The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [10]
Beginners: don’t be intimidated! Perhaps you’ll feel there’s an awful lot to read here, a lot to understand, but plunge right in anyway, and get your hands on the dough. It all makes much more sense much more easily when you’re doing, rather than staring at the pages. Besides, nobody takes it all in the first time through. Beginners and old hands alike find that each time they follow Loaf, some aspect of baking falls into place, or some mystery is resolved.
Some people seem to think that learning more about it will make a dreary science out of what should be a joyful art, and this is quite an understandable viewpoint. But as we worked to make this book we found that every discovery not only made our bread better, but gave us a sense of control, even a thrill of understanding. As for the challenge and excitement, the suspense and mystery, the sense of loving cooperation with the living thing that is dough—this grows with every baking even still, after nearly five years’ immersion in the process. Maybe a pertinent analogy would be a musical one: learning to read a score or play a cello doesn’t decrease your enthusiasm for Bach, but rather makes you all the more appreciative; and as you learn to play really well, your own enjoyment increases along with the quality of your music.
A Loaf for Learning concentrates on the skills that you need to master if you want to make Light Bread. It isn’t that the only good bread in the world is the puffy sort—far from it! But once you know what to do to produce a high-rising loaf, you can turn confidently to any bread recipe and expect good results.
The first part of Loaf for Learning goes through the baking process from beginning to end in detail. In the second part are questions and answers about breadmaking—about the ingredients, the techniques, the dough.… To make these pages as helpful as possible, we have drawn upon advice of professional bakers, cereals scientists, and friends who bake a lot at home—and then put it all to work in our own kitchens. The result, we think, is a unique and helpful guide to baking good bread.
Rockbottom Essentials
These few things are essential. There is much, much more about each of these ingredients elsewhere in the book and for more information, refer to the pages noted. But whatever recipe you choose in this book, please follow the simple guidelines given here.
FLOUR
Freshness Whole wheat flour, unlike white flour, is perishable and must be fresh to make good bread. If you buy packaged flour and can’t read the “pull date” on it, ask your storekeeper. Don’t try to make bread with whole-grain flour that has been on the shelf for more than 2 months. If you are in doubt, taste a pinch. There should be no bitterness. When you get the flour home, refrigerate it, wrapped airtight. The day before you bake, take what you will need out to come to room temperature before you use it.
Type To achieve a light loaf of yeasted bread you need flour that is high in protein. Look for “bread” flour or flour milled from hard red spring wheat, hard red winter wheat, or hard white wheat. Hard red spring wheat usually makes the lightest loaves. If none of these are on the bag, but there is a nutrition profile, look for a protein content of 14% or more, by weight. “All purpose” flour and pastry flour make tender quick breads, muffins and pancakes, but they do not have enough gluten protein to make light yeasted breads.
Grind A very fine grind will make the lightest loaves, all other factors being equal, but many people prefer coarser stoneground flour for flavor and texture in some breads. More about flour and milling.
YEAST
We call for active dry yeast because it is available everywhere and is reliable. The usual amount called for is two teaspoons, which is one packet. If you prefer moist