Homemade Bread! Two Recipes That Really Work

Success in baking one’s own bread gives a real sense of pride with the fact that the bread reminds us of simple values, essential to life. The bread machine is mainly used to save you time and save you the hard (and long) task of kneading, which is the main difficulty of the preparation. Yet, once the right ingredients are together, you may want to force yourself to practice. Learning to bake your own bread will unlock some cooking fears, believe me!

Most bread recipes call for the use of yeast (see this baguette bread step by step tutorial), although both types of yeast do the trick. But with the yeast, the dough needs to be rested for longer … So you must prepare your dough in the late afternoon, then let it stand overnight.

The sourdough bread recipe

Ingredients list:

• 1 1/4 cups mineral water (3 decilitres)
• 1 tablespoon (16 g) yeast
• 5 cups (500 g) organic flour
• salt (1 / 2 teaspoon)

You must first add the yeast to water and mix. Then add the flour and salt while mixing with a wooden spoon, then by hand when it becomes difficult to work. When the dough seems too sticky, add a little flour carefully. Conversely, when it seems lumpy or too dry add water.

Then cover with a clean cloth and leave to stand overnight in a warm place, away from draughts. The next day, preheat the oven to 360°F (180°C), then knead the dough by hand. First break the ball, then working on the fresh (you stretch it with the palm of the hand four times), reform into a ball, stretch and form a ball again.

Repeat the cycle as many times as needed for at least 20 minutes. This step aims to remove any air bubbles that formed during fermentation.

Do not dawdle; put all your energy into this. Subsequently, shape a long sausage that you divide into as many loaves as you need. Roll the two ends slightly between the palm of your hand.

Then slice with a knife and bake. Once the top is golden brown, check the bottom with the index finger by tapping; the bread should sound hollow when cooked. To continue, remove bread from the oven and leave to cool on a rack.

Yeast bread  recipe

Ingredients list:

• 13 cups (1.3 kg) of flour,
• ½ cube of yeast,
• 1/2 tablespoon (8 ml) water
• 2 1/2 tablespoons (40 g) of salt.

In a large bowl, put the crumbled yeast and sprinkle with water gradually while mixing. Then add the salt and slowly pour the flour. As earlier, you can start by mixing with a wooden spoon before finishing by hand.

Then dust the work surface with flour and work the dough for 15 minutes. Put in a bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave the dough to rise for 4 hours. When the dough is well risen, bake it in a preheated oven.

Cooking takes place in three steps; first, heat to 225°C for 10 minutes, then at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes, then again at 440°F (225°C) for 10 minutes. Once cooked, let the bread cool on a rack.

4 .Tips and tricks to learn a successful cooking of bread

To obtain crusty bread, firm but not hard, bakers use the fogging effect. To do this, put in the oven in the first part of baking a tray of 1 cup (250ml) boiling water. Then, before starting the second half, brush the bread with a mixture of warm water and salt (½ tsp). Re-stain as many times as necessary if the crust hardens quickly and bread still sounds “full.” Also Read: How to Buy Herbs and Spices