Bread Baking Tips
Basic Tips for Baking BreadBaking bread in itself is a kind of craft or art form. You have to
know the key tips to make a delicious and golden loaf come out
just right. These keys and tips will help your next bread come out
delightfully tasteful and beautiful.
Flour is a very important ingredient for a perfect outcome when baking bread. Using bread flours with
ten to fourteen percent protein content work the best for bread baking and are most used in most
recipes for breads. Make sure the bag of flour has labeled “bread” flour on it because this type of flour
works better and will give you a more positive consistency in your finished bread loaves.
Another successful key to excellent bread baking is with the rising of your dough. Problems can crop
up when you don’t allow your dough to rise properly. When dough has doubled its size, the look of it
will be airy and soft, and if touched with a finger it should make an indentation and remain where you
touched it. If the dough bounces back out or is really springy to the touch and the indentation pops out
of shape instead of staying indented then your dough has not risen enough to continue.
You need to measure your water accurately and carefully in exact amounts to keep the bread dough
from becoming very dry or wet. Most bread dough should be only a little sticky feeling, soft and dry
enough to the point you can handle it with a small amount of flour upon your hands.
Once loaves are placed into your oven for baking, give them plenty of room between one another and
away from the oven walls also for best results. When air in the oven doesn’t properly circulate, the
loaves could become mis-shaped in their appearance.
Most Common Mistakes When Baking Bread
Baking bread is a necessity for all of us who love fresh bread and baking the perfect loaf is often
times difficult. Here you will find a few of the most common mistakes bakers have made when
baking breads and tips on how to salvage the outcome.
One common mistake in bread baking is over rising of your dough, which can make the bread fall
when baking. The fix for this problem can be done by using kitchen shears to remove the excess of
dough (unbaked), from the sides of the loaves within the loaf pans.
Oh No! You forgot to add the salt to your dough. No problem! Simply make a sticky note to yourself to
add salt to the dough and place strategically somewhere you will definitely see it as a reminder for
the salt addition.
Another mistake commonly made is getting the water too hot when putting into your yeast for mixing.
This mistake will lead to your dough not rising. To fix this mistake use a thermometer for to measure
the water’s temperature before adding it to the yeast for best results.
The mistake of burning bread happens all too commonly. You get busy helping the kids with
homework, chatting on the phone, or watching your favorite show and the bread is forgotten. To keep
this from happening, remember to always set timers in the kitchen or even on your wrist watch, to let
you know when the breads baking time is up and needs to be taken out of the oven. Also, follow
recipe temperature recommendations and times for baking to make perfect loaves.
Don’t worry if one or more of these happen to you, remember baking bread is a skill best learned by
trying and trying again. You will have a sense of accomplishment when your bread comes out of the
oven perfectly baked.
