Bread
My new winter hobby is baking bread. I started working my way through Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Bread about six weeks ago, and am really starting to turn out some fine loaves. Someone gave me that book as a gift a while back, and I can't recall who. I read and enjoyed parts of it but it ended up on the shelf. Pity. Anyway, thank you to whomever gave that book to me for Christmas some time ago!
My bread making adventure started with the basic white sandwich bread, and went on to Cuban bread (twice because it is so good), French, and, tonight, Italian. Best yet! The Italian recipe calls for 3 cups water, so it makes a lot of dough. After adding 6 cups of flour, it was about all my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer could do to keep the dough hook moving. I finished kneading by hand, and then let it rise for 2 hours to triple volume. Second rise was 30 minutes to nearly double volume, and the loaves (round) rose again for another hour. They started out about 8" diameter by 2" high, but became quite large and really sprang up in the oven.
Some things I've learned so far:
A long mix with the flat paddle and half of the flour really develops a nice gluten network.
Keep kneading until the dough is silky smoooth. (bouncy keyboard on the iBook)
Bread dough must be softer than pizza dough. Really soft, by comparison.
Don't rush the rising. Let it go as long as it needs to get the volume you want.
Short mixing, kneading, and rising makes for tough, mealy bread.
I look forward to sharing my new hobby over the holidays in Carbondale!
s
My bread making adventure started with the basic white sandwich bread, and went on to Cuban bread (twice because it is so good), French, and, tonight, Italian. Best yet! The Italian recipe calls for 3 cups water, so it makes a lot of dough. After adding 6 cups of flour, it was about all my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer could do to keep the dough hook moving. I finished kneading by hand, and then let it rise for 2 hours to triple volume. Second rise was 30 minutes to nearly double volume, and the loaves (round) rose again for another hour. They started out about 8" diameter by 2" high, but became quite large and really sprang up in the oven.
Some things I've learned so far:
A long mix with the flat paddle and half of the flour really develops a nice gluten network.
Keep kneading until the dough is silky smoooth. (bouncy keyboard on the iBook)
Bread dough must be softer than pizza dough. Really soft, by comparison.
Don't rush the rising. Let it go as long as it needs to get the volume you want.
Short mixing, kneading, and rising makes for tough, mealy bread.
I look forward to sharing my new hobby over the holidays in Carbondale!
s
posted by Steve Grimmer at 9:28 PM
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