http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/knead-not-sourdough-recipe/index.html
Terra and I love it and we haven't bought grocery store bread since. Making bread involves the following steps with a few behind the scenes explanations:
- Use a scale to weigh the dry and wet ingredients. Flour can condense overtime and a cup of flour may be anywhere from 3 to 6 oz. Using a scale also reduces clean up since you don't have to use measuring cups. You add one ingredient at a time in the mixing bowl on top of the scale and watch for the change on the reading. If you have a digital scale they typically have an auto zeroing function so you don't have to worry about doing math.
- Always sift the flour. Sifted flour has a larger air volume inside it and will make for a lighter fluffier bread.
- Mix the dry ingredients first flour, salt, and yeast and add the water on top. This reduces the mixing time needed. The water is naturally heavier than the flour and will mix down as you pour onto the flour. Try doing it the other way and you'll end up putting a lot more effort trying to mix that flour float on the top of the water down.
- Now: you have 2 options. You either have to knead the dough to relax the gluten (protein in the flour) or let time do it for you. You can let your dough mixture sit at room temperature for 20hrs and that will have the same effect as kneading. I personally don't do the kneading method because it depends a lot on your kneading skills. I find that letting time do the work for me easier and produces a consistent result time after time. If you want to let the dough sit for 20hrs then you have to use less yeast (too much yeast will cause the yeast to multiply too fast and then become relatively less active due to lack of food). Why do we want to relax the gluten anyway? Think of a balloon. The gluten is like the walls of the balloon and the yeast is gonna release gas into it. The air you incorporated originally by sifting the flour is the starting air in the balloon. If the walls of the balloon are stiff it won't expand properly and may break. If the balloon doesn't have at least a little air to start then it's all stuck onto itself and you have to blow a lot harder to start it. Cover the bread when you let it sit. Use plastic wrap and poke a few holes in it. The wrap keeps moisture in so that the dough doesn't dry up. The holes let air out as the dough rises to relief built pressure.
- Once the bread has risen to double its volume you punch it down fold it onto itself a few times. Let it sit covered for about 15 mins, shape it into a loaf, and then let it rise again. What this step does is remove very large air bubbles from the dough. Yeast is not a mobile bacteria and tends to clump in small areas. By folding the dough onto itself twice you redistribute the yeast for a more even rise.
- Once the bread has risen a second time (2 -3 hrs) slash it with a serrated knife at the top and it's ready to be baked. Here again you have 2 options. You need steam around the bread as it bakes. You can do that by either using a covered dutch oven and baking the bread inside it to trap steam escaping from the dough or add a broiler pan with a cup or two of boiling water to the bottom shelf of the oven.
For white bread bake @ 450F for 30mins. Remove dutch oven lid and bake another 10-15mins for a crispy outside.
For whole wheat bake @ 350F for 50-60mins. (Whole wheat flour contains oil and shouldn't be heated to high temperatures. This oil also prevents the formation of a crisp crust)
Why do we want steam anyway? It retards early formation of the outer crust allowing for a better rise.
Why slash? It looks nicer and the cracks you just slashed into the dough will allow the dough to rise better.
Some pictures of breads I've baked:
So what are the exact ratios and quantities of your whole wheat bread?
ReplyDeleteApart from the 2 Tbs of honey and 1 tsp of yogurt I followed the recipe to the letter. I got almost zero rise out of my bread.
Maybe colder winter weather prevents it from rising?
I know you don't think so, but if adding the normal amount of yeast (like 2 or 3tsp) to bread doesn't work after 3-4 hours unless you add warm water, then you can't expect a 1/4 tsp to work after 20hrs of cool conditions. If the yeast doesn't wake up with 3 tsp in cool water to raise a regular loaf, how can you expect a 1/4tsp to wake up and work even if you give it the required additional time. They're basically still dormant.
I'll experiment and report back.
Are you saying you just mix it and leave it there for 20 hours and it comes out as if it was kneaded? Cool, never knew that, although I do like the kneading part, good for stress relief :)
ReplyDeleteWafaa, at least for the shorter rise times, heat an oven to 50°C, turn it off and put the dough inside covered with a wet towel. Works like a charm, even in the cold German winters.
ReplyDeleteOr try the bathroom after a hot shower :)
The link for the recipe with the ratios for white bread is in this blog.
ReplyDeleteWhole wheat bread:
3/4 cup lukewarm water
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
2 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast for fast rise
1/4 tsp instant dry yeast for slow rise
2 tsp Kosher salt (Use 1.5 if table salt)
2 tbsp honey
14 oz whole wheat flour (About 3 1/2 cups)
I'm not sure how cold the water is in Lebanon right now but: Yeast will grow at optimum speed at 26-7C. It will grow at half the rate at 18C and below 9-10C it will stop growing. Based on what I just said you can figure out how much more yeast to use based on the house temperature.
Don't use yogurt in the bread with long rise times. It will slow down the yeast even more. At cold temperatures yogurt bacteria will multiply just as fast if not faster than yeast. If you started with less yeast you're gonna end up with bread full of the yogurt bacteria but not enough of the yeast.
I just looked it up online. Baker's yeast is acid sensitive while natural yeast is acid resistant. It seems leaving some yogurt overnight with baker's yeast is a sure way to weaken or kill it.
ReplyDelete