How To Bake Your Own Bread

Many people enjoy and love eating bread. However, not as many know how this simply delicious food is being made. Making bread is actually pretty simple, although a more complicated process may be needed for some special kinds of bread. But as a whole, the principles in bread making are almost universal. So now let us try and make our own bread!

You must secure all the necessary ingredients. The main ingredients are: 16 ounces of bread flour and a bit of additional for shaping, a teaspoon of instant rapid rise yeast, 2 teaspoons of salt, and filtered water at 10 ounces. If you are serving for a bigger number of people, then you might have to multiply the amount of ingredients you have to prepare.

There are also those called optional ingredients for making bread. These are the ones that you can either have on your recipe or not. Optional ingredients can be: 1/3 cup of water, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 2 teaspoons of sweetener like honey or sugar.

Functional ingredients are another kind; these ones are used to ease the baking process. These functional ingredients could be 2 quarts of hot water, 2 tablespoons of cornmeal, and a greasing agent like vegetable oil to grease the rising container.

If you are all set with the ingredients, then you can now start mixing them. Pour 5 ounces of flour, a teaspoon of yeast, bottle of water and the honey in a straight- sided container. Now loosely cover all of the mixture and refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours or overnight.

You have to do leavening, an important process in bread making which makes use of yeast. It is responsible for the foaming or gassing effect on the mixture. This effect is responsible for making the end product bread light and soft. Proper leavening needs immediate reproduction of yeast on a slow manner. Doing it slowly will deliver the right texture and flavor of the bread.

You also have to make a sponge or pre-ferment. Put it in the refrigerator and let the fermentation procedure in a slow rate. The mixture will be absorbing gasses from the yeast which leads to a supple dough in the end.

Now in a stand mixer, pour the remaining 11 ounces of flour, the rest of the yeast and salt, and the pre-ferment that you kept refrigerated. Slowly knead the mixture for 2 to 3 minutes while the dough is hooked. Cover the mixed dough for about 20 minutes using a clean kitchen towel. Now in a medium speed, knead the dough for additional 5 to 10 minutes or until it can already be pulled to a sheet and light can pass through it.

Finally, compress the dough with your knuckles and fold in a manner that it folds into itself. Roll it between your hands and put it after in an oven at 400 degrees F. Slice inch on top of dough balls and allow it to reach an internal temperature of around 210 degrees F. Remove it from the oven and leave for about 30 minutes before slicing. You are now ready to serve tasty bread.


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Making bread is actually pretty simple, although a more complicated process may be needed for some special kinds of bread. To know more about how to bake your own bread, please visit:
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