Bread Baking is a fun and easy way to make homemade baked goods. It’s also a great way to save money and have something fresh, tasty and healthy for your family to enjoy.
Basic Ingredients and Techniques
The basic ingredients you need to make bread are flour, water, salt, and a levain – either yeast or sourdough. Together, these 4 ingredients create a structure in the dough that will allow it to rise and develop flavour. The structure and rise are a function of the yeast, which produces carbon dioxide gas during the mixing process. The kneading, time and temperature are used to further perfect the structure and rise of the bread.
Kneading:
During the kneading process, air bubbles are introduced into the dough to give it texture and flavour. The kneading also introduces elasticity into the dough, which helps keep it light and fluffy during baking.
Proofing the Yeast:
Before mixing the dough, you should proof the yeast in the water to ensure that it’s active. This is the first step in the kneading and baking process, and it’s essential to get it right!
Weigh the Flour:
If you don’t have a food scale, measure your flour in small batches. This will help prevent you from over or under-using it and will make your dough less sticky.
Shape the Dough:
Once you’ve mixed all of your ingredients, it’s time to shape your dough. Whether it’s in the form of a loaf, a bun or a pizza, this step is important. This gives your bread strength to rise in the oven, and will give it a nice shape once it’s baked.