You Can Bake! » Bread Baking

Basic Baking Tips – Pointers For Making That Perfect Loaf Of Bread

Rob — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:43:23 +0000

For people who are just new to baking will find that it is indeed a very complicated process. So, here a few guidelines and tips that can be very useful when it comes to baking for beginners.
Before you begin follow these steps. These will help you to avert any disaster that may occur while baking. Before you start make sure that you go through the recipe thoroughly. This makes sure that you have all the required ingredients at hand before you start. It is important that you use only fresh supplies. The next important step is to have the oven preheated to the required temperature for perfect baking. Liquids which are used in the recipe need to be measured accurately by placing them at eye level. Dry ingredients need to be measured by using a flat knife to level them. It is important that you bake with extreme care as it can cause the recipe to be ruined when done in a hurry.
There are different kinds of flour which are not entirely the same. When making yeast breads it is important to use wheat flour. For yeast loaves use bread flour and the same when used in yeast bread will make it a heavy cake instead. Cake flour on the other hand is very fine. You can use all purpose flour for any type of baking. Bleached and unbleached flours can also be used. Flour can be stored in an airtight container away from moisture and direct sunlight for up to six months.
You cannot interchange baking powder with baking soda. The ingredients of baking powder include baking soda and an acid that causes the flour to leaven and rise when mixed with wet ingredients and baked. Baking soda on the other hand constitutes sodium bicarbonate. When mixed with an acidic ingredient like yogurt, molasses or buttermilk causes the flour to rise making it light and spongy.
Here are some tips while handling chocolate while cooking. First you must be aware that there are various types of chocolate that can be used for cooking. Unsweetened chocolate is chocolate liquor which contains fifty percent coca butter without any sugar. Depending upon the various amounts of sugar which is added to the coca butter, you will get the various varieties like bittersweet, semi sweet, and dark chocolate. Milk chocolate on the other hand is made up of dried milk powder, cocoa butter and sugar while white chocolate is made from cocoa butter instead of chocolate liquor. To make unsweetened cocoa you will need to use chocolate liquor in which 75 percent cocoa butter has been removed and then dried and made into a paste. It is easy to burn the chocolate while melting so it has to be done over a small flame. The various methods which can be used for melting chocolate are the double boiler method, direct heat method or simply use the microwave oven

Health Benefits To Baking Your Own Whole Wheat Bread

Rob — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:07:50 +0000

I think one of the greatest benefits received by baking your own whole wheat bread is the long term health benefits you reap. When you bake whole wheat bread you control every ingredient put into it. No artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers, no bleached then enriched flour and no other unnecessary additives that take away from the health of the bread.

To see for yourself what I’m talking about, go get a loaf of bread that you’ve bought from the store, now read the ingredient list and google all of the really long words that don’t sound like natural ingredients. You will be shocked at what you discover.

For example, the ingredient “monoglycerides,” found in almost every store bought bread, is actually hydrogenated oil/fat otherwise known as trans fat. Hydrogenated oil is oil saturated with hydrogen at a high temperature. This creates tight bonds with the hydrogen which allows it to remain semisolid at room temperature and increases shelf life drastically by delaying rancidity. What allows it to be solid is how tightly the molecules of the fat bond to each other. In your blood stream this means the fat clumps to itself much easier and clogs your veins much easier.

This is why hydrogenated oils and trans fats have been labeled “the silent killer” because they dramatically increase the risk of coronary heart disease. The bread manufacturers try to be sneaky and put monoglycerides in the list of ingredients in place of hydrogenated oils to fool you. You could look at the nutrition panel on the same loaf of bread with the ingredient monoglycerides and under trans fats it will list zero grams. This is because under FDA regulations if the serving contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat, the package is free to say it has zero.

But lets say you eat four slices of bread (with each serving containing 0.4 grams of trans fat) then you just consumed 1.6 grams of trans fat, despite the fact that the nutrition panel on your bread claims that it has zero grams of trans fat per serving.

You can’t trust store bought bread, it’s that simple. The bread manufacturing companies do what they can to save money in production of the bread but in the long run it costs you your health. The only solution that I’ve found is to bake your own bread. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds, it’s actually very easy once you learn how.

My favorite bread to bake is whole wheat bread because it’s so heart healthy and you get so many vitamins and minerals from it. If the whole wheat bread is made correctly you also get a really amazing tasting bread that can put store bought imitations to shame. I call them imitations because a lot of bread manufacturers actually use white flour to make “whole wheat” bread and then color it with caramel to make it look authentic. So again check ingredients on your bread. If the bread has unbleached enriched flour as the first ingredient you could actually be buying white bread disguised as whole wheat bread, look for caramel coloring in the ingredients list as well to prove this.

Other ingredients to watch out for:

Calcium sulfate: This is also known as plaster of Paris, this additive is used as a dough conditioner and firming agent. As it absorbs moisture and hardens quickly, one caution is that it can cause intestinal obstruction. It is banned in some countries.

Calcium propionate: This additive is used as a mold inhibitor but may be linked to migraines.

So do yourself a favor and start baking your own bread. It’s probably one of the greatest health choices you can make.

Beth Scott is the author of The Ultimate Whole Wheat Bread Baking Guide. For more information visit her Easy Bread Baking website now.

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Should You Bake Your Own Bread?

Rob — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:09:32 +0000

Maybe you’ve never heard it before, but you really should be baking your own bread.

Why?

I think the number one reason everyone should bake their own bread is that it redeems you from years of bad health and medical bills. How so?

HOMEMADE BREAD IS HEALTHIER

It is much healthier to bake your own bread instead of buying bread that contains chemical additives, hydrogenated oils, unhealthy preservatives, and fattening sweeteners.

If you buy white bread you’re also getting bread that is nutritionless, but don’t be fooled, store bought whole wheat bread is just as bad for you.

A lot of times the whole wheat bread sold in stores isn’t really made out of “whole meal” but is just white bread that is colored (using caramel) to make it appear like it’s whole grain and healthy.

Store bought whole wheat bread also contains the same emulsifiers, and chemical by products that are in store bought white bread.

When you bake your own bread you never have to worry about these “hidden dangers” or chemicals in bread.

Instead you can control every ingredient that goes into your bread, and you’ll know exactly how it is processed and created.

There are many other great incentives for baking homemade whole wheat bread, and I’ll go into each one below.

HOMEMADE BREAD TASTES BETTER THAN STORE BOUGHT

Absolutely no argument here. Everyone I’ve met agrees that the taste of homemade bread far surpasses that of store bought bread, (some have even said they could taste the chemicals in the store bought bread and really hated it).

Taste is a biggie for a lot of people, and since everyone wants to eat tasty meals, you can’t go wrong by baking your own bread.

HOMEMADE BREAD SAVES YOU MONEY

It’s much cheaper to buy all the ingredients for making bread separately, than buying them already made into bread. You can easily save $30 or $40 dollars a month, by baking your own bread. This might not sound like much but over time, believe me, it adds up.

This is especially true if you buy as many of your bread ingredients as you can, in the bulk department of a supermarket.

An entire bag of whole wheat flour (enough to make 4 to 6 loaves) could cost $4.00 or less. This is just one example of how cheap baking your own bread is.

HOMEMADE BREAD IS LOWER IN FAT THIS = WEIGHT LOSS

My favorite reason for baking bread, is that, if you bake the right kind of bread (like whole wheat bread) it can be a great way to help you lose pounds or maintain a healthy weight.

I’m sure you’ve heard the myth before that bread is really fattening, it’s a myth at least for homemade whole wheat bread.

Store bought bread really is fattening because of all the extras that large scale manufacturers stuff their bread with.

Manufacturers do this to give their bread longer shelf life and to make the bread look more appealing so they’ll get more customers to buy their bread.

These big corporate CEO’s could care less if their bread causes you to pack on pounds. You’ve got to remember, after all, that they’re only in it for the money.

But if you bake your own whole wheat bread you’ll have a truly wholesome bread that will help you to achieve the healthy body and goal weight you desire.

Don’t think you can bake your own whole wheat bread? Don’t know where to start? I’ll teach you how to bake your very own bread with no hassle, in simple steps. Visit my Easy Bread Baking website for more details.

Beth Scott is author of the popular Whole Wheat Bread Baking Guide. For more information visit her website: http://www.easybakingtips.com/breadbaking/wholewheat.html
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Is Your Bread Slowly Killing You?

Rob — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:56:18 +0000

If you eat white (or any kind of store bought) bread, then here are a few things you should know before you put that next slice in your mouth. For example…did you know that the inclusion of hydrogenated oils, artificial preservatives, emulsifiers, additives and other chemicals in bread became standard practice in the mid 1950′s? At this same time whole wheat flour was replaced by bleached, enriched white flour. In this process, grain is bleached and sterilized with chemicals to make it white and soft. It is then artificially enriched by adding vitamins, minerals and other materials destroyed in the chemical process. Despite what you may have been told, trying to ”enrich” something with the very vitamins and minerals that were removed from it in the first place, does not make it even half as healthy as the natural unrefined version. When you think about this, it doesn’t even make much sense. It is also a growing practice in many bread producing factories to replace white flour with substances like alum, ground rice, and whiting. Alum is the most commonly used of all these substances, because it gives the bread a whiter color and causes the flour to absorb and retain a larger amount of water than it would otherwise hold. This enables the factories to produce bread which imitates bread made from a higher quality flour. This tainting of your bread with harmful chemicals, such as potassium bromate, emulsifiers (both commonly used in bread production), and alum, jeopardizes your health. Do you know why your store bought bread has such a long shelf life? The mysteriously prolonged shelf life is because of a particular emulsifier used in making the bread. This emulsifier is mainly used as a softening agent and tends to deceive buyers as to the real age of their bread. This emulsifier can hide the signs that your bread is rotting (it certainly doesn’t stop the rotting) for a few extra weeks, but the harm it does to your body (and the harm in eating the half rotten bread) makes the cost for this ”convenience” very high. Is it any wonder then, that every year a growing number of people just like you and I, are being hospitalized with illnesses and incurable diseases? Is it possible for you to protect yourself and your loved ones against unhealthy and harmful bread? Well, buying bread from a store is certainly not the right choice to make. Even if you buy commercially produced whole wheat bread you’re not getting healthy food. A lot of times what passes for whole wheat bread is actually white bread colored with caramel. If the first ingredient in a loaf of whole wheat bread is unbleached enriched flour, then you’re not truly buying whole wheat bread at all, just white bread (loaded with chemicals) that is disguised as whole wheat bread. There is only one true solution to ensure that you avoid poisonous, toxic bread. And that is to bake your own healthy whole wheat bread. This is no where near as difficult as it sounds. In fact it’s dead set simple. All you need is a good proven recipe, and an expert guide to teach you just once what to do.

Beth Scott is the author of The Ultimate Whole Wheat Bread Baking Guide. For more information visit her Easy Bread Baking website now.
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Bread Baking Made Easy!

Rob — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:48:28 +0000

Don’t you just hate it when you follow a recipe to the letter and when the bread baking is finished the bread not only looks nothing like the recipe book’s picture, but tastes terrible as well? There is no denying that bread baking as with baking anything is a delicate process. Bread baking involves so many things that first time bakers are often discouraged after a few failed attempts to turn out professional looking and tasting loaves. Little do they realize that if they only possessed the professional Baker’s secrets bread baking would be so easy that the bread would practically make itself! For instance: How many amateur bakers know the secret to keeping bread from sticking to the pan every time? None! So when they try their hand at bread baking for the first time their bread sticks to the bread pan, and ends up a crumbled mess if they try to force it out. Then they cry and give up thinking that the problem lies with them. The shocking truth is that it doesn’t! The problem lies with their lack of knowledge of THE baker’s bread baking secret. The secret professional chefs and bakers won’t tell you, the secret they guard so jealously. My father happened to learn this bread baking secret in his younger baking days and has passed it on to his children ever since. Okay, okay, I know you’re probably screaming at me by now ”Beth, get on with it! Tell us the bread baking secret already!” So here it is; You will need only one tool besides for the oil and bread pan you already have, and that is quite simply CORNMEAL (you shouldn’t need more than 1/4 to 1/2 cup for two loaves of bread). ”Cornmeal?” you ask doubtfully. ”YES, cornmeal!” No, you do not add the cornmeal to the bread ingredients! That is not the bread baking secret. What you do is you oil your pan as usual, and you lightly sprinkle cornmeal on all of the sides and bottom of the bread pan. Now you can safely place your bread dough into the pans without fear of it sticking to them. While your bread is baking instead of sticking to the pan, your bread will stick to the cornmeal and slide easily out of the pan when done baking. You may need to use a butter knife and slide it in between the pan and the bread before turning the pan over and allowing your bread to pop out. A lot of the time this will be unnecessary however and your bread will pop out just by your turning the bread pan upside down. You will probably also want to use the butter knife to scrape the excess cornmeal off the bottom and sides of the bread as you may not care for the taste of cornmeal. This bread baking secret will work whether you’re baking a batter bread or a rising bread (also called yeast bread). I personally use it for both. Here is another treasured bread baking secret, this one only for batter breads: On the last ten minutes of its baking time cover the bread pan containing the batter bread with another bread pan (a steel bread pan works best), and leave it on until the bread is finished baking. This will keep the batter bread from burning or becoming too hard on top. You may vary the time you leave the steel bread pan on according to how your batter bread usually looks when it is finished. If it is a very dark brown on top and difficult to slice because the top is so hard, then 20 minutes will work best. But if it is just a little too hard on top and a little too brown the 10 minutes should suffice. Do not cover the bread at all if it usually comes out golden and soft on top after the baking is completed. You may also glaze a batter bread on top with a tablespoon of melted butter mixed with a tablespoon of honey, and sprinkle some flaked coconut or sliced nuts on top of that. To glaze you start by taking the bread out of the oven five minutes before the required baking time is finished, then spread the butter/honey mixture on top of the bread, sprinkle on your coconut or chopped nuts and bake for the remaining 5 minutes. Here is another useful bread baking tip for rising breads… If your bread loaves over rise (say because you were busy and forgot about them), then you can use a pair of scissors to cut off the excess sides, being careful not to cut any dough from off of the top. You may then use this excess dough to make rolls. You simply oil a pizza or cookie sheet and form the dough into several small balls. Rise them for another half hour and then bake on 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Do yourself a favor and put these tried and tested bread baking secrets immediately to use in your kitchen, and your family will rave over the results.

Beth Scott is the author of The Ultimate Whole Wheat Bread Baking Guide. For more information visit her Easy Bread Baking website now.
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Solving The 7 Most Common Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistakes

Rob — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:14:42 +0000

Let’s face it EVERY cook makes mistakes (yes, even professional bakers make boo boo’s). I’m going to list here, the 7 most common whole wheat bread baking mistakes that you’re probably making, or might make if you’re not forewarned, and what you can do about to stop them. Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 1 By far the most common bread baking mistake is when the salt is forgotten to be added to the whole wheat bread dough. This results in very bland bread, and even effects the rising of the dough. Making your whole wheat bread flat on top. The best solution for this is to use a post it note as a reminder to yourself, to add the salt to the whole wheat bread dough. You can stick the post it note where ever you’re most likely to see it (fridge, recipe book, etc..) Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 2 The second most common mistake is when the whole wheat bread dough is allowed to over rise, which leads to it falling. This usually happens when the whole wheat bread dough is forgotten about. And with so much going on our lives, who doesn’t forget things like this now and then? But don’t fret, there is a solution: If the whole wheat bread is already in the bread pans when it over rises simply use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the excess dough off the sides of the unbaked loaves. Separate and roll this dough into a few small balls of dough. Allow them to rise 20 minutes to 30 minutes on a small oiled cookie sheet, and then bake them on 350 Fahrenheit, for 15 to 20 minutes as whole wheat rolls. Also allow the whole wheat bread dough to rise for about 15 to 20 more minutes before baking if it is extremely flat on top. Another solution to help you keep from forgetting about your bread, is to use a timer which will beep loudly after the selected time period is up. Using a timer can also help stop other whole wheat bread baking catastrophes from happening. Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 3 When you heat up your water to put your yeast in, it is easy to accidentally make the water a bit too hot. This mistake will kill the yeast and your bread will not rise To correct this mistake I strongly recommend you invest in a cooking thermometer, to measure the temperature of the water with. Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 4 If the recipe you use makes too much dough for your family’s needs and you worry that the extra bread will grow stale before you use it, fear not. It is perfectly safe to refrigerate unused dough for a few days and allow the whole wheat bread dough to finish it’s rising time once you get it out to use it. You can place a ziploc bag or plastic wrap over bowls that contain your whole wheat bread dough, to store it in your fridge and prevent oxidation. Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 5 Burned bread. Yup, nothing tastes worse than whole wheat bread which is black as charcoal. To avoid this, be sure you follow baking times and temperatures strictly. And again use a timer to remind yourself when it’s time to remove your whole wheat bread from the oven. Also remember that gas ovens and electric ovens vary in their temperatures. If you’re using an electric oven you should bake almost all pastries on 350 Fahrenheit. Sometimes a recipe will call for you to start baking a loaf of bread on a higher temperature, but will also usually tell you to turn the heat down after a certain amount of time. Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 6 Mistakenly or purposefully using the wrong type of flour. If you are baking whole wheat bread, the only way to get good results is by using whole wheat flour to bake your bread. There are different recipes for all the different types of bread and they all use one specific flour for each recipe. So don’t try any substitution hoping that by adding rye flour for instance, you will actually turn a whole wheat bread recipe into rye bread. Because you won’t. Whole Wheat Bread Baking Mistake 7 Last but not least there is the problem of air bubbles (also called ”pockets”) which create large holes inside the whole wheat bread, after it’s done baking. The best solution for this is to pinch any such bubbles whenever you see them in your whole wheat bread dough, before you bake it. This will immediately deflate the bubble. Now you are armed with the knowledge of the 7 most common whole wheat bread baking mistakes (most of which also apply to all other rising breads) and how you should deal with them. So don’t let the bread mistake blues get you down ever again.

Beth Scott is the author of The Ultimate Whole Wheat Bread Baking Guide. For more information visit her Easy Bread Baking website now.

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