Making bread at home is not too difficult. This article offers tips and tricks needed to make the best bread in the kitchen of our home.
Differences between an industrial bread and natural one
In the Industrial Revolution bread ceases to be in homes, becoming almost exclusive production of bakeries, many of which begin to adulterate flour with bleach (alum) and products to “fatten” (lime, bone meal).
- The industrial bread is a cocktail of industrial yeasts and / or baking powder and chemical oxidants, along with refined flour from cereals impregnated toxic substances and even genetically modified. Refined salt and tap water is added, chlorinated and devitalized. Baked in aluminum molds, and for conservation they are full of preservatives (E- …) and even lactose.
- Industrial breads that are sold as “whole” are nothing more than white flour and bran. A whole wheat bread is the one part of the flour resulting from grinding whole grain cereal.
- In addition, most of these industrial breads are made with common wheat (Triticum aestivum), a species that is far from their ancestral relative, and for that reason does not recognize our enzymes. For all these reasons there are so many intolerance to wheat (IgG) today, and many people with celiac disease.
Ingredients
- Wholemeal ecological. Opting for buckwheat, wheat “kamut”, rye or buckwheat.
- Spring water or filtered water warm, 40% of the total weight of the dough.
- Sea salt, unrefined without caking.
- Sourdough or sourdough.
- Mold stainless steel or clay unvarnished.
You can carry seeds or nuts, good quality oil, pumpkin, carrots, herbs, spices, egg, oil purees … Lowering the amount of water if we add ingredients that already contain it, and fats decrease the ability of levedar of ferments.
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How to make bread at home
If you want to know how bread is made keep in mind the following tips:
- Mix all dry ingredients together (flour, salt, sourdough, spices, nuts, seeds, herbs …). Oleaginous ingredients as eggs or purees (tahini type) will be added once the first are fully mixed. Work the dough and then add the liquid ingredients (water, vegetable milk, vegetable juices, honey …). Always put half of total liquid in the dry mass and adding slowly the rest, while mixing.
- Add the seeds and nuts when the dough is smooth and not sticky. If the dough is very mazacote we can rectify it with more liquid.
- Heñido: stretching, folding, compressing and re-stretching, folding and compress several times in order to strengthen the fabric of gluten. This favor the airy, and the more times this process is done, the finer the final texture of the bread and finish your alveolar smaller.
- Swollen: the first fermentation. We cover the dough with a clean, dry cloth cotton, and keep it at 27˚ C for 2 hours. You can put in the oven and closed off with a bowl of very hot water. Heat and light humidity are two key elements in the fermentation of the dough. The mass is to acquire twice its original size and sink your finger on it should be preserved the brand without regain form.
- Priming: is the second fermentation. We must knead again to degas the dough and the gluten is fully developed and harden more. After that, we give you the desired shape and place it in the pan on a baking paper (no waxes or silicones). Let stand covered with a clean , dry cloth cotton inside the oven for 45 ‘. It can also be left cooled, in order to make the process slower and allow us to better allocate our time so that we could do everything said by the evening, leave refrigerated in its second fermentation overnight, and bake in the morning.
- Roasting: before which incisions with a very sharp knife or scissors are practiced. It can be done in traditional bakery ovens (350-450˚C maximum), in the modern metal (250˚C maximum) or steam (90˚C maximum). To verify that the bread is cooked, simply hit the bottom and check that the bread sounds hollow.
- Cooling: the bread out of the oven inside still wet, so we must remove the mold and place on a grill. And, although it is difficult, not cut until it has cooled. This point is key for the bread is kept longer.
- Conservation: To learn how bread is made remembers this another key point. Store in bread basket or wrap it in a clean, dry cloth cotton, once it has cooled. To prevent drying, arrange the cut side on a plate, and cover with the rest of the cloth. Avoid the refrigerator: in an experiment to 7C stored bread aged much in a day as did another in six days and 30˚C. Refrigerate, wrapped, only if you are going to toast or reheat later. You can also freeze (wrap in paper bag and then in plastic bag (avoid direct contact of plastic with food in our refrigerators and our ovens! We do not want endocrine disruptors!).
- Tasting: I love a splash of organic olive oil and 1st cold pressing.
Our advice
- Do not put more yeast / sourdough account, because the bread left with unpleasant taste and will not rise.
- Avoid temperature changes while fermenting.
- Do not put the yeast / sourdough in direct contact with the salt.
- Beware the temperature of the liquid part. The optimum point will give us the power to introduce a finger without getting burned.