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 B
Authors: Zoe Francois, Jeff Hertzberg MD
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may be best used as flatbread, or baked in a loaf pan. You can also work in a little more flour and allow it to sit for at least 2 hours .
Odd-shaped loaves: If you haven’t used enough cornmeal or flour on the pizza peel, a spot of dough may stick to it. As the loaf slides off the peel, the spot pulls, causing an odd-shaped loaf. Solution: Use more cornmeal or flour on the pizza peel, or switch to parchment paper, especially if the dough is particularly sticky. You can also add flour to the dough during the stretching and shaping step, which will require your loaf to rest longer before baking.
Another cause of odd-shaped loaves is ineffective slashing—slash at least a quarter-inch deep and keep the blade perpendicular to the crust. If you don’t cut deeply enough, the bread will burst open oddly.
“I LIVE 4,000 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL AND MY BREAD IS COMING OUT FLAT!”
There can be a big difference in how yeast behaves if you live above 4,000 feet. With less air pressure constraining the rising dough, it rises too quickly, and then collapses abruptly, giving you a dense result. The following changes can help you avoid that:
Decrease the yeast to 2 teaspoons.
Increase the vital wheat gluten in the recipes. You may need a little more water to keep the dough at its usual consistency.
Use more salt, up to an extra half tablespoon if you like the flavor and aren’t on a low-salt diet. This slows the effect of the yeast.
Do the initial rise overnight in the refrigerator (see the refrigerator-rise trick ), and consider mixing the dough with cold liquids.
Each of these techniques allows the dough to rise more slowly, giving it more time to achieve full height.
“THE CRUMB OF MY BREAD IS DENSE WITH SMALL HOLES, HOW DO I FIX IT?”
The following tips can help you to achieve a crumb with a nice open hole structure.
1. Make sure that your dough is not too wet or too dry , as both extremes will result in a dense crumb. Double-check the recipe to see if you are using the right amount of water for the type of flour you use. The most common problem we hear about is too-dry dough made with higher protein flours such as King Arthur All-Purpose or any bread flour. These are fine, but they absorb more liquid than typical all-purpose flours. To account for the difference, you will need to increase the water by up to ¼ cup.
2. Handle your dough very gently. We find that people often want to knead the dough at least a little, especially if they are experienced bread bakers. This knocks gas out of the dough and can give you a dense crumb. When shaping the dough, be very careful with it in order to leave as many of the air bubbles intact as possible. These bubbles create the holes in the bread. Shape the dough for only 20 to 40 seconds.
3. Kitchen temperature, loaf size, and rest time: If your kitchen is much cooler than 68 degrees, or your loaf is larger than 1 pound, you may need to let the dough rest for more time than specified in the recipe.
4. Batch age: If you are using dough that is close to two weeks old, you may want to stick to pizza, pita, or another flatbread. The yeast will not have its full power, and if baked as a high loaf it may come out denser than you want. Another option is to use overstored dough to start a new batch, using the “old-dough” method (see Lazy Sourdough Shortcut ). This will really jump-start the complex flavors of your next batch.
5. The refrigerator-rise trick: Shape your dough into a loaf, free-form or loaf-pan, cover loosely with plastic, and let the pre-shaped loaf rise in the refrigerator for 8 to 14 hours. Allow it to rest at room temperature during the short oven preheat, and then it is ready to bake. Here’s one way to do it that allows you to have the dough risen and ready for the oven pretty much as soon as you walk through the door after work.
The first thing in the morning, cut off a piece of dough and shape it as you normally would. Place the dough on a sheet
Odd-shaped loaves: If you haven’t used enough cornmeal or flour on the pizza peel, a spot of dough may stick to it. As the loaf slides off the peel, the spot pulls, causing an odd-shaped loaf. Solution: Use more cornmeal or flour on the pizza peel, or switch to parchment paper, especially if the dough is particularly sticky. You can also add flour to the dough during the stretching and shaping step, which will require your loaf to rest longer before baking.
Another cause of odd-shaped loaves is ineffective slashing—slash at least a quarter-inch deep and keep the blade perpendicular to the crust. If you don’t cut deeply enough, the bread will burst open oddly.
“I LIVE 4,000 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL AND MY BREAD IS COMING OUT FLAT!”
There can be a big difference in how yeast behaves if you live above 4,000 feet. With less air pressure constraining the rising dough, it rises too quickly, and then collapses abruptly, giving you a dense result. The following changes can help you avoid that:
Decrease the yeast to 2 teaspoons.
Increase the vital wheat gluten in the recipes. You may need a little more water to keep the dough at its usual consistency.
Use more salt, up to an extra half tablespoon if you like the flavor and aren’t on a low-salt diet. This slows the effect of the yeast.
Do the initial rise overnight in the refrigerator (see the refrigerator-rise trick ), and consider mixing the dough with cold liquids.
Each of these techniques allows the dough to rise more slowly, giving it more time to achieve full height.
“THE CRUMB OF MY BREAD IS DENSE WITH SMALL HOLES, HOW DO I FIX IT?”
The following tips can help you to achieve a crumb with a nice open hole structure.
1. Make sure that your dough is not too wet or too dry , as both extremes will result in a dense crumb. Double-check the recipe to see if you are using the right amount of water for the type of flour you use. The most common problem we hear about is too-dry dough made with higher protein flours such as King Arthur All-Purpose or any bread flour. These are fine, but they absorb more liquid than typical all-purpose flours. To account for the difference, you will need to increase the water by up to ¼ cup.
2. Handle your dough very gently. We find that people often want to knead the dough at least a little, especially if they are experienced bread bakers. This knocks gas out of the dough and can give you a dense crumb. When shaping the dough, be very careful with it in order to leave as many of the air bubbles intact as possible. These bubbles create the holes in the bread. Shape the dough for only 20 to 40 seconds.
3. Kitchen temperature, loaf size, and rest time: If your kitchen is much cooler than 68 degrees, or your loaf is larger than 1 pound, you may need to let the dough rest for more time than specified in the recipe.
4. Batch age: If you are using dough that is close to two weeks old, you may want to stick to pizza, pita, or another flatbread. The yeast will not have its full power, and if baked as a high loaf it may come out denser than you want. Another option is to use overstored dough to start a new batch, using the “old-dough” method (see Lazy Sourdough Shortcut ). This will really jump-start the complex flavors of your next batch.
5. The refrigerator-rise trick: Shape your dough into a loaf, free-form or loaf-pan, cover loosely with plastic, and let the pre-shaped loaf rise in the refrigerator for 8 to 14 hours. Allow it to rest at room temperature during the short oven preheat, and then it is ready to bake. Here’s one way to do it that allows you to have the dough risen and ready for the oven pretty much as soon as you walk through the door after work.
The first thing in the morning, cut off a piece of dough and shape it as you normally would. Place the dough on a sheet
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