Use Your Loaf – let’s learn about bread together!
We’ll make everything from a simple quick loaf to 3 day long sourdoughs and discover different techniques along the way.
Bread is my favourite thing to make. I still remember the feeling of utter amazement after I made my first loaf. It seemed so complicated, something only accomplished bakers make, and yet here I was, pulling a delicious-smelling warm loaf out of my oven.
I’ve made many types of bread from different recipes over the years, but I’ve never stopped to question how these simple ingredients transform into a beautiful, fluffy loaf. To become a better baker, I want to gain a deeper understanding of not only the science behind my magical bread but also the techniques I can use to make my loaves better.
This is why we’re going to start at the very beginning, looking at a basic bread recipe, and then build different styles and techniques onto this control loaf. You may be like me and have made hundreds of loaves before, or you may be just starting your bread journey, either way, I think we can all benefit from going over the basics.
So, if you feel like finding out exactly what yeast does, what a pre-ferment is, or even just how to make a simple yet delicious loaf of bread – join me, and we’ll dive in together!
The Science Bits
Our control loaf is made up of just four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. Equally important is what we do with these ingredients. There are certain stages in bread making that help develop the flavour and texture, and although we’ll learn the importance of kneading and resting more in the next stage of the series, it’s good to have in mind when we look at the different ingredients and learn how they interact with each other.
Flour
This generally means strong white bread flour or bread with a protein content of 11-13%. Flour consists of two important things: starch and protein. Starch begins to break down during the bread’s resting periods and releases sugar, making our loaves taste extra delicious.
More protein = more muscle = more strength, right? Speaking as a hobby baker and not a bodybuilder, I’m not sure if I’ve got the specifics down, but the protein in flour kind of works similarly. We have to choose flour with a high protein content when making bread to ensure that the gluten is strong enough to trap the c02 bubbles from the developing yeast. Without a high protein content in the flour, we would end up with a flatter, and more cake-like loaf, instead of the light and airy bread we’re trying to achieve. Different types of flour have different protein contents, generally plain flour (Typ 450) is low, and wholewheat flour is very high, but I’ll go into that more as this series develops.
Yeast
The star. Without yeast, we would have no rise and very little flavour. As I’ve mentioned earlier, as the yeast develops it releases carbon dioxide, creating bubbles that get trapped in the gluten structure of the bread. If we continue with the bodybuilding theme, the yeast is like the trainer, bumping against the gluten to make it stronger and stronger.
Water
The amount of water we use in a recipe is a key indicator of how open and bubbly the loaf will turn out. In general, the more water a recipe has, the softer and more moist the loaf will be. A smaller amount of water lends to a tight, tough loaf. However, as you can imagine, more water makes a loaf a lot more difficult to work with. Generally, using baker’s percentages, a normal loaf is between 65 and 80% water.
Salt
Some people think salt is just here to add flavour, and that it does, but it’s actually essential to make sure we don’t end up with flat, Frisbee-shaped loaves. By mixing yeast with the right flour and the correct temperature water, we give it a perfect environment to grow. The thing is, the conditions are a little too perfect, and it will just keep growing and growing, releasing those gas bubbles against the gluten structures until the whole loaf is exhausted and collapses before it’s even been into the oven. Salt is there to make sure things don’t get out of hand, tightening the gluten strands so they can expand slowly, making for a much more stable loaf.
Of course, it’s not just about the ingredients, it’s what we do with them that matters, which is exactly what we’ll look at in the next part of Use Your Loaf.
If you want to explore the science of bread even further, I fully recommend this informative video from Rachel’s Food Adventures.
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