enough flour, but oh boy, we did not. Donāt commit to make a starter unless you have ample flourā¦at least 5lbs of it. You need it to feed the starter, but also to make the recipes. If you are having trouble finding flour, try looking in other markets! We were able to find a couple bags at a local Iranian market here in LA, whereas we couldnāt find any at Ralphās or Whole Foods.
Commit. Building a starter is TIME CONSUMING. The actual act of making isnāt hard, nor does it take a lot of time; however, to make the starter it takes about a week. Additionally, if you choose to go the sourdough route, you have to feed it more than say a white bread starter. After the starter is fully made, you only have to feed it once a week, which is doable. If youāll be out of town, just throw it in the freezer and start back up when you are back.
Get comfortable with grams. The starter rises and falls, so the most accurate way to make bread is to grab a kitchen scale and measure in grams! Youāll find that most recipes are already in grams. We like this kitchen Scale.
Be patient. It is really easy to want to rush the rising step, but it is so important! Wait that extra hour or so and you will be thankful you did. Donāt forget to wait to cut into it after it is baked, as the loaf continues to make a little after it is removed from the oven. These steps are essential just like refrigerating the dough before baking cookies is necessary! (unless noted, obviously)
Use the discard. Trying recipes with the discard will honestly keep you going! Everything tastes so yummy, you will want to see the starter through. King Arthur Flour has a lot of recipes you can use the discard in.
Steam. This is in the Sourdough Bread recipe I linked below, but donāt skip it! It is what helps you obtain that yummy, crunchy crust!
Know your first loaf will probably suck. Nick wanted to make sure this note was in here. Hah! Your first loaf will probably be your worst one and that is okay. Just learn from it and keep trying. Our first loaf didnāt really rise (we got excited and kind fast forwarded the step) and wasnāt cooked all the way through either. Honestly the loaves only get better and better!
Get creative! You can āscoreā lots of different designs and such into loaves to make them your own. This is the fun part! Besides eating it of course ;) When score, donāt forget to āslashā right before it goes in. We learned about that here. Also feel free to get creative with your add-ons. Once you get the dough down, add fun things like rosemary or a cinnamon swirl!
BAKING TOOLS
Scraper. We use this tool to help maneuver the dough.
Scale. Youāll want this, as most recipes are in grams. Additionally, it is the most accurate way to bake. The yeast is constantly changing, so you want to make sure to get it right.
Dutch Oven. Okay, so we donāt have oneā¦ this is what is recommended for baking bread. We have been using our pizza stone and steaming with our cast iron skillet. One tip regarding cast irons is that Nick wishes we had two - one for steaming and one for meat, etc. Itās hard to go back and forth between steaming and seasoning. If you want more info on cast iron skillets, I wrote a whole blog post about them here, including which to purchase. If want to go the dutch oven route, here are some options. If youāre trying to find the least toxic cookware, this dutch oven is the way to go. This one would match our other ceramic pans. Andddd this one is just too cute and more budget friendly.
Kitchen Aid Mixer. We use this along with the hook attachment to knead. It makes it really easy! When a recipe calls for hand folding, be sure to do that; otherwise, it doesnāt hurt to have a little help from a mixer!
Parchment Paper. We use this the most! Note that it is not the same as wax paper. I also have a Silpat Silicone Baking Mat, but we have yet to try it with loaves of bread.
Proofing Basket. We donāt have one of these, but it is on our list to purchase. This is used for the last rising step. It helps the crust form and lets you score well.
Bakerās Couche. Another thing we donāt have, but is on Nickās WANT list. I wanted to share these things just to show that you donāt have to have everything to make a good loaf, buuuut it can help. It is used in the proofing step and is really good for baguettes. (among other breads)
RECIPES WE HAVE MADE WITH SOURDOUGH STARTER
Waffle / Pancake Mix (overnight, but worth the wait)
Baguettes (We prefer rustic - no egg wash. ALSO we didnāt use an extra yeast packet or gluten and they were great.)
Dinner Rolls (We didnāt have an extra yeast packet to use and they ended up not rising very well. Still 10/10 on taste!)
Pizza Dough. (We donāt use pizza flavoring or an extra yeast packet.)
Sourdough Bread (has everything from creating the starter, to the actual bread recipe)
FAVORITE RESOURCES
We love the guidance we have received from Mr. Holmes! We still get their recipes and updates, but we have found ourself more-so using King Arthur Flour, since we are more in the recipe stage than nursing a starter. If we want more in-depth training on something like folding bread or scoring, we flock to YouTube to search for the exact method and instruction!
We made these baguettes last weekend and took them on a sunny picnic. It was so fun and relaxing! Plus, the recipe makes 6 baguettes, so we dropped some off at a friendās house. Donāt worry - we social distanced!
Honestly we have loved the newly-found bread making habit. I think it is a really great thing to do and spend time with people. Whether it is with your partner or your kids, you will be creating memories for years to come. ALSO it is the perfect ice breaker to meet a neighbor and a really easy way to share. Give away some of your starter (it will grow back!!) or share a loaf with someone. People all over the world are sharing their starters and some are over 100 years old! They all have names too. Nick has named ours āthe beast from the yeastā, so do with that what you will. Overall ENJOY!! If you mess up, just eat your mistakes and try again.
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