Bread Series: Get It Together!

(”It” meaning your bread ingredients)

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a bread post here. I totally left you all hanging, oopsies. That just means, you’ve had extra time to go out and pick up some yeast. Don’t you dare tell me you’re still scared of yeast. We’re all friends remember?

Okay, it’s time to combine our ingredients. Below are a few super simple tips that will help you create your bread dough with ease.

Use a Food Scale

When you measure out ingredients by volume (cups, tablespoons, etc.), there is a margin of error. For example, say you are measuring flour in 1/2 cup increments. Depending on how you scoop it, one 1/2 cup could come out to be 2.4 oz. while another one could come out to be 2.8 oz. Do that 6 times and you could be off by a whopping 2.4 oz.!

When you measure by weight, you can get exact measurements. 3 oz. of flour is 3 oz. of flour…period. Every book I’ve opened has emphasized the importance of using a scale. While it’s NOT absolutely necessary to bake bread, it’s a good idea to have one so you have more control over the different variables.

*If you don’t have a food scale, you can still bake yeast bread. Don’t use that as an excuse!

.

Measure Out Your Flour Beforehand

That way you know how much flour you’ve used at any point in time. You don’t want to take out flour directly from the bag and add it to your dough while kneading because then you don’t know how much flour you’ve used in total. It IS possible to add too much flour and if you lose track of how many scoops you’ve added, you’re in trouble.

Mesure it out first and you can’t go wrong!

.

Don’t Add All of Your Flour at Once

That way you can gradually add more flour while kneading the dough. If you dump all the flour into the mixing bowl from the very beginning, you may get stuck with too dry of a dough. Add most of the flour and then set aside the last bit. You can always add more later…

I usually measure out all of the flour minus ~4 oz. to combine with the other dry ingredients. Then I set aside the remaining 4 oz. of flour in a measuring cup. I add this in small increments to the dough while kneading.

.

Don’t Be Afraid of Sticky Dough

Sticky whole grain bread dough is okay. Just don’t wash your bowl with a sponge, because you will ruin it! Bread dough made with whole grain flour can be especially sticky. Don’t add more flour to whole grain yeast bread to make it smooth or else your bread will be heavy and dry. Embrace the stickiness.

Be sure to grease your hands, the bowl and the loaf pan very well.

.

Add Nuts and Fruit in After the First Rise…Sometimes

Some books recommend adding the nuts and fruit after the first rise because the sugar can inhibit yeast growth. I have always added them directly to the bread dough while kneading, but if the recipe you are using tells you to wait, you should probably wait.

.

Measure Out Spices and Salt

Usually when I bake, I think the more cinnamon, the better. However, with bread dough, it’s different. Spices like cinnamon and garlic slow down yeast growth so you don’t want to add too much!

Other Tidbits

• Don’t eliminate the salt because your bread will taste flat if you do
• If you’re not used to the flavor of whole grain flour, try using orange juice as the liquid
• Bread dough needs more water/liquid when the air is dry

***

Next, we’ll talk about what to do before finally getting the bun in the oven. We’e almost to the finish line, I can smell the yeasty goodness!

Previous instructional bread posts:

• Holla, I made Challah!
• The Bread Baking Chronicles Chapter 2
• The Bread Baking Questions Continue
• Practice Makes Delicious
• Yeast is Beast

Tell me: Do you measure ingredients precisely or do you fudge it here and there?

Confession: I actually fudge a lot of measurements because it means less time and less dishes (which means even lesser time). I eyeball a lot of measurements, even when I bake! That’s the beauty of a scale, you can add ingredients to the same bowl without having to use various cups and spoons.