Bread Baking 101

Ready for the Oven

          Wow;  Let's see, it is the last day of the month, and this is only the second blog.  I must say it was a busy month, the first one of the year and all.  Yesterday, I tilled the garden spot.  We're in what seems like an Indian Summer.  The weather is mild, and really nice out, but winter is not over yet.  As you know from the last couple of blogs that I have always wanted to bake bread.  Those blogs show that even if you don't know what you are doing, you can still eat the bread.  So far the only bread the birds and squirrels got was the Jumbo Soft Pretzels the next day.  They were good the night I baked them, but the next day not so good.  I used to much XVOO and didn't have pretzel salt.  
           In today's blog I'm going to let you know this, there has been something wrong with every bread I've baked.  I have not yet been able to cut the top of the loaf with a razor, that it hasn't fell.  Painting the egg wash on too, has made it fall.  So even after a month, I'm still learning about yeast, water temperatures, and the chemistry of bread making.  I can say I have confidence in the kitchen, while making the breads, because they have all tasted good.  Whether you are making pizza or an olive loaf, you will enjoy what comes out of the oven.  I even saw on the Fleischmann's web site, a great video making bread with kids.  It is all mixed in a freezer bag, and if kids can do it so can the rest of us.  
            When it comes to bread rising, that is the yeast.  Louie Pasture I thought just gave us penicillin but he also gave us baker's yeast.  I started reading about sourdough, and by the way that is where I have got some great recipes.  More about that later, but sourdough is basically yeast.  To make sourdough is easy, yeast is in the air just like the mold on your bread, and so is the yeast.  Get some water about 100 degrees and flour and in 12 hours it will double in size.  In 12 hours or twice a day add flour for the yeast to feed on and in a week it will fill a swimming pool.  To keep the sourdough for baking, every time you add a cup of flour you take a cup of dough starter to bake with.  
            To me, I don't plan to bake a couple of loafs of bread every day, and 2 cups of flour to be thrown away seems like a waste.  That is how friendship breads get started, but I don't have that many friends, so in come baker's yeast.  When I first started I bought a jar of the bread machine yeast.  I've gone threw 2 jars, and every thing has been fine.  I bake breads where the recipe calls to have water at 120 to 130 degrees.  Then recipes that say anything over 100 degrees kills the yeast.  Then I have recipes that say make a yeast sponge, or to proof the yeast.  
           Well, as you can see it all gets confusing. Next after it is mixed with one recipe you let to bread rise for an hour in an oiled bowl for an hour, and in the next recipe you let it sit for 10 minutes before shaping into a loaf, then that rises for an hour.  What's more is breads don't have eggs, the a recipe has an egg.  Another recipe has 2 eggs, and even another recipe had 5 eggs and 12 egg yokes.   OK, I'm going to take all that out.  We here at Charles Kenneth's Corner we keep things simple.  When I bought my 3rd jar of yeast it said Active Dry, not Bread Machine Rapid Rise.  When I looked up the difference in them, I got a small incite.

  

           Bread machine yeast you let sit 10 minutes, then shape into loaf, let rise till double ( about an hour) then bake.  Active Dry, or baker's yeast you need to proof, or make a sponge.  To proof you put yeast in a bowl with 100 degree water.  To make a sponge just add flour.  This you let sit until rises double or 1 hour.  This part I have done with both yeast and it works just fine.  At this point you have the start of your bread.  Whether a sourdough recipe, bread machine recipe, or a recipe for yeast bread.  I do not have a bread machine nor do I want one.  I wanted to learn to make bread, not have a machine do it for me.

           The part about the 15 eggs, turns out that was for, 4 loaves of a Jewish bread and the egg yokes give it a nice yellow color.  So what I have done in the breads I bake, is reduce them to just 1 or 2 loaves of bread.  Now I'm going to leave you with a 100% Whole Wheat Recipe for one loaf of bread in a loaf pan.

2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

Yeast (2 1/4 tsp or 1 packet)

1 tlb sugar

2 tlb honey (does not have to be exact)

1 tsp salt

1 cup water ( 100 degrees)

1/4 cup milk warm

1 tlb butter ( margarine, vegetable oil, EVOO)

           Using the water, 1cup of flour, and yeast make your sponge and let sit for about 1 hour.

           In a small pot put milk, honey, and butter.  Warm to melt butter no hotter than 100 degrees.

           Combine these ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding 1/2 cup flour sugar and salt.  Mix on low speed for 4 minutes.  Take out and add flour mixing with spoon, until it starts to thicken.  Flour a spot for kneading, sprinkle the top with flour, and pour out on counter.  Start kneading by taking the heel of your hand pushing down into the dough and away from your body.  Spinning it as you knead and adding sprinkles of flour.  

           With vegetable spray, spray a bowl and place dough ball into bowl, and lightly spray the top, cover with plastic rap, and sit for 1 hour.  After it has risen punch it down a couple times letting the gases out, knead lightly again and place in baking loaf pan that has been sprayed, cover and let rise a second time.  After an hour it has risen double, place in pre-heated oven at 375 degree.  After baking for 10 minutes cover the top with tinfoil.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes total.  Check with tooth pick to see if done 

  

          Now, if you replace the 100% whole wheat flour, with all-purpose flour you get french bread, dinner rolls, or a wonderful loaf of white bread.         

Challah

          I have been asked to share this recipe.  This is a recipe I got off of Mike's web site, Sourdough.  Mike got the recipe off of Breads Bread.  Mike changed Beards recipe from using yeast, to a sourdough recipe.  Because I'm still learning about sourdough, I changed the recipe back to a yeast, recipe.  If you follow my blog you know I'm just starting to learn about breads.  I went to the Fleischmann's yeast web site, and just started baking using their recipes.  Every recipe there has heat your water to 120 -130 degrees.  When I went to Mike's web site, he says anything over 100 degrees kills the yeast.

           I have lost count of how many breads I have made.  Some where over 12 breads now, I have decided, that I'm not happy with the way they are rising.  Because of that I have been read more web sites.  By reading about the sourdough, I better understand the yeast.  Just like feeding the sourdough starter,  and the whole filling up a swimming pool in 12 days thing.  I am now back blogging.  Even though the breads I made were good.  Now, I better understand how it works. 

            In this bowl I am making a yeast sponge.  In the bowl we put 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of warm water.  I made sure it was under 100 degrees.  To this I added 2-1/4 teaspoons of yeast, which is equal to one packet.  Cover and let sit for 1 hour.  This is a Jewish Bread which has no milk, and uses Kosher salt.  Also note I added the pecans to the recipe myself.

1 cup of starter @100% hydration

(this is for a sourdough, I replaced it with the sponge)

1/2 cup water (leave this out water is in sponge)

Sift about 4 cups of flour

2 tsp. Salt

1/4 Sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg lightly beaten

2 egg yolks lightly beaten

Poppy Seeds

Sesame Seeds

1 cup pecans chopped

           The pecans I chopped up the by hand because in the chopper, it chops them up to fine.  I put these to the side.  In a large bowl I put 2 cups of flour, in the center of flour I made a ditch.  Into this I put the egg, 2 egg yolks, sugar, kosher salt, and oil.  Mixing all this with a wooden spoon, then add the sponge, and mix with the mixer on low 2 or 3 minutes.  Add flour until just before dough is formed.  Change mixer to dough hooks, or remove from mixer and stir in pecans with spoon. Turn out on floured table and knead for 6 to 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic.  Cover and let rise until triple in size.

 

           In this picture it is about double in size.  It will continue to rise until the bowl is full and touching the plastic wrap.  In the recipe of the 1920 Nut Bread I made in the past, you fold the nuts in after it has risen.  I decided I would try adding earlier this time and it worked just fine.  Guess you can do it either way.  It did seem to mix better while the batter was still wet. 

           When the dough has tripled in size, punch out the dough and pour out on flour table.  Knead briefly, then cut into 4 equal parts.  Cut one of the parts into 3 pieces and form 12" to 14" ropes.  You should have 3 small ropes and 3 thick ropes.  Take the 3 large pieces and braid, then braid the smaller ones.  Taking the side of your hand, make a dent the length of the large braid.  Brush it with water and place the smaller braid on top of the larger braid.

 

           The recipe calls for using another egg, but I added a tablespoon of water to the egg whites that were left over.  Place the loaf on a baking sheet cover in a coat of 100% Whole Wheat flour.  Paint the loaf with egg and cover with plastic wrap, let rise until double in size.  This recipe calls for baking on a baking stone, but my bread is bigger that my baking stone.  So, I just placed this baking sheet in the oven on top of the baking stone.  Hey, it worked.  Another thing that worked, was the yeast sponge, and changing the water temperature to under 100 degrees.

           Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees, with a Baking Stone or tiles this will take about 45 minutes to an hour.  When oven is ready brush loaf with egg wash again.  Bake about 35 minutes, or until golden brown.  Check the inside with toothpick.  If while baking the top cooks to fast place parchment paper or foil tent over bread.





           The picture is not that good, but the bread is great.  I hope you try this bread with or without the pecans.  I'm also sure this is one bread, that I won't be eating by myself.  As you can see I forgot to put the Poppy Seed and Sesame Seed on it.  You are suppost to put them on after the second egg wash is put on, and before you put it into the oven.  Well, there is always next time.