How to Make Bread

Fresh bread baked in your own oven and kneaded with your own hands just tastes better than a store-bought loaf. How to Make Bread shows you how to choose and develop a recipe that suits your taste.

Imagine the smell of baking bread wafting through your house or apartment. Pulling a plump, golden brown loaf out of the oven, you break it in two to reveal its fluffy white interior. You take your first bite of a generously buttered slice, enjoying the fruit of your day's labor. Baking your own bread satisfies the nose and the taste buds, the body and the soul. The home baker participates in a culinary tradition dating back millennia to the day someone mixed water with grain paste to create the world's first flatbread.Wikipedia: Bread Thankfully, bread is easier than ever to bake at home. Store-bought flour, baker's yeast and stand mixers eliminate much of the traditional labor. So don't be afraid! Try making your first loaf, and you may never go back to store-bought bread.

1. The less water in the dough, the denser the bread.
2. Most breads are made from wheat flour.
3. Prepare a sourdough starter at least a day in advance.
4. Kneading bread dough develops its gluten network.
5. Bread left to rise for a longer period of time develops a stronger flavor.
6. Score an unbaked loaf to prevent it from tearing in the oven.
7. Cook bread at a higher temperature for a thicker crust.

(Creative Commons photo by eva)

• There are many different breads out there, ranging from sweet, quick blueberry muffins to sourdough breads that take days to prepare from scratch. Most breads can be listed in four broad categories: flatbreads, quick breads, yeast breads and sourdough breads (which are themselves a form of yeast bread). In general, you can keep the following things in mind when examining bread recipes.

1. In breadmaking, the other ingredients are measured in proportion to the flour. A loaf is said to have 100%, or 100 parts, flour. The other ingredients are considered as a percentage of the amount of flour.Wikipedia: Bread In other words, if a recipe has one pound of flour, it is said to have 65%, or 65 parts, water when the weight of the water is 65% of one pound.
2. More yeast in a recipe results in a quicker rise time and less flavor.The Fresh Loaf: Lesson Three—Time & Temperature
3. While yeast feeds on sugar, too much sugar can kill it. Sugar also contributes to the sweetness of the bread and the brownness of its crust.Baking911.com: Bread Making 101
4. Both sugar and fats help to preserve bread.Baking911.com: Bread Making 101
5. The less water in the dough, the denser the bread will be with fewer air bubbles. Normal table bread has about 50 parts water.Wikipedia: Bread
6. Liquids other than water may add flavor, fat, leavening and other qualities to dough.Wikipedia: Bread Breads made with milk or eggs tend to have more tender crusts.MSN Encarta: Bread
7. Most yeast breads are about 25% liquid.Wikipedia: Bread
8. Most breads are made from wheat flour, though other grains can be made into flour as well. There's almost always some wheat flour in breads made from other grain types.The Fresh Loaf: Lesson Two—Putting Something More In Your Loaf
9. Solids, such as nuts and fruit, added to bread doughs increase the amount of time the dough takes to rise.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101

(Creative Commons photo by visualpanic)

• The earliest breads were mostly flatbreads and therefore didn't need much time to rise. Today many countries still produce traditional flatbreads, such as tortillas, naan and pitas. Ancient Egypt made the earliest known leavened breads.Wikipedia: Bread Some example recipes include:

1. Lavash
2. NaanRecipeZaar: Naan (March 12, 2003)
3. Corn TortillasMartha Stewart: Rick's Corn Tortillas
4. Pita
5. Scottish OatcakesUndiscovered Scotland: Oatcakes

• Quick breads are made with chemical leavening agents, such as baking soda and baking powder, rather than yeast.Wikipedia: Bread They're called "quick breads" because the chemical leaveners don't need as much time to make the bread rise.

1. Buttermilk Biscuits
2. Irish Soda BreadFoodNetwork.com: Irish Soda Bread (with Raisins)
3. Pumpkin MuffinsMartha Stewart: Pumpkin Muffins
4. Vickie's Beer BreadAll Recipes: Vickie's Beer Bread
5. CornbreadRecipeZaar: Cornbread (September 2, 2003)

(Creative Commons photo by Belinda Hankins Miller)

• Yeast provides the leavening in many breads. The yeast produces carbon dioxide in the bread as it ferments the dough.Wikipedia: Bread

1. ChallahChabad.org: Challah
2. Anadama BreadAll Recipes: Anadama Bread
3. BabkaAll Recipes: Babka I
4. BriocheRecipeZaar: Brioche Loaves (December 2, 2004)
5. StollenAll Recipes: Christmas Stollen

• Sourdough breads are made from a sourdough starter that contains a certain form of bacteria that give the dough a sour flavor and protect it from spoiling. You can grow a starter yourself or obtain one from someone else.Wikipedia: Bread

1. BauernbrotAll Recipes: Authentic German Bread (Bauernbrot)
2. Danish Rye BreadAll Recipes: Danish Rye Bread
3. Herman BreadAll Recipes: Herman Bread
4. San Francisco Sourdough BreadAll Recipes: San Francisco Sourdough Bread
5. Basic Sourdough StarterAll Recipes: Sourdough Starter III

(Creative Commons photo by edvvc)

• Ingredients must be mixed together in a bowl before the dough is thick enough to knead.

1. Use a scale to measure your ingredients by weight instead of volume.Wikipedia: Bread
2. Bring all ingredients in yeast breads (except the water used to activate the yeast—follow the instructions provided) to around room temperature before combining.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101
3. Be sure to use fresh yeast, as the dough will not rise properly otherwise.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101
4. If you're making a sourdough bread, you'll need to prepare your starter ahead of time.
5. Add flour slowly to the yeast mixture, even if the recipe calls for you to add the yeast to the flour instead. If your recipe provides a range for the flour (for example, 4 to 5 cups), start with less and gradually add more until the dough reaches the right consistency.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101
6. Add salt to the bread exactly as indicated. Leaving it out isn't wise.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101
7. You have several options for mixing the dough: by hand with a wooden spoon, beginning with a hand-held mixer and continuing by hand when the dough becomes too thick, with a stand mixer, with a food processor or in a bread machine.Baking911.com: Bread Making 101
8. If you use a stand mixer with a dough hook to mix your bread and the dough starts to climb up the hook, you probably need to add more flour.The Dinner Co-op: A Guide to Bread

(Creative Commons photo by daisybush)

• Kneading your dough develops the gluten network that provides the bread with its structure, and so should not be skipped if it's part of your recipe. Most yeast breads call for kneading.Wikipedia: Bread However, some bread recipes, notably quick breads, allow you to dispense with this step.Wikipedia: Quick Bread If you don't knead yeast bread, your loaf will end up with a consistency more like that of muffins than bread.

1. Knead the dough on a surface at a comfortable height.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101 You don't want to strain your back by leaning over for too long.
2. Lightly flour your hands as well as the kneading surface before beginning.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101
3. As with mixing the ingredients, kneading can be done with a stand mixer, food processor or bread machine as well as by hand.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101 A hand-held mixer, on the other hand, won't usually work.
4. Use the heels of your palms to push the dough down and away from you.All Recipes: Baking Yeast Breads
5. Fold the dough over and give it a turn.All Recipes: Baking Yeast Breads
6. Continue to push the dough down and across, fold it and turn it for about 5 to 10 minutes.
7. Don't tear or cut the dough as you knead.
8. Stop when the dough reaches the consistency indicated by your recipe.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101 The Fresh Loaf has a good photo of what most doughs should look like at the end of the kneading process.The Fresh Loaf: Your First Loaf—A Primer for the New Baker

• The longer the dough is allowed to rise, the more flavorful it will become.Wikipedia: Bread However, this is not always a good thing—dough that's been left to rise for too long starts to taste beer-y.The Fresh Loaf: Your First Loaf—A Primer for the New Baker You need to find the balance that you like best.

1. Make a big ball out of your dough once you're done kneading it.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101
2. Place the ball in a greased bowl.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101 Put a cover on it—a towel or plastic wrap often works well.The Fresh Loaf: Your First Loaf—A Primer for the New Baker Make sure to grease the cover as well if the dough is likely to rise and stick to it.Baking911.com: Bread Baking 101
3. Dough rises to about twice its original size.The Fresh Loaf: Your First Loaf—A Primer for the New Baker

• You can slow down the fermentation of yeast by refrigerating your dough. This is known as "retarding" the dough. You can retard your dough if you simply don't have time to finish it immediately and to increase its flavor with a longer rise.The Fresh Loaf: Lesson Three—Time & Temperature

(Creative Commons photo by foeopoooey)

• Doughs can be braided, shaped by hand or allowed to take on a natural form.

1. Flour your work surface before you begin.
2. Make sure that the dough is free of big bubbles by gently pressing and working it.All Recipes: Baking Yeast Breads
3. Some recipes call for punching the dough down to a smaller size and allowing it a second rise before baking.The Fresh Loaf: Your First Loaf—A Primer for the New Baker
4. If you need to separate the dough into several sections, cut it with a sharp knife rather than pulling it apart.All Recipes: Baking Yeast Breads
5. Scoring your loaf, or cutting several small slits in it, can help to prevent the air from tearing through the side of the bread as it cooks.The Fresh Loaf: Your First Loaf—A Primer for the New Baker
6. Different glazes applied to the outside of an unbaked loaf will result in different crust colors and textures. The Fresh Loaf has a great page comparing different glazes, complete with photos.The Fresh Loaf: Lesson—Glazing

• You can experiment a bit with the temperature at which you bake your bread. Just make sure you keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

1. Steam can help create a crisper, chewier crust. You can help to create steam by spraying a small amount of water inside the oven or tossing ice cubes on its floor as you put the bread in to bake.All Recipes: Baking Yeast Breads
2. To get a thicker, harder crust on your bread, cook it at a higher temperature.The Fresh Loaf: Lesson Three—Time & Temperature
3. Your bread will get even bigger in the oven—this is called "oven spring."The Fresh Loaf: Your First Loaf—A Primer for the New Baker
4. You can tell that the bread is done baking when you tap on its bottom and the loaf sounds hollow.The Dinner Co-op: A Guide to Bread

• Now that wasn't that hard, was it? You now have the skills to find a good recipe and adjust it according to your own personal preferences. The results are definitely worth the time and effort, even if you don't decide to bake fresh bread every time you need some for a sandwich. If you really enjoyed your experience, try your hand at some other culinary challenges. For example, Mahalo can show you how to make souffle, how to make wine and how to make ice cream.