Bread

Bread is a science, but a human science. Temperatures and time and ratios of ingredients and moisture and all those things form chemical reactions which produce a loaf of bread. But most people just learn the chemistry through feel, and that's what I'm doing.


O N E . L O A F . O F . B R E A D


1:
PROOF THE YEAST

Yeast is a little animal that eats sugar and poops out air and a bit of booze. It needs to be about body temperature to do this, and it needs sugar to eat in the first place.

One cup of warm water, a few tablespoons of sugar (honey, maple syrup, etc) and about 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast, stirred and left to bubble is part of the fine science. If the water is too hot you'll kill it. If it's too cold it will go to sleep.

2:
MAKE A SPONGE

Add about 2 and a half cups of flour (whatever flour), one tablespoon of melted butter and some more sugar (how sweet do you want it?), mix it all up and make sure it stays in a warm place. It will grow and bubble and be sticky.

3.
MAKE A DRY DOUGH AND MASH THE GLUTEN TOGETHER

I like to pour a bunch of flour on the table and pour my sponge onto it, working the flour from the table into the dough until the dough stops absorbing the flour. I had to go a little drier than my intuition told me. Knead the dough and imagine that you're mashing the gluten in the flour together so that when the yeast poops out the air, the gluten won't let it get out. This is how bread rises.

4.
LET IT RISE

Put some oil on your dough and place it in a bowl. Put it in a warm place to rise until it gets big.

5.
PUNCH THE AIR OUT

Punch it down so there are no giant bubbles and let it rise a bit more. After it rises, if you are making multiple loaves, divide them here.

6.
BAKE

Grease up a pan, maybe sprinkling some flour over it. I like to grease my loaf too. Preheat to 375, but turn it down to 350 when you put the loaves in. Bake until slightly gold on top, and hollow sounding when tapped, about 25-30 minutes. Brush the top of the loaf with oil to keep it moist.

Use cloth or paper to store it.