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

bread. Bread flour may be white, brown or
wholemeal.
    Plain or soft flour has poorer quality proteins and
produce a lower percentage of gluten ((7-9%). As the gluten is formed from
poorer quality proteins it is less elastic and tends to snap. This means that
the strands can’t form a mesh to trap the gas bubbles resulting in a crumbly
texture. However, this property makes this flour perfect for making cakes and
pastries.
    Self-raising flour is basically plain flour with
added raising agents and is primarily used for cake baking. However, it can be
used in some non yeasted breads such as soda bread.
    Malted
grain flour is a type of blended flour. Malting is used on grains to encourage
the production of sugars and these are dried and roasted to capture the sweet
flavour. These grains are then blended into strong flour (normally brown) to
produce a variety of breads such as malted grain and cobber.
    Durum (or 00) flour is the final type of wheat flour.
This flour is produced from durum wheat and is the flour of choice when making
pasta but it can be used in bread making too. It works well in ciabatta and
focaccia which is not surprising as it is an Italian grade of flour.
    There
are other grain flours available which can be used to make your bread, such as
spelt and rye flour. Spelt flour forms gluten that is more digestible than
wheat flour and has a slightly nutty taste which makes great bread. Rye flour,
on the other hand, makes a dense cakey loaf that is still delicious. It has
this texture because the proteins only form weak gluten strands in quite small
quantities. Try replacing some strong flour with rye flour to produce a lighter
loaf.
    Nowadays
gluten free bread is more widely available for those who suffer from wheat
intolerance. It tends to be a blend of rice, potato and tapioca. They also tend
to have a gluten substitute added such as xanthan gum.
    Yeast is the next ingredient. Yeasts are living
micro-organisms. They belong to the genus Saccaromyces – this literally means
“sugar fungus.” They obtain energy by breaking down carbohydrates and as they
respire they produce carbon dioxide gas. When you add water to flour and yeast,
the yeast starts to convert starch into sugars. As they do so they release
carbon dioxide and alcohol. The carbon dioxide forms bubbles of gas which get
trapped by the gluten mesh and this causes the dough to expand or “rise.” The
yeasts reproduce at a prolific rate which in turn means more carbon dioxide and
more rising. All this activity also raises the temperature of the dough. This
process is known as fermentation and the longer bread is left to ferment the
better.
    There
are two types of yeast available to the aspiring baker. The first is fresh
yeast. If you do use fresh yeast, only buy a little at a time as it will only
keep for around two weeks. Because of this I tend to stick with the second type
of yeast, namely dried yeast. Dried yeast has a long shelf life, but don’t use
it past its use-by date as it will have become less active. Most dried yeasts
are powders and I tend to use the ones labelled as fast-action or quick yeast.
    Salt is the next ingredient. Salt in itself is not an
essential ingredient but it does help to tighten the gluten mesh, thus
increasing stability and the efficiency in how it traps bubbles of gas. This
means your dough will rise higher. One word of caution: if using fresh yeast,
keep it away from salt as it will kill the yeast cells. Add them one at a time
and mix it into the flour so the effect will be diluted as they are blended in.
As you probably know, salt is also a well-known preservative, so salted bread
will generally keep for longer. Always use finely ground salt – table salt is
fine (and cheap).
    Water is the final ingredient. Tap water is fine but
it needs to be warm to help increase the activity of the yeast. The temperature
should be around 30-40 o C. It must NOT be hot water, as anything
above 60 o C will kill the yeast. Some people