THE ART OF BREAD MAKING
Bread is one of our most fundamental foods, and it originated in a primitve form several thousands of years ago. Back in these days, it was simply a flat cake of crushed grains mixed with water, and baked on hot stones. The first bread with yeast probably came about by a mistake. It happened in the ancient Egypt when one "unfortunate" baker happened to leave his bread unbaked overnight out in the open air. Since a lot of yeast moulds fly around in the air they apparently got stuck to the bread and started to ferment it and of course to grow it in size. The yeast simply eat the starch and sugars in the bread and convert it to gas (carbon dioxide) that creates the bubbles in the dough. Then it was just a matter of baking the dough to fix the air bubbles and to make the dough edible. This ancient technique has survived til our days, although we don't use wild yeasts anymore. However, you can utilize the wild yeasts by using fermenté, which simply means that you squeeze out some fresh sweet fruit juice and basically leave it to ferment on its own - the yeasts are flying in the air around you (unless you live in a steric environment) and will get into the juice and start to ferment it. This so-called fermenté can then be used to make a bread. This process takes a few days of waiting though, so plan ahead!
What is important in bread making? Several things, but let's start with the ingredients before moving on to the technique of bread making.
Flour
Bread flour comes in several labels and qualities. The best brown bread flour is probably malted wheat flour, which gives a moist interior in the bread. Other flours like wholewheat or wholemeal flours are a blend of brown flours and can also be used for bread making. They are ground on a traditional millstone, from whole grains - nothing removed, nothing added. Sometimes, wholewheat flours are actually reconstituted from bleached flour and bran/germ that has been initially removed during the milling provess. There are also wheatmeal flours, the ones that give a nice tasty crust, which are flours from which only the bran has been removed (they are therefore paler and lighter than wholewheat flours). One can also remove bran and germ, thereby most of the nutritional components, and get a white flour, and such flour gives a light bread that deteriorates quickly and has to be eaten fresh. Anyway, the best bread flour, if you want a brown bread, is the flour made of wheat that has been left to germinate for a while. During germination, more sugars are released in the grains, and the flour gets the typical sweet nutty taste that people enjoy in a bread.
What is really important is to choose flour that is labeled strong, since strong flours contain more gluten - the proteins that give a nice light structure and good rise in bread. Strong flours come from grains that have been cultivated in a short hot and dry season. Other flours (that is, not strong) are not suitable for bread making, but they are good for cakes.
Besides wheat flour, also barley and rye flours can be used for making breads. The problem with both of these is that they don't contain much gluten, which will affect the texture and rise of the bread. Consequently, breads that are made solely of these flours are dense, although they do have a different and still enjoyable flavor. Some gluten intolerant people can eat such breads. For the rest of us, we can use barley and rye flours together with wheat flour for the best effect. Barley will add more sweetness to our bread, while rye will provide more of the nice nutty flavor.
Salt
Without salt bread would not taste as good as it can possibly taste. Salt is a universal seasoning agent, and a very simple one indeed, but how effective then. But salt is not only for the taste, it also helps produce a better texture in the bread by making the structure-stabilizing gluten proteins stronger. How does the gluten work? During the dough making, gluten proteins are entangled in networks and stretched out, progressively, as we knead the dough. When we bake the bread, the gluten proteins of course will have to stretch even more as the bread grows, however, if there is not ample amount of salt in the bread, the bread will start tearing instead of stretching. Salt simply makes the dough more elastic. And you usually want a more elastic structure than a cemented teared texture.
Salt also gives the bread more freshness and helps to develop a nice color of the crust. One of the more important things however is that salt inhibits the growth and fermentation in the bread that is done by the yeast. You might have noticed that if you mix yeast with salt they will dissolve into a slimy mass. That's how effective salt is. Also for this reason, you cannot add the salt too early during the dough making as it will affect the yeast too much. It is best to add the salt after you have mixed the yeast with flour. In other words, never mix salt directly with the yeast! Salt will make sure that the yeast will not overwork the dough, that is, they will not consume too much sugar in the dough and will therefore not overferment. How much salt is needed? About 2% of the flour weight is alright. Use the finely crushed table salt (not the big sea salt crystals or milled salt, as the particles are just too big and will not get dissolved sufficiently if you mix them with the dough).
Yeast
Yeast are the living microscopic organisms that eat starch and sugar for energy, and release carbon dioxide (gas), which makes the dough rise and filled with gas pockets. This process is called fermentation. There are some points to consider on using yeast. If you make a pre-fermented dough (fermenté or sour dough) on your own, and then just complement it with some fresh yeast, then the bread will assume a totally different flavor sensation, giving some sourness and more complexity. A fermenté is simple to make, you just let freshly squeezed fruit juice with high natural sugar content ferment in the air, before making dough out of it (we'll cover that in more detail soon).
When you buy fresh yeast, make sure to store it in the refrigerator in the lowest possible temperature. Also make sure that they don't dry out, so cover them fairly tightly. When you use fresh yeast you need to dissolve them in water or milk that has been heated up to body temperature (that's where they are most active). You can also use dry yeast, but you need to wake them up from their sleep with a little heat shock, so dissolve them in a slightly warmer liquid. Use about half as much dry yeast as you use fresh yeast if you want to substitute.
Water
The last necessary and basic ingredient in bread is water. There is really not much to say about water - just make sure it is not too hot or it will kill the yeast. Fresh yeast like body temperature best, while the dried yeast need a few degrees hotter temperature. Above 50 C/122 F is really bad for the yeast so avoid going that high. Yeast also proliferate and ferment in temperatures lower than body temperature, which is why the dough rises even if it's quite cold. It just takes more time!
The dough making
Dough making can be done either manually or in a special dough machine that is equipped with a dough hook and revolves and mixes the dough. You can use whichever you prefer, just make sure that the dough is worked sufficiently well. In the process of dough making, the step of combining ingredients into a homogenous mass is just an initial step. The other step, that some people tend to ignore, is the real kneading and working of the dough. This is essentially a longer process, although so important for the final result of bread making. During the prolonged kneading the gluten proteins take up water molecules and swell, which makes the dough more bulky. Gluten also becomes stretched in long networks which gives a nice texture with plenty of air pockets, and not a cement block. Since this process takes some while to complete, it may be preferable to use a machine. If the costs are too high, you can still use your hands although it will take a longer time.
Proving the dough
Once you have worked the dough into an elastic, voluminous mass, you now have to set it aside at room temperature, cover with a damp towel, and let the yeast start to do their job. You need to let the dough rise by at least two-thirds, possibly longer, so it becomes fairly elastic. You need to time the proving well to get the best bread possible. A quick test to see if the dough has risen well enough is to press a finger into it and watch the reaction of the dough. If it is fairly easy to press and when it returns halfways to its previous form then it is right on time. If the dough collapses then it is overfermented, and the yeast have become exhausted.
Knocking back the dough
Once you've got the correctly risen (proven) dough it is time to knock it down and expunge the gas pockets. In other words, time to knead the dough again! You just need to do it briefly though, for about 2-3 minutes, or just as long as the gas has been expelled and the dough has a nice elastic relaxed feel to it. Now it is time to shape the dough! You can also just fold back the dough gently, pressing out all the air in it. Some chefs are more careful here and don't consider 'violent' kneading the best way to redistribute yeast and nutrition.
Making loaves
After knocking back the bread dough, you can now shape it into loaves or into rolls, or whatever form you like it to be. Bread loaf needs a longer baking time, but this extra time of heating will also develop a nice tasty crust. When you shape the bread, make sure that you make it quite small. Remember that the gas in the dough is gone now, but you will put it to proving once again and so it will rise once more (it will also rise a bit in the oven). Place the shaped breads in special baking tins or on a baking paper, whichever is appropriate. Cover with a towel and let them rise again, also about two-thirds and to the same texture as in the first proving. Preheat the oven now and wait for the final step.
Baking
Dust the bread with flour or some other "garnish" and put it into the oven. Also, pour out a little water on the bottom of the oven. This water will evaporate and create a certain amount of water steam that will help the bread develop a nice crust. Once the bread is baked, remove it from the oven and test if it's really OK - tap it on the bottom and make sure you hear a hollow sound. If you hear a dull sound, it has not been thoroughly baked so put it back in the oven. Now you have your bread - make sure to eat it as fresh as possible, because breads tend to deteriorate quickly. You can also freeze your bread although it will lose some of its flavor and texture.
Now that we have discussed the how-to of bread making, it is time to get some things done! Here are some basic recipes for the most basic types of bread, and you can modify them as you wish (just make sure you don't miss on the guidelines we stated previously).
First of all, let's mention the fermenté or sour dough. It is simple to make, altough it takes a few days of waiting, but it will give your bread some good flavor and life. Fermenté is made by squeezing out juice of one grapefruit (or other fruit that has a high sugar content - the food of the yeast) into a bowl and letting it stand for 3-4 days in room temperature. That's it - just let it stand aside and soon the yeasts will fly into the juice and start to proliferate and ferment the juice. It is a good idea to place the bowl in a slightly warmer place than room temperature, so the process will be faster, and also to stir it once in a while to redistribute the nutrition in the liquid. Add some water to the juice if there is a substantial loss of volume. Once the juice is fermented (you can tell from the yeasty smell) add about 1 1/2 part of flour and about 1/10 of fresh yeasts to the juice and mix everything thoroughly into a smooth dough. Then, leave to rest for another day in a warm place. The day after and for the next couple of days the fermenté can be used in the bread making. You need about 150 g/5 oz fermenté for a distinguished flavor (see recipes below).
Just to avoid confusion, let's make a calculation of ingredient quantities used for a typical fermenté (will give about 400 g/13 oz, which is enough for two bread loaves, and you can bake them on the subsequent days):
150 mL/5 fl oz fruit juice
250 g/9 oz white flour
12 g/ 1/3 oz of fresh yeast
An example recipe for a nice brown crusty loaf of bread follows:
15 g/ 1/2 oz fresh yeast (or about half as much dry yeast)
350 g/12 oz good brown bread flour (e.g. a blend of white flour and wholewheat flour, either bought in or mixed at home)
150 g/5 oz fermenté (you can add more if you wish)
20 g/0.7 oz softened butter
180 mL/6 fl oz water
2 tsp salt
Dissolve the yeast in warm water - body temperature for fresh yeast, and slightly warmer for dried yeast. In a bowl where you will mix the dough, bring together flour, fermenté and butter, then add the yeast water and mix on low speed for 5 minutes. Then add salt and mix for another 2 minutes, so the salt mixes well with the dough. The dough should be fairly elastic and smooth. Adjust with more flour or water if necessary, but make sure you work the dough well enough. It takes more time if you do it by hand.
Now put the dough in a bowl, cover with a towel, and set aside in room temperature. The dough must now rise by about two-thirds and it should be tested for how much the yeast have worked (see the previous pages). Preheat the oven now, turn it on the high heat, around 230 C or more (450 F). The small problem about the ovens is that they are all different. Commercial ovens will bake the bread faster, while the typical home ovens are slower. Anyway, turn on the heat and meanwhile knock back the dough and shape it into a loaf or into rolls. Then place them in a baking tin or on a baking paper, cover with a towel, and rise one more time until the dough has nearly doubled its volume. By then, the oven should be ready so just put the bread in the oven and bake it. Home ovens will probably take about 40 minutes for a bread loaf and 15 minutes for rolls. Commercial ovens may do the job in half of that time. When done, remove from the oven and allow the bread to cool on a wire rack (to prevent water condensation on the bottom side of the bread) before you serve it.
White bread is made in a similar way, but the ingredients are slightly different. Use less fermenté and only white flour. An example:
15 g/ 1/2 oz fresh yeast
150 mL/5 fl oz water
250 g/9 oz white flour
90 g/3 oz fermenté (or less)
1 tsp salt
Otherwise, follow the procedure described above for brown bread making.