Read Online Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients by Zoe Francois, Jeff Hertzberg MD - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Zoe Francois, Jeff Hertzberg MD
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loaves off with a dough scraper (see Equipment ), especially for pita bread). Mostly, though, the choice of grain on the pizza peel is a matter of taste. We’ve used Malt-O-Meal cereal or oatmeal in a pinch, and Zoë’s mom once used grits! Rice flour, commonly used in gluten-free baking, is particularly slippery and makes a great choice. And you can substitute parchment paper for any of these grains, provided that you peel it off for the last third of the baking time.
Problems and Frequently Asked Questions from Readers
“MY LOAVES AREN’T RISING MUCH ON THE COUNTER AFTER SHAPING.”
After being shaped, our breads don’t rise as much on the counter as loaves made from traditional (nonstored) dough. The success of our approach depends on keeping the dough wet (so it doesn’t resist bubble expansion as much), and handling the dough as little as possible to preserve the bubbles created in the initial rise in the bucket at room temperature. Our loaves get proportionally more rise from “oven spring” than from “proofing” (proofing is the rise you see while the formed loaves are resting/rising at room temperature). Oven spring is the sudden expansion of gas bubbles in the dough during the first minutes in the oven. You can almost see the loaf popping up if you have a glass window in your oven. So, if you’re disappointed in how much (or how little) rise you get on the counter from formed loaves, don’t despair! Oven spring will make up for the difference. If you aren’t getting good oven spring, check your dough consistency and rise time .
“MY LOAVES STUCK TO THE PIZZA PEEL WHEN I TRIED TO SLIDE THEM OFF.”
Sometimes a loaf, pizza, or flatbread will stick to the peel, especially if it has rested too long (pizzas in particular should not sit for long before sliding into the oven). There’s a simple solution. Before attempting a slide, we always shake the peel a bit to be sure that nothing is stuck. If it moves well, you’ll be fine when you slide it into the oven. If it’s not moving well, sprinkle flour or cornmeal around the edge of the loaf and use a dough scraper to nudge some of it under the loaf, unsticking the stuck area. Now you should be able to slide the loaf easily into the oven. To prevent this, increase the amount of cornmeal or flour you’re using under your loaves, or switch to parchment paper, which is easier on cleanup. This will also help if you’re having trouble with smoking cornmeal on the stone or at the bottom of the oven. The paper slides into the oven with the bread and is peeled off two-thirds of the way through baking for best bottom crust results. We peel the paper off because most parchment products have a silicone coating that partially prevents the escape of moisture from the bottom crust into the stone, and that moisture can prevent crisping.
“MY LOAVES ARE ODDLY SHAPED.”
The loaf flattens and spreads sideways while resting on the pizza peel: Sometimes loaves expand well while resting, but too much of the expansion is sideways rather than up. If every loaf is ending up as flatbread, there are several possible explanations.
The dough is too wet: Make sure you’re using the right amounts of liquid and dry ingredients.
Not enough flour was dusted onto the dough while shaping the loaf: The flour helps effective shaping.
You’re using flour with a low-protein content: Be sure to use unbleached all-purpose flour; bleaching removes some of the protein from flour. Protein in wheat flour is mostly gluten, which is essential for providing good structure to the loaf. If the gluten content is too low, you’ll have trouble getting high, domed loaves. If you want to use bleached or other low-protein flour, you need to increase vital wheat gluten in the recipes.
The dough is a little too old: When the dough becomes “weepy,” with liquid separating out from the dough, it’s probably lost too much rising power to produce beautiful domed loaves. It still tastes great, but it
Problems and Frequently Asked Questions from Readers
“MY LOAVES AREN’T RISING MUCH ON THE COUNTER AFTER SHAPING.”
After being shaped, our breads don’t rise as much on the counter as loaves made from traditional (nonstored) dough. The success of our approach depends on keeping the dough wet (so it doesn’t resist bubble expansion as much), and handling the dough as little as possible to preserve the bubbles created in the initial rise in the bucket at room temperature. Our loaves get proportionally more rise from “oven spring” than from “proofing” (proofing is the rise you see while the formed loaves are resting/rising at room temperature). Oven spring is the sudden expansion of gas bubbles in the dough during the first minutes in the oven. You can almost see the loaf popping up if you have a glass window in your oven. So, if you’re disappointed in how much (or how little) rise you get on the counter from formed loaves, don’t despair! Oven spring will make up for the difference. If you aren’t getting good oven spring, check your dough consistency and rise time .
“MY LOAVES STUCK TO THE PIZZA PEEL WHEN I TRIED TO SLIDE THEM OFF.”
Sometimes a loaf, pizza, or flatbread will stick to the peel, especially if it has rested too long (pizzas in particular should not sit for long before sliding into the oven). There’s a simple solution. Before attempting a slide, we always shake the peel a bit to be sure that nothing is stuck. If it moves well, you’ll be fine when you slide it into the oven. If it’s not moving well, sprinkle flour or cornmeal around the edge of the loaf and use a dough scraper to nudge some of it under the loaf, unsticking the stuck area. Now you should be able to slide the loaf easily into the oven. To prevent this, increase the amount of cornmeal or flour you’re using under your loaves, or switch to parchment paper, which is easier on cleanup. This will also help if you’re having trouble with smoking cornmeal on the stone or at the bottom of the oven. The paper slides into the oven with the bread and is peeled off two-thirds of the way through baking for best bottom crust results. We peel the paper off because most parchment products have a silicone coating that partially prevents the escape of moisture from the bottom crust into the stone, and that moisture can prevent crisping.
“MY LOAVES ARE ODDLY SHAPED.”
The loaf flattens and spreads sideways while resting on the pizza peel: Sometimes loaves expand well while resting, but too much of the expansion is sideways rather than up. If every loaf is ending up as flatbread, there are several possible explanations.
The dough is too wet: Make sure you’re using the right amounts of liquid and dry ingredients.
Not enough flour was dusted onto the dough while shaping the loaf: The flour helps effective shaping.
You’re using flour with a low-protein content: Be sure to use unbleached all-purpose flour; bleaching removes some of the protein from flour. Protein in wheat flour is mostly gluten, which is essential for providing good structure to the loaf. If the gluten content is too low, you’ll have trouble getting high, domed loaves. If you want to use bleached or other low-protein flour, you need to increase vital wheat gluten in the recipes.
The dough is a little too old: When the dough becomes “weepy,” with liquid separating out from the dough, it’s probably lost too much rising power to produce beautiful domed loaves. It still tastes great, but it
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