How to make great bread

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by Juie White

For years I managed to avoid making bread because I had a fear of cooking with yeast, a living organism, thinking it was too temperamental to master. But with the price of good quality bread getting rather expensive, I decided to face my fears and give it a go.

How wrong was I all those years? What have I been missing? There is simply nothing better than the smell of bread baking in the oven and nothing healthier and tastier than bread you make yourself.

Today, many commercial breads have been so processed with many refined flours and additives and quite a far cry from the ‘bread & butter’ basic sustenance food of years gone by. The only ingredients listed on any bought bread should be flour, water, salt & yeast. Nothing more, nothing less.

See our delicious Soy Linseed Bread recipe here.

Rules for bread-making
All you need to do is follow a few basic rules whether making by hand or by machine, and it’s as easy as ‘pie’.
In fact, much easier because there’s a lot of just ‘rest in a warm place’ times and once I’ve found the spot for the dough, I can snuggle in with a good book, a low fat hot chocolate and have a rest myself!

1. QUALITY FLOUR: Good quality BREAD flour, which has a higher protein content than normal cake or white flour. Don’t try and make it with anything else or you’ll be disappointed.

2. ACCURACY: Make sure you measure everything exactly. Weigh the water - it's more accurate this way, particularly if you’re like me and can't read the side of a measuring jug without glasses, which at this stage are usually covered in flour!
1 ml = 1 gram.

3. KNEADING: this is the massaging which distributes yeast evenly through your dough, developing the gluten which will make your loaf rise and at the same time firm up those ‘tuckshop arms’. By hand it takes about 10-20 minutes, the longer the better for both of you, so don’t give in too early. Press the dough with the heels of your hand away from you, then fold it over towards you, turn a quarter turn and repeat. Remove a small piece of dough and gently pull both sides out to form a ‘window’. If it stretches without breaking, it's ready, if it doesn’t stretch easily and breaks, then keep kneading.

4. PROVE the dough by resting in a warm, draught-free place to allow it to rise. Most recipes suggest to twice its size but Gary Mehigan says half as much is sufficient. He also suggests placing the bowl in a plastic shopping bag and loosely tying to create a warm, moist and airy environment for the yeast to do its work. It should be at about 30C.
Another ideal place is in an esky or microwave with a bowl of very hot water, to provide the warm humid conditions yeast needs to do its work.

5. KNOCK BACK, punch or degas. This removes the excess air from the bread and excess stress from you.

6. REST once more, both of you, and have another cup of tea, ‘slash’ the top of the loaf with a vengeance, then bake in a hot oven.

Remember when cooking: Time bakes and temperature browns.

Remove the loaf immediately from the tin or it will go soggy, give the bottom a tap, which should sound hollow when cooked, then if you can wait long enough for it to cool a little, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do this years ago!

This is a great website for trouble-shooting any hiccups you may encounter http://laucke.com.au/baker-s-corner/troubleshooting/

See our delicious Soy Linseed Bread recipe here.