More Easy Bread Recipes - Gwen's Nest (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret ingredient in bread? ›

While many bakers focus on flour, yeast, and water, there's a lesser-known but equally important ingredient that can make all the difference—cream of tartar. This unassuming white powder is the secret to creating the fluffiest and most tender loaves of bread.

But almost as good as a proofing box is taking a Mason jar filled halfway up with water, microwaving it for two minutes, then putting your bowl of dough into the microwave with the jar to rise. The other thing you can do is place your lidded container or bowl of dough into a second, larger bowl of warm water.

Add Sugar

Sugar acts as a liquifying agent in the dough. Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer.

Dense or heavy bread can be caused by not kneading the dough enough, not letting the dough rise enough, or using too much flour. To fix this issue: try kneading the dough for longer or allowing it to rise for a longer period. You can also try adding a little more liquid to the dough or using a higher protein flour.

In most circ*mstances covering dough during proofing is the best practice, as it helps keep moisture in your dough. Without covering dough, the surface is likely to dry out which will limit the rise you are looking to achieve during proofing, and it can negatively impact your crust.

Consider vitamin C. Vitamin C strengthens the gluten in flour, which can give a better rise, and help dough to rise more quickly. You probably won't need it if you're making white bread, but if you make wholemeal bread and it doesn't rise as well as you hoped, you could try a little vitamin C next time.

- Uncovered container with dough you need to limit to max 4 hours in room temperature. It is possible to leave bread dough to rise overnight. This needs to be done in the refrigerator to prevent over-fermentation and doughs with an overnight rise will often have a stronger more yeasty flavour which some people prefer.

A dough enhancer is a powder that is supposed to make your dough smoother and is what commercial bakers often use to obtain the smooth textured bread you buy in the store. My bread doesn't last long since we eat it quickly, but it is supposed to help with shelf life as well!"

Why is bakery bread so light? ›

How light the bread is, is a function of how much gas is in the dough. It's the carbon dioxide that creates all the little bubbles that make the bread lighter and fluffier.

Does Rising Bread Affect Its Texture? For a fluffy bread texture, the key is to let the bread rise long enough.

There may be several reasons for a dense, cake like texture in bread. It may indicate the kneading wasn't enough for the gluten to develop properly, or the dough was proved for too short a time or the dough may have been too dry. It is also worth checking the flour you used.

Too much extra flour worked into the dough while folding and/or shaping can cause dense bread. Over mixing can cause a dense loaf by the weakening and breakdown of the gluten (not likely to happen if you fold dough or hand knead).

Wheat flour is the key ingredient in most breads. Flour quality is particularly important in breadmaking as the quality of the flour will have a significant impact on the finished product. When flour is moistened and stirred, beaten or kneaded, gluten develops to give dough `stretch`.

Several tasty ingredients like honey, olives and even bananas are used regularly to ramp up the classic bread recipe's flavor. Not only are these ingredients delicious, but when chosen wisely, they can also boost your bread's nutritional value.

Adding dry milk powder to your bread dough will help your loaf rise higher. In addition, the loaf will stay soft and hold moisture longer which again means it will last longer. It also helps brown the crust. If you want a lighter fluffier bread loaf just add 2 Tbsp of dry milk to the flour per loaf of your bread.

The cream of tartar also makes the preparations softer and lighter, as it inflates leavened products without weighing them down: therefore it is excellent for making biscuits, cakes, croissants but also bread, savory pies and other baked products that have a good leavening.