Max Bernstein is a baker, cook, and educator, who studied bread baking at the French Culinary Institute in New York City, and has cooked lots of other things at lots of other places.
Hi everyone, and welcome to the bread-baking club. Think of this as a safe space, committed to talking about—and demystifying—your breads and doughs. It's a vast world with a whole lot of potential for experimentation, but the root of the problem is this: Yeast, mysterious and giving, seems to scare the crap out of people.
To end! (Please don't stop reading. I had to, just this once.) But in all seriousness, why should it be so scary? People started making bread a long time ago, before computers, bicycles, and shrink-wrapping existed. Our grandparents knew how to make it, and theirs too. Bread is one of humanity's oldest crafted foods, after all, and making great bread for yourself isn't just possible, it's often relaxing and delicious...plus it just so happens to keep your apartment nice and toasty come wintertime.*
Best Bread Recipes
Our goal is to break down some of the basics of the techniques, chemistry, and superstition behind great bread, and make the whole idea of getting your hands in some dough a little less intimidating. This column isn't about baking the
I want to start with a look at the four major stages of bread baking that we're going to be working with throughout this series:
These pillars are going to be our template, and as we work through bread formulas together, they're all going to fit roughly into this framework, or we're going to demand to see their hall-passes. Along the way, we're going to talk about some of the vocabulary bakers use to talk to each other in the wee hours of the morning. WTF is a bread formula and who-the-sh*t is proofing? You'll know the ins and outs soon enough.
The Best Bread Recipe {step By Step!}
And speaking of formulas, our first formula is going to be our workhorse: a tasty, crusty, airy, middle-of-the-road loaf that's so versatile you can shove seeds into it or make it into a rye. This bread is delicious as-is, and it'll be a great starting point for trying out your own ideas, making pan loaves or hearth loaves, French toast, bread crumbs, garlic bread, or a classic PB&J.
The Workhorse loaf is white bread done plain and simple, with no frills. The following, four-ingredient formula yields two crusty hearth loaves with a nice, open crumb. It uses all white flour, and only calls for commercial yeast...for now. We'll get into the weird stuff in later posts.
A formula? Is it the same as a recipe? Almost. It's like a recipe, but it's based on ratios (the percentages listed next to our weights above), not finite amounts. Why is this helpful? It's important for two main reasons. First, it makes scaling a recipe up or down really easy. Some days at work, I need to make two loaves of this bread; some days I might need a dozen. Memorizing the ratios in a formula allows me to easily make the amount of bread I want. Second, if we think of bread recipes in ratios,
Easy White Sandwich Bread
, it makes it easier to compare different kinds of bread with each other based on how much of each ingredient is present relative to the others—regardless of how many loaves we're making at once. As we get more practice looking at these ratios, it will allow us to alter a bread's formula to achieve certain qualities in the bread. It will also allow us to look at new formulas and have an idea of what it should feel and look like as we move through the process before we even start baking. That means fewer failed experiments.
And that's just about all you need to get started—well, that and some essential bread-baking equipment, including a stand mixer, bench scraper, and some kind of oven-safe, lidded dish to bake it in.
Dutch oven with lid; digital scale; bowl scraper; bench scraper; 2 (2-pound) capacity bread proofing baskets or medium mixing bowls lined with lightly floured cloth; spray bottle filled with water.
Rustic Italian Bread An Easy Recipe That I Inherited
This recipe requires a scale to measure the ingredients—it's a far more accurate way to bake and will deliver much more consistent results. This recipe works with multiple types of yeast: choose whichever is available to you.
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2, 000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
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How To Make Homemade Bread With A Stand Mixer
Lazy lunches with soft, warm, crusty buttered bread or serve it toasted for breakfast, slathered in jam. It really is the best.
The thick sides and base of a dutch oven help to ensure even baking of the bread, whilst also providing a sealed environment to trap in steam. It's this steam that helps bread to rise to it's full potential (with a little support from the sides of the pan).
The steam helps to prevent the crust from setting on the bread right away. If the crust sets immediately, then the bread can't rise and you get a heavy, dense loaf.
Crusty Bread Stand Mixer Recipe Kitchenaid, 48% Off
The lid is removed for the last 10-15 minutes of baking to allow that crust to crisp up and turn beautifully golden.
As you can see in the comparison image below, the column on the right shows the results of baking the bread free-form on a flat baking sheet, with a water bath in the oven.
The seam still opened up quiet nicely (the steam from the water bath helps with that) and the flavour was still very good, but the bread was a little more dense and the crust was more crunchy - this is likely because the bread is exposed directly to the heat of the oven, rather than being protected in the pan.
Amazon.com: Kitchenaid® Bread Bowl With Baking Lid,5 Quart: Home & Kitchen
So you can do your second prove in a large bowl that's been floured, but it won't get those nice rings and it will be a little flatter on top.
It will still taste great though, and will still have a crisp exterior and fluffy interior if baked in the dutch oven.
Those folds/seams we made when shaping the bread will end up as the top of the bread, as you'll be tipping the bread out (to land the other way up) onto baking parchment.
Simple Crusty White Bread Recipe
Those folds will open up slightly as the bread is baking, leaving you with a lovely slightly craggy crispy top. I got this tip from Life as a Strawberry and it works great!
Baking the loaf seam-side up also means you don't need to slash the bread with a knife to get an 'Artisan' look to the bread. I hate slashing bread, as I always worry I'm going to knock the air out of it, or I find the knife sticks and I have to drag it back out.
Added bonus: If you use a proving basket, this gives those folds a little more room (so they're not quite as compacted) during the second prove, so you'll get more of a craggy top.
Simple And Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe
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A delicious Artisan bread with a crispy crust and a soft interior. I'll show you how to get that craggy crust with or without a Dutch oven.
Yes, do the first prove covered, overnight, in the refrigerator, then remove from the fridge, shape and do the final 30-minute prove at room temperature (ensure it's a warm room or warm area of the room) before baking.
Making Bread With Mixer Deals
Kneading really helps the gluten development, which will make the bread softer and with a better rise and more 'spring'. If you don't want to knead the dough, you'll need to prove the dough overnight (rather than for an hour) to give the gluten more time to develop. See instructions above for proving overnight.
How long will it last? The bread tastes at it's best if eaten in the first 24 hours. If you know the whole loaf is going to be eaten quickly (within 10 hours or so) there's no need to cover the bread. Just place on the chopping board cut-side down (presuming you've already
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