The Nitty Gritty of the Bread baking processes..

Greetings all !

I am kind of new in the bread baking arena. When my wife and I got
married we got a bread machine. We went crazy with it for a while ( I
am sure you know the story). It then sat dormant for a number of
years.

Now, after I was laid off from my job I took on the cooking job
( something I love to do but have not done in a while)
and have rediscovered the joy of fresh breads. I am in heaven.

I have tried a few different recipes, one of the basic breads I bake
from is an eggless french style loaf.

OK enough of that.. I find myself now gaining a desire to learn a bit
more about how different ingredients effect the overall loaf. For
instance, Milk versus water... eggs or eggless.. different varieties
of yeast.. sugar levels and its critical mass Salt .or what
determines the hardness of the crust ?... . these are the things that
have tweaked my curiosity as I would like to fine tune some varieties
of recipies I have

OK I will clam up now if anyone wants to tackle this one !

Thanks !

Mark

i am still too new to bread making to answer you properly but after you read
dick's link please come on back and chat, Lee

--
Have a wonderful day

"BrBearSFO" <[Only registered users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:[Only registered users can see links. ]...

BrBearSFO <[Only registered users can see links. ]> wrote in news:5831403d-fbed-4c04-875a-
[Only registered users can see links. ]:


If you have a good library near you, take a look for

Jeffrey Hamelman, "Bread"
Peter Reinhart, "Bread Baker's Apprentice"

Both of these have extensive sections in the front devoted to exactly the
questions you've asked.

This will save you time and effort and give you some interesting reading.

One hint. Most people want to jump right in and bake sourdough or some
exotic breads. Resist this urge. Find one simple recipe and master that
through several trials, then move on to another simple recipe.

Do this several times and you will have a few recipes you can make well and
you will have the start of a good understanding of the bread baking
process.

This is in the FAQ, but I thought I'd mention it here, in case you missed
it in the FAQ.

Barry

"BrBearSFO" wrote


Welcome aboard!


Snicker, happens.


Sorry about the job.

Fresh breadmachine bread is cheaper than store though if you keep it simple.
I make all our bread now. Samwich bread for kids lunches and all that.


Thats part of the basic set I often post here in reply for recipes.


Milk will make for a finer texture, smaller holes. No real difference in
rise. Powedered milk can be used in any recipe to ajust this. (you do not
have to adjust any other part of the recipe around it).

Eggs add 'water' but not in equal amount. They add a slightly firmer
texture and more gold coloration.

Yeast discussions can be problematic. You are specifically using a machine.
The 'active dry' or 'breadmachine yeast' or 'rapid rise' is what you want.
I have never been able to tell a difference between any of those names
although at least one web site claims there is one. I get whichever is at
BJ's in 2 lb bags and freeze it, dipping out what is needed to a side old
fleshman's jar I refill as needed.

Sugar and salt are a balancing act. salt makes the yeastie beasties sleepy,
sugar jazzes them up. Salt however is needed or the bread will not rise.
Breads can rise with no sugar but tend to be lower rise chewy sorts.

Hardness of crust can be adjusted (breadmaker machine) with addition of
fats.

On 29 Sep, 19:18, "cshenk" <[Only registered users can see links. ]> wrote:


Not always so. The original ingredients for Ciabatta included powdered
milk.


Firmer texture? Not in my experience. They add softnesss to a dough,
reducing chewiness


Bread will rise very well and very fast without salt. It will however
taste absolutely horrible.

For lean dough I do not find sugar useful (non ABM), in the case of
long fermented, low-yeast recipes it can actually be detrimental.


Not Just ABM bread

Love

John

"KingOfGlop" wrote
"cshenk" wrote:



I gotta try that one!



Oops! Correct. I got that one backwards. Thanks! Yes, when I add an egg
to my chewy italian, it gets softer.




Really? I've never had a bread machine rise without it. Learn something
new!


This probably has to do with a difference both in type of breads we
respectively make, and machine use here.

I think it's fair to say a machine (ABM) can be great, but lacks the
flexibility in types of breads of a dough hook or hand made breads. A
machine (ABM) has more flexibility than many discover, but it definately has
limits. Like the 'Rye Blob/slime' fridge epic. Thats not gonna work in a
breadmachine baking type. Just the wrong tool for it ;-)



Grin, I tend to like deep crusted chewy ones. Figured out fast that can be
adjustable!

Love, Carol

KingOfGlop <[Only registered users can see links. ]> wrote in
news:[Only registered users can see links. ]:


Salt isn't necessary for yeast to rise, witness the Tuscan bread without
salt. In fact, if you omit the salt, the bread may rise too far and too
fast. Salt also toughens the dough, so that a dough with too much salt
won't rise as well as one with the proper amount.

Sugar is a mixed blessing at best. As Harold McGee says in "On Food and
Cooking," page 305, first edition,

"As we have seen, sugar will, in moderate amounts, increase yeast
fementation by providing the cells with additional food, while in higher
concentrations typical of raised sweet breads, it will inhibit
fermentation by upsetting the cells' water balance. Sugar can also
affect the development of gluten. It is hygroscopic and competes with
the flour proteins for the available water; For this reason, high-sugar
doughs take longer to form and develop. The same characteristic causes
the final product to be moister, tenderer, and to stay that way longer,
since moisture leaves the bread less readily when sugar is there to
absorb it. finally, sugar enhanvces browning reactions and will make
for a darker crust in a given baking period. This, too, may make for a
moister loaf if it causes the cook to take the bread from the oven
somewhat earlier than usual."

The fact that most classic lean breads have no sugar in them tells me
that sugar isn't needed except in the sweet doughs. I would guess that
sugar goes into the bread machine recipes to quicken the dough
development and hide any possible mistakes or programming errors in the
operting system or aging of the components..

Barry

Somewhere on teh intarwebs cshenk wrote:

Heh! I was waiting for clarification of this but I see none.

For the mentally challenged, could you please tell me [errr.. them] exactly
in which way is the hardness of the crust effected by fats or oils? More oil
= deeper crust or vice-versa?

I haven't experimented with this myself yet and you could save me the
trouble if either one of you'd care to be less cryptic. <grin>
--
Cheers,
Shaun.

"Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's
warm for the rest of his life." Terry Pratchet, 'Jingo'.

Greetings all !

Greetings All !

I apologize I hit the enter button a bit faster than I desired. To be
honest I have not had the time to get to the library to search through
the bread encyclopedias everyone suggested. I have however found some
of the answers to my issues.

First, One of my issues was a bad batch of yeast which was the type
that comes in a 3 section foil pack. After I switched to another jar,
my flat top issues ceased.
Next I turned my attention to the issues of the softness/density /
elasticity of the crum. I found that by changing to Milk instead of
water, that the fat content changed and the crumb AND the crust were
softer. The crumb was more airy and the holes in the crumb were much
smaller consistency less heavy.

Today, I discovered that I accidently used the last of the milk in my
coffee and so.. I had none for the bread I was making. Instead I used
about 1/3 Heavy cream, and 2/3 warm water to the mix. It was a
wonderful loaf.

I have been working with one singular recipe and tweaking /
experimenting as I go and learning more about each ingredient as I
have progressed.

This is just terrible.. my wife may not ever let me out of the kitchen
if I persist in this action !!!

HA

Mark