The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [169]
PEEKING
Big windows are fun, but they let precious heat escape, contributing to loaves’ collapsing from being both over-risen and undercooked in the center. (Don’t cover the window, however! It can melt.) With good light, you can check progress just fine through a small window, and anyway, except during the last rise and bake, there’s no reason not to lift the lid to see how things are going.
Tips: Starting Out
You can save yourself some gruesome loaves if you read the directions in your manual and follow them step-by-step. We will be suggesting some changes, but the basics are basic—and not always intuitive. Here are a few things the manual may not tell you:
GET IT TOGETHER
Array the recipe’s ingredients in front of you before you start. It is very easy to forget the salt, and, astonishingly, very easy to forget the yeast. (Top professionals always do this—the setting-things-out part!) It’s called mise en place.
MEASURING
Please don’t yawn! Accurate measuring is a hot topic when you bake in a bread machine. It really is better to spoon, not scoop, the flour, and liquid measuring really does need to be done in a clear, calibrated cup you can see at eye level. Really do use a flat knife to level cups and spoons.
All that said, measuring spoons and cups, surprisingly, vary a lot. And after awhile, you’ll tweak the amounts to suit your own flour, machine, and teaspoons—but will you remember? Keep a notebook; you will be so glad if you do!
If you have a kitchen scale, use it. Weighing is far more accurate, and much easier. “The difference between bricks and beauties,” says a friend who loves her flea-market scale.
Subtle variations in different batches of wheat affect the amount of liquid required to make just-right dough. Natural whole wheat flour, unlike white flour, is not standardized. Except for supermarket brands, whole wheat flour is simply wheat grains put through a mill—no separating or blending, no additives or chemical conditioners. So, in some years, in some fields’ grain, there will be a little more starch; in others, a little more protein; and you will notice these differences from time to time.
Last, because it doesn’t make the dough wet in the way that water does, oil is not quite a “liquid.” Honey, on the other hand, definitely is liquid, and maple syrup, too, so be sure to count them in the liquid measure. Also eggs.
AFTER BAKING
Set your baked loaf on a soft towel, not a rack. Remove the paddle if it’s stuck, and then wrap the towel over the loaf while the loaf cools. Because of the low temperature at which bread machines bake, a newly finished loaf is fragile inside and benefits from slow cooling before you slice it. Keeping it wrapped helps the inside finish baking and also somewhat tenderizes the (generally formidable) crust. Both make slicing less likely to crush the loaf to smithereens. (Even Laurel waits, mostly.)
If you do need to have a taste immediately, use a long sharp serrated knife, and, if possible, cut off just one crust.
CLEANING UP
After you remove the loaf, run some hot soapy water into the bucket. In a few minutes, it’s easy to clean the inside with a soft brush. Be very careful to protect the nonstick surfaces, including the paddle.
“Careful cleaning between bakings lengthens the life of any machine,” a repairman told us sternly, “even if you have to use dental tools.” He suggested vacuuming the inside of the outer container.
HELPFUL GIZMOS
A heatproof silicon-rubber spatula loosens a stuck loaf without hurting the nonstick surface. Get a bright color and keep it with the machine, so you’ll use it to level your measures. It’s also handy for poking and prodding the dough when you feel like doing that.
A size-K