om nom nom: Bread Basics Part 2
Part 2, behind a cut for length:
BREAD: A LITTLE MORE ELABORATE
There’s a reason why plain things are called “white bread,” isn’t there? So if you want a little more oomph, here are some options that aren’t a lot more work.
1. Multi-grain. It’s actually difficult to make good 100% whole wheat bread, because white flour has more gluten, so I never make all-whole-wheat, just part. I always start with two cups of white bread flour or white AP flour and go from there. The batch of dough that’s rising now is about 2c. bread flour, 2c. white whole wheat flour, and 1c. semolina. Other suitable flours and flour-like substances: graham flour (which is kind of crunchy whole-wheat flour), cornmeal, rye flour, uncooked oatmeal, room-temperature cooked grains—either just-cooked or leftover. Or pour boiling water over some cracked wheat and let it soak for about 10-15 minutes before adding it to the bread dough. Just remember to reduce the amount of water (I usually forget and end up with batter instead of dough).
2. Semolina! It’s a miracle ingredient! Really, it absorbs moisture beautifully and makes a dough that kneads beautifully. Semolina is basically the same stuff as Cream of Wheat breakfast cereal, but I buy it in the Indian grocery store, where it’s called “sooji” and is much cheaper than in the grocery store. A white bread with semolina and with your good olive oil instead of plain cooking oil makes a nice combo—it’s nice as a round peasant-style loaf .
3. Which brings up the question of shaping. You can just chuck the dough ball into a square or round baking pan, slash the top, and let it turn into a matching loaf. Or, you can make three strands and braid them, or make thin braids and turn them into a wreath and bake the braid or wreath on a baking sheet. Or cook balls of dough on a baking sheet or in muffin cups to make rolls.
4. All the cool foodie kids make no-knead bread, but I don’t because the recipe calls for a very wet dough, a very long rise (overnight, or overnight in the refrigerator) and then baking in a pre-heated dutch oven. I do not throw things into very hot metal pots in very hot ovens. However, I do sometimes bake bread in a well-greased and NOT pre-heated dutch oven (I unscrew the plastic knob in the lid and then put it back after the pan has cooled) because it gives you a good crust.
5. Sweetener—you don’t need it, and French bread doesn’t have sugar either, but sometimes I throw in a little brown sugar or some rice syrup. Rice syrup is very sticky, and it’s moist, so reduce the amount of water if you use rice syrup (or agave, or honey). If you happen to have molasses around, a blend of, say, 3 white bread flour, 1c whole wheat flour, and 1 c cornmeal plus a slosh of molasses = anadama bread.
6. You can’t really make proper baguettes in a home oven, because you need steam injection, but you can get W-shaped pans with troughs (or make something similar out of heavy aluminum foil) and make sort-of-baguettes—start with a slightly hotter oven, then reduce the temperature; check for doneness after about half an hour.
7. Pizza! All-white-flour dough, or white + semolina, or part-whole wheat, or a little cornmeal for crunch . For personal-sized pizzas, take a lump of dough about the size of a fist and stretch it out, leaving a rim around the edge. My favorite trick is to preheat the oven as hot as it’ll go, for at least half an hour—and then pre-cook the bottom of each round of pizza dough on top of the stove in a non-stick frying pan for a couple of minutes, then put on the sauce and toppings and cook it in the hot oven for about 10-15 minutes.
8. After you’ve made bread for a while, you’ll be able to knead a stickier dough. The key to lighter, less stodgy bread is a properly moist dough. In fact, sometimes I don’t put in enough flour to get a kneadable dough, just enough to make a batter, which I whack away at for a few minutes with a wooden spoon.
9. Flatbread! Either doing it deliberately (spread the dough out thinly in a large pan, or break off pieces of dough, flatten them into rounds, and cook them on the top of the stove in a frying pan or on a griddle) or accidentally. Sometimes your dough just doesn’t get the rise you want. You can throw it in the refrigerator, leave it there for another 10-12 hours, let it warm up to room temperature and see if it rises THEN. Or just give up, bake it (it may need extra time to cook through) and slice it thin. If all else fails, slice it in half or thirds horizontally, then slice the pieces vertically into squares or rectangles.
10. GF! If you’re going to do gluten-free baking, you really need scales. However, as the “Ratio Rally” (check out the GlutenFreeGirl blog for information) shows, you can use your scales to mix up one or more blends of gluten-free flours, then simply use that blend to substitute for the all-purpose, bread flour, or whole-wheat flour in a standard, non-GF recipe. Which is not to say that the results will be the same, just that you can make bread, rolls, cupcakes, cookies, crepes, etc. in your own kitchen that are a lot cheaper and probably a lot tastier than the exorbitantly priced commercial GF products.
BREAD: A LITTLE MORE ELABORATE
There’s a reason why plain things are called “white bread,” isn’t there? So if you want a little more oomph, here are some options that aren’t a lot more work.
1. Multi-grain. It’s actually difficult to make good 100% whole wheat bread, because white flour has more gluten, so I never make all-whole-wheat, just part. I always start with two cups of white bread flour or white AP flour and go from there. The batch of dough that’s rising now is about 2c. bread flour, 2c. white whole wheat flour, and 1c. semolina. Other suitable flours and flour-like substances: graham flour (which is kind of crunchy whole-wheat flour), cornmeal, rye flour, uncooked oatmeal, room-temperature cooked grains—either just-cooked or leftover. Or pour boiling water over some cracked wheat and let it soak for about 10-15 minutes before adding it to the bread dough. Just remember to reduce the amount of water (I usually forget and end up with batter instead of dough).
2. Semolina! It’s a miracle ingredient! Really, it absorbs moisture beautifully and makes a dough that kneads beautifully. Semolina is basically the same stuff as Cream of Wheat breakfast cereal, but I buy it in the Indian grocery store, where it’s called “sooji” and is much cheaper than in the grocery store. A white bread with semolina and with your good olive oil instead of plain cooking oil makes a nice combo—it’s nice as a round peasant-style loaf .
3. Which brings up the question of shaping. You can just chuck the dough ball into a square or round baking pan, slash the top, and let it turn into a matching loaf. Or, you can make three strands and braid them, or make thin braids and turn them into a wreath and bake the braid or wreath on a baking sheet. Or cook balls of dough on a baking sheet or in muffin cups to make rolls.
4. All the cool foodie kids make no-knead bread, but I don’t because the recipe calls for a very wet dough, a very long rise (overnight, or overnight in the refrigerator) and then baking in a pre-heated dutch oven. I do not throw things into very hot metal pots in very hot ovens. However, I do sometimes bake bread in a well-greased and NOT pre-heated dutch oven (I unscrew the plastic knob in the lid and then put it back after the pan has cooled) because it gives you a good crust.
5. Sweetener—you don’t need it, and French bread doesn’t have sugar either, but sometimes I throw in a little brown sugar or some rice syrup. Rice syrup is very sticky, and it’s moist, so reduce the amount of water if you use rice syrup (or agave, or honey). If you happen to have molasses around, a blend of, say, 3 white bread flour, 1c whole wheat flour, and 1 c cornmeal plus a slosh of molasses = anadama bread.
6. You can’t really make proper baguettes in a home oven, because you need steam injection, but you can get W-shaped pans with troughs (or make something similar out of heavy aluminum foil) and make sort-of-baguettes—start with a slightly hotter oven, then reduce the temperature; check for doneness after about half an hour.
7. Pizza! All-white-flour dough, or white + semolina, or part-whole wheat, or a little cornmeal for crunch . For personal-sized pizzas, take a lump of dough about the size of a fist and stretch it out, leaving a rim around the edge. My favorite trick is to preheat the oven as hot as it’ll go, for at least half an hour—and then pre-cook the bottom of each round of pizza dough on top of the stove in a non-stick frying pan for a couple of minutes, then put on the sauce and toppings and cook it in the hot oven for about 10-15 minutes.
8. After you’ve made bread for a while, you’ll be able to knead a stickier dough. The key to lighter, less stodgy bread is a properly moist dough. In fact, sometimes I don’t put in enough flour to get a kneadable dough, just enough to make a batter, which I whack away at for a few minutes with a wooden spoon.
9. Flatbread! Either doing it deliberately (spread the dough out thinly in a large pan, or break off pieces of dough, flatten them into rounds, and cook them on the top of the stove in a frying pan or on a griddle) or accidentally. Sometimes your dough just doesn’t get the rise you want. You can throw it in the refrigerator, leave it there for another 10-12 hours, let it warm up to room temperature and see if it rises THEN. Or just give up, bake it (it may need extra time to cook through) and slice it thin. If all else fails, slice it in half or thirds horizontally, then slice the pieces vertically into squares or rectangles.
10. GF! If you’re going to do gluten-free baking, you really need scales. However, as the “Ratio Rally” (check out the GlutenFreeGirl blog for information) shows, you can use your scales to mix up one or more blends of gluten-free flours, then simply use that blend to substitute for the all-purpose, bread flour, or whole-wheat flour in a standard, non-GF recipe. Which is not to say that the results will be the same, just that you can make bread, rolls, cupcakes, cookies, crepes, etc. in your own kitchen that are a lot cheaper and probably a lot tastier than the exorbitantly priced commercial GF products.