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BREAD TOPICS:
HOW TO
MAKE BASIC BREAD:
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 To
create a Sourdough or Sponge bread recipe with a crackly, crisp crust,
baking methods
help. The oven
temperature needs to be accurate, some form of steam is necessary and don't
forget the salt. The crisp crust found with a
French Baguette
is encouraged to form by using steam in the beginning of baking and baking
at temperatures as high as 475 degrees F. Baking
stones, sometimes referred to as pizza
stones, are heavy round or square slabs of stone and retain the heat; they
can make a tremendous difference when making sourdough bread recipes. |
 STARTER
BAKING TIPS:
SOURDOUGH BREAD PROBLEMS AND
SOLUTIONS
Baking with a starter is a complex affair
because there are many variables. A sourdough starter is particularly
complex because you are working with wild yeast and bacteria. The recipes
that always works for me are The
Sourdough Starter and The
Sponge Starter Recipes.
Before you make your starter
into dough, ALWAYS remember these two things:
- The starter has to be active;
- If a sourdough starter, take out a small
amount or your next batch; and,
- Don't forget to add salt to the bread
dough; never add it to the starter.
TO KNEAD THE DOUGH:
Kneading is important because in
bread making because it serves many purposes - developing the gluten,
redistributing the food for the yeast in the dough, stabilizing the dough's
temperature inside and releasing the excess carbon dioxide gas. However, a
sourdough bread naturally develops some gluten in the starter called
"long-kneading"; that is, do nothing and gluten strands form, but not as strong
when kneaded.
| San
Francisco style sourdough has a cracked crust which is a good sign, a sign
of a thick crusted, crispy loaf. It's caused by introducing steam during the
first 5 - 7 minutes of baking, shrinkage and subsequent cracking of the
thick, hard crust as it cools.
MORE. |
TO SHAPE A LOAF: Proper
shaping
is always important. Sourdough loaves are more free-form and use shaped pans to
achieve a certain shape. For free-form loaves, the dough on a well-floured board
or oven peel seam-side down and cover. If you are baking hearth loaves, place
your loaf into your prepared banneton, basket, or bowl seam-side up and cover.
| The ascorbic
acid is optional, but will make the bread rise faster and higher. You can
buy ascorbic acid in health food stores sold under the name of "Vitamin C
Crystals" or bulk/powdered vitamin C. |
LET RISE:
Rising:
after adding the starter to a recipe and kneading
or shaping, sourdoughs do not have to double in bulk in fermentation, as much of
their flavor happens from the active starter. A dough with an added
sourdough starter also takes longer to rise, than when using packaged or sponge
yeast, sometimes a couple of hours.
PREHEAT THE OVEN:
Place the baking stone or tiles in the oven before
preheating. Many place them on the bottom of the oven floor or on the lowest
shelf. Preheat the oven a good 45 minutes before using.
Place the loaves onto a cornmeal-dusted peel,
slash (dock) and bake. For a thick chewy "crusty" crust
use steam during the first 5 - 7 minutes of baking.
  Q:
What are those scored lines on top of my
baguette breads. Are they necessary ?
A: Called
slashing, the top is scored 3-4 times
with sharp knife, so the steam can escape during baking. |
Allow your loaf to cool completely (about 2
hours) before cutting into it. A loaf of bread is not fully flavored until
it is fully cool and it is much easier to slice cool.
HOW TO
GET A THICK AND CHEWY
"CRUSTY" CRUST:
Dough used to make
rustic breads, such as French bread,
sourdough or an Italian-style loaf,
typically have crispy outside crusts.
It is a wonderful contrast to the bread's insides, which
are soft and porous with small holes throughout, as in the case with French
bread, or chewy as in the Sourdough bread. But, how do you get a good flavorful,
well-browned crispy crust ?
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1. Use the correct ingredients and follow the necessary baking steps: |
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Use a high gluten
flour, such as bread flour.
| Bread flour,
because of its high protein content, develops a strong structure,
however follow the recipe. |
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Do not leave out the
salt.
| Salt enhances flavor
and regulates the yeast's activity. Don't add it to the starter,
instead to the bread's ingredients along with the second or third cup
of flour. |
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When kneading and
shaping the dough, use as little extra
flour as possible.
| Too much flour makes a
dry and flavorless loaf that won't rise very high. |
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After a lean dough rises,
slash
the top 3-4 times with sharp knife, cutting about 1/4 inch deep. Spray the
knife lightly with vegetable oil spray before slashing; it will prevent the
knife from dragging on the dough's surface.
| Carbon dioxide, heat
and steam, the leavening agents in a bread recipes, exert a lot of
pressure on the loaf causing it to rise and expand. Sometimes the
pressure becomes too great. Slashing makes a place for the bread to
expand during rising, instead of a blow-out happening. It is also done
for aesthetics. Historically, French rural ovens were communal, in a
sense: they were originally owned by the lord, and maintained by a
fournier, or ovenmaster, who kept the oven hot but charged for its
use. Since the bread of each household would be mixed with others in
the oven, a distinctive slash was one way to tell the loaves apart. |
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Lightly sprinkle a little
flour on top of the loaf before baking to give a rustic look. |
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2.
Replicate and use a hearth oven at home.
Rustic breads that we buy in the store, are made with a commercial hearth
oven with steam,
which creates the perfect environment during baking, critical to a crispy
crust. It is difficult to fully replicate the effects of a commercial hearth
oven at home, but we can come somewhat close. When
baking, use a regular gas or electric oven; do not use a convection oven.
While convection is great for evenly browned pastry, radiant heat results in
the color gradations and variations that are a part of what give artisan
bread its visual appeal and complex flavors. |
Make sure your oven is accurate.
| An oven thermometer,
available from the supermarket, is the best tool to use. If the oven
is not hot enough, the low heat does not adequately set the structure
of the bread which can cause the loaf to collapse and not brown
properly. On the flip side, if the heat is too hot, the loaf sets
before it fully expands and the crust burns. |
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Use a baking or pizza stone to
disperse the heat evenly.
| Flat baking stones
replicate the floor of a professional oven, where loaves are set
directly to promote a crisp and brown crust. When both the oven and
stone are from preheating, I place the bread dough on top of the
stones to bake. Sometimes, you may need to preheat the stone a bit
longer to get it really hot. To check, drop some water on top, and if
it dances, its done -- never touch the hot stone directly ! |
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Steam in the oven is crucial to making a
crusty loaf of bread ONLY for the first 5 - 7 minutes, until the bread
begins to brown. It keeps the outer dough
layer of the bread flexible and moist so it can expand to its fullest. Steam
also also gelatinizes the starch on the outside layer and after it is
removed, this layer dries out forming a thick crunchy crust that browns
nicely. Commercial
bakers inject steam into the oven with special equipment. But, at home, we
have to create our own: My
favorite way to create steam in a home oven, is with a jelly-roll pan filled
with water. Before preheating the oven, place a jelly-roll pan on the bottom
of the oven. Preheat the oven. While the oven pre-heats, spray the bread all
over with water. Don't spray too much as it will cause the loaf to not rise
as high during baking. Immediately place the bread dough in the oven to
bake. Fill hot pan with 1/2 to an inch of hot water causing an immediate
burst of steam. Close the oven door and do not open for at least 10 minutes.
Leave the pan in the oven and remove when the oven has cooled.
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The proper storage is critical to keeping your loaf's crust crispy.
 As
soon as the bread begins to cool on the cooling rack, the bread starts
to go stale. The interior of the loaf dries out and the crust starts
to absorb moisture, making it soft. To avoid, store bread in a brown
paper bag or let it just sit on the counter, unwrapped. Don't use
plastic wrap or a bag because it will soften the crust and preserve
the moist interior. |
If
the bread gets stale, moisten the outside with water, by sprinkling it
on with your hands. Heat it in a 400 degree F preheated oven for about
15 minutes. |
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SOURDOUGH BREAD PROBLEMS AND
SOLUTIONS
 MORE
BREAD BAKING TIPS
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