Free Use Your Loaf: How to bake bread at home and get perfect results by Jason Daly Page A

dough should never stick to a well
floured linen cloth. Alternatively you could sit your dough on a wooden
chopping board or even a piece of plywood.
     
    Optional extras include loaf tins, proving baskets, a baking
stone (plus peel) and a food processor with a dough hook. Proving baskets come
in various shapes and sizes and can be cheap (wicker or plastic) or quite
expensive (cane and usually linen lined).
    Without a doubt, the best way to bake bread is on a baking
stone. You can use a pizza stone which is available in many kitchen shops, but
it would be better if you measure your oven and go and buy the best fitting
paving stone you can find. If you do use a stone you will need a peel which is
basically a type of shovel – a sheet of wood or metal with a handle. It is used
to slide bread onto your baking stone in the oven. Either buy one or make one.
    If you don’t use a baking stone, use the heaviest baking
tray you have, and you won’t need the peel either as this can be taken out of
the oven.
    I
use a spray bottle to spray my dough with water before it goes into the oven.
    If
the thought of kneading fills you with dread, you could opt to use a food
processor with a dough hook attachment. In fact they can be very useful when
working with very wet dough such as ciabatta.
    What
ingredients will I need?
    Bread only has four basic ingredients although others can
be added. The four main ingredients are flour, yeast, salt and water.
    Flour is by far the most important ingredient so try to buy the best organic flour
you can afford. Wheat prices have soared recently, but remember, the cost of a
loaf made at home is roughly half that of shop bought bread.
    Check for any
additives especially with white flour, as they may have bleaching agents added
to make them whiter – how pointless! If you can find it, organic stoneground
flour is best.
    Wheat
flour is the most common type of flour in the UK. A grain of wheat is actually
a seed consisting of 3 parts: bran, germ and endosperm. The bran is the tough
outer skin, the germ is the embryonic wheat plant and the endosperm is used as
a food source by the germ in early development. The bran is a rich source of
protein, the germ a good source of vitamins, and the endosperm a great source
of carbohydrates, plus some protein, minerals and oil.
    You
may be thinking, “So what! Why is he telling me this?” Well, all these
components have an effect on the bread making process. Plus, I think it’s
important to understand what is going on during the process, and in this way
you will give the whole task more respect. Also, understanding what your kneading
is doing will almost certainly make you a better baker.
    So,
the carbohydrates are used as fuel by the yeast, the proteins bond to form the
all important gluten strands, and the minerals are used to strengthen the
gluten strands. The oil helps to maintain moisture thus keeping your bread
softer for longer.
    Delving
a bit deeper into the science of bread making (sorry!), something happens when
water is added to flour and that is the formation of gluten. Gluten is formed
by the bonding of two proteins, gliadin and glutenin. Gluten is an elastic
protein that can be really stretched to form long strands. The more it is
worked, the longer and stretchier it becomes. These strands form a complex mesh
which helps to trap carbon dioxide bubbles produced by yeast, thus creating gas
bubbles inside your dough. This is the process you are encouraging when
kneading your dough, so as you can hopefully appreciate, well kneaded dough is
a prerequisite for a well formed loaf.
    There
are five main types of wheat flour and they are generally graded by how much
high quality protein (and hence gluten) is present in the flour.
    Strong flour (or bread flour) has a high proportion
of high quality protein which will yield a high percentage of gluten (around
15%). This is the flour needed for typical bread made with yeast. Yeasted bread
is commonly known as leavened