• What does hydration even mean?
• How do we calculate bread hydration?
• What is considered high hydration or low hydration?
• Which ingredients besides water count towards hydration
• What about different flours?
• Is higher hydration always better?
• Why should I care about hydration?
• What about sourdough bread hydration?
• But what does hydration do?
• What about butter, eggs, fresh fruit, or other ingredients
• Does anything other than flour count as flour when calculating hydration?
• Are there any tips for dealing with high-hydration breads?
How to Develop Gluten Without Kneading
How does the no-knead bread recipe, which, appropriately, has no kneading involved, produce the same effect?
Improving No-Knead Bread
In 2006, Mark Bittman introduced the world to a new baking concept based on science but defied logic. The No-Knead Bread recipe combine flour, yeast, & salt in a bowl. Add water & stir with a spoon. Allow to sit overnight or even longer & shape into loaf & allow to rise. Bake in a preheated Dutch oven.
What emerges from the Dutch oven is a crisp, crackly, deeply coloured loaf of bread with a crust that snaps & pops as it cools. Slice into the bread & you see the open, airy, wildly bubbly crumb of the best artisanal bakeries with a tender, chewy texture. Nearly perfect bread, in other words
Now, there are those (including myself) who’d criticize the flavour. The original recipe was under-seasoned (as Lahey himself has even admitted), & with its short, warm fermentation period, it doesn’t develop the rich, complex, malty flavours of a truly great loaf. But these are minor quibbles in what is otherwise a completely revolutionary recipe.
Even more intriguing is how it works; by understanding the how, we can then modify the recipe to fit many different baking situations, even improving its flavour.
Let’s take a look at the awesome science behind this equally awesome recipe.
Going Dutch: Why Baking Bread in a Dutch Oven Works
While the no-knead part of the no-knead dough recipe certainly has some cool action going on, at least for home bread bakers, the real important innovation is baking the bread in a Dutch oven, & it works in two ways: by increasing the radiant energy heating the bread, & by increasing the humidity of the baking environment.
A ball of dough isn’t the homogeneous blob that it appears to be. It’s in fact a very complex network of bubbles of carbon dioxide gas both large & small produced as living yeast consumes sugars. These bubbles are separated by thin, stretchy, flexible sheets of gluten, the network of proteins that provides structure to good bread.
How does a ball of raw dough go from being small & dense to large, light, & airy? Through a phenomenon known as oven spring.
When that dough first enters a hot oven, both the carbon dioxide gas inside those bubbles as well as some of the water vapor trapped in them begin to expand due to the increase in heat. This expansion causes the stretchy bubbles to inflate—only for a short period of time. Eventually, the proteins that make up the gluten will coagulate & set, preventing the dough from expanding any more. The trick to airy bread is to get those bubbles to increase in size as rapidly as possible, giving them plenty of volume before the proteins have time to set.
This is accomplished by transferring as much energy as possible as fast as possible to the dough, & that’s where the Dutch oven comes in. “We get inordinately obsessed with temperatures. I can’t get my oven up to 315°C, or the floor of that wood fired pizza oven gets to 425°C! In reality, it’s not temperature that matters, but energy, & the transfer thereof”.
Consider the below. Place your Dutch oven inside a 260°C oven & give it an hour or so to heat up. The air inside your Dutch oven is going to be at or around 260°C, equivalent to the internal oven temperature. There’s no way for it to get hotter, because unless you are providing some sort of external energy source, there’s no way for an object to get hotter than its surroundings. Logic, However, place something inside that 260°C Dutch oven, & you’ll transfer energy to it far faster than you would if you placed that same something on the shelf of your oven: the transfer of radiant heat comes into play in this instance.
The thick cast iron or stainless steel, or ceramic sides of a Dutch oven can hold onto a massive amount of heat energy, & that energy is constantly being emitted in the form of electro-magnetic radiation. A Dutch oven is so much smaller than that of a commercial or home oven, & because radiant energy decays over distance, objects inside the small, enclosed space of a Dutch oven absorb much more energy through radiation than an object sitting in the centre of a large oven.don’t you agree!
The Importance of Humidity
There’s another factor involved: humidity. Professional bakers often use steam-injected ovens in order to increase the humidity of the baking environment. This is because moist air transfers heat much more efficiently than dry air, once again increasing the rate of transfer of energy between the oven & the loaf of bread. Moisture also causes starches on the surface of the dough to gelatinize, a key step in producing the microscopic bubbles & bumps that add crunch & texture to your bread.
So that covers the baking method, & truth be told, it’s a method that works no matter how you make your original dough. Now we can look at the actual “no-knead” part of the no-knead bread recipe.
The what, why, & how of bread hydration.
The below is an extract from an article from King Arthur Bakery
Bread is made with only a few ingredients, flour & water being the most fundamental of them. Understanding the ratio between them, also known as hydration (or dough or bread hydration) can tell you a great deal about what qualities to expect from your dough & your finished loaf. From home bakers to seasoned professionals, hydration is a topic that always generates questions, so below we’re answering some of the most common ones.
What does hydration even mean? In breadmaking, hydration refers to the total quantity of moisture in a bread dough. We quantify it using a ratio found by dividing the total weight of water (or water-containing liquids such as milk, juice, tea, or even alcohol) by the total weight of flour in a given recipe. The ratio of the two numbers (water / flour), written as a percentage, mathematically expresses what is referred to as hydration. Bakers often refer to doughs like our Pan de Cristal (100%) as high hydration, or “slack,” whereas a firmer dough like our Easiest Loaf of Bread You’ll Ever Bake (63%) may be referred to as medium hydration, or “stiff.”
Hydration affects doughs at every step of the breadmaking process, from how we mix & develop strength to how we fold, shape, & even bake. If you understand hydration, you’ll bake better bread.
Why should I care about hydration? While we do need water to make bread (& even cookies, crackers, or cakes) we don’t necessarily need to know things like hydration percentage or how it affects doughs to make great bread. That said, understanding hydration & its role in baking can help improve the quality & consistency of your breadmaking while also giving clues about how a dough will perform.
Here’s an example. If I go to make a recipe with all-purpose flour & a hydration percentage in the 75% to 85% range, I know before even mixing the dough that it will likely be slack or sticky. And similarly, a recipe hydrated in the 55% to 65% range will likely feel firm or even stiff. This knowledge helps guide my approach to the recipe while also enabling me to compare recipes in an “apples to apples” fashion.
Bonnie Ohara, baker, author, & owner of Alchemy Bread in Modesto, California, emphasizes the value of understanding hydration: “Knowing hydration can be a context clue when communicating with other bakers about a recipe.” She explains that knowing hydration is a good starting point to deepen your understanding of how to handle tricky doughs or troubleshoot problems.
To take this a step further, if I know a dough is high hydration (let’s say 80% or higher, roughly), the dough will likely present as slack & sticky, possibly requiring some adjustments in how I handle it.
And by the same token, a firm dough (in the low 60s for hydration) may require less folding or other handling during fermentation. The big takeaway here is that knowing hydration is like checking the weather before setting out for a road trip. It prepares you for the conditions ahead.
How do we calculate bread hydration? Hydration is calculated by taking the weight of water or liquid in a recipe & dividing it by the weight of flour to get a percentage.
Let’s look at an example recipe:
Flour: 1,000gms
Water: 750gms
Salt: 20gms
Yeast: 10gms
Hydration = water / flour. So in the recipe above, if water is 750gms & flour is 1,000gms, the total hydration of the dough is 750 / 1,000, or 75%.
Another example: If a recipe has the same weight of flour & water (let’s say 750g of each), then the hydration would be 100%.
The significance of hydration ratio to flour cannot be underestimated; all recipes in this module & those included in “BNG Trading Pizza Techniques & Styles” all clearly identify the hydration ratio.
What about sourdough bread hydration? Does the flour & water in my sourdough starter or other preferments count towards the total hydration of my recipe?
Yes. Hydration refers to the total quantity of water in the final dough. Both the flour & water amount in a sourdough preferment or sourdough culture should be considered when factoring hydration. Think of it like this: Everything that comprises the loaf you place in the oven should be considered as part of the loaf.
Let’s investigate further. Here are the ingredients for a sourdough “country-style” loaf. While this example is a little more daunting, always consider that the total quantity of water divided by total quantity of flour = total hydration.
All-purpose flour: 400gms
Whole wheat flour: 50gms
Rye flour: 50gms
Water: 375gms
Salt: 11gms
Sourdough preferment: 100gms (consisting of 50gms flour & 50gms/mls water)
Let’s do a simple calculation:
Water: 375g (in the final mix) + 50g (in the preferment) = 425g
Flour: 400gms all-purpose + 50g whole wheat + 50g rye (all in the final mix) + 50g (in the preferment) = 550g
These numbers mean that this loaf has 77% hydration (425 / 550 = .77).
What is considered high hydration or low hydration? High hydration refers to doughs that are often in excess of 80% hydration. In some cases, hydration may actually exceed 100% due to the thirsty needs of high protein or whole-grain flours (such as our bread flour or whole wheat). In those situations, the recipe has more water than flour. At the other end of the spectrum are doughs that fall around 60% hydration, which would be considered low hydration or “stiff.”
But what does hydration do? The importance of water in our baked goods cannot be overstated: No water, no bread (or coffee cake, or cookies, or almost any other baked good). Water enables fermentation, hydrates starches & proteins, & positively impacts texture, flavor, crumb, & keeping qualities. So, the more insight we have into the hydration of our doughs, the more we can understand how to use it to our advantage & understand the recipe or breads we’re baking.
Which ingredients besides water count towards hydration? There are no hard rules here. Beyond water I treat liquids such as milk, tea, coffee, beer, wine, juice, kombucha, or kvass as water in terms of hydration. While the quantity of solids or subcomponents (juice pulp, milk solids, fat, alcohol, etc.) do vary in each example, there’s enough water to count them as hydration.
What about butter, eggs, fresh fruit, or other ingredients with significant water content?
While it’s true that these all contain water & have impacts on doughs, for bread we generally don’t consider them as part of the hydration percentage. We do think about the functional impacts, however.
For example, in baker’s math terms, brioche dough is often 50% butter, 50% whole eggs, & 10% water or milk. While the hydration percentage looks extremely low — too low to even hydrate the flour, yeast, or sugar — the dough still works beautifully. Why? Because the eggs are roughly 75% water, & the butter also contains around 18% water.
What about different flours? Does hydration change when I switch from all-purpose to a whole-grain flour in bread?
The way hydration is calculated doesn’t change with flour types. So, 1,000 grams of flour & 750 grams of water will always be 75% hydration; it doesn’t matter if the flour is rye, whole wheat, buckwheat, or gluten-free.
However, whole-grain flours are “thirstier,” & doughs made with whole-grain flours typically require more water. As a result, a dough made with all-purpose flour & hydrated at 75% will feel significantly softer than an equally hydrated whole wheat dough.
Does anything other than flour count as flour when calculating hydration? For flour percentages, the best practice is to only include the milled product of grains. While cocoa powder, dry milk powder, potato flour, freeze-dried fruit powders, & other ingredients do absorb water from the dough, we do not consider them as part of the flour percentage. But, as with water content in eggs, do always consider the impact of any ingredient on hydration.
Is higher hydration always better? There has been a trend toward higher hydration doughs, with the perception that the higher the hydration, the more skilled the bake, prompting the question: Is wetter really better? The answer is … “Maybe. Sometimes. Not always.” Each dough has its own sweet spot. Wet or high-hydration doughs “promote better extensibility, better fermentation, moister crumb, & better keeping quality.” But with wetter doughs come challenges. They take “more skill to handle & shape, require longer bakes, & often have thicker crusts.”
Further, he noted that with enriched doughs such as challah, higher hydration can really be a problem, producing “slumpy finished products & less strand definition.” Ultimately, low-hydration doughs can have great applications in baking. From loaves that look better with definition (as with braids), to bagels or pretzels, which have a more closed crumb structure & toothy chew, too much water can sometimes ruin the day.
Can I adjust hydration? Yes! Hydration can be adjusted at any point. It’s something that professional bakers adjust in small degrees while mixing; we add a little water if a dough feels “thirsty” or hold some if necessary, depending on the season or flour composition. Do not hesitate to make small adjustments when swapping whole-grain flour into a recipe or adapting to dry seasonal conditions on the fly.
But for any big, longstanding changes (in the case of water, let’s say a change bigger than 3% to 5%), I recommend working with baker’s math to calculate adjustments & ensure that ratios between ingredients remain intact. So, if a dough sits at 74% hydration & I consistently add what I calculate to be a full additional 3% of water, I’ll eventually make that change in my files, updating the formula to reflect the 77% hydration baguette that I like to make.
Are there any tips for dealing with high-hydration breads? There is a learning curve with high-hydration doughs. It’s important to begin with breadmaking fundamentals, gaining experience folding doughs, maintaining leavens, shaping, scoring, & loading. Then as skills & confidence build, practice shaping gently, & folding for strength as I suggest in our hydration tips video. So, before you go to the 100% hydration Pan de Cristal (& the even wetter chocolate version), maybe you try our 80% hydration Pain de Campagne & get comfortable with the folding methods & dough handling.
How to Develop Gluten Without Kneading
It’s impossible you say! From experience, I know that in order to produce great bread, I need to knead the dough until it forms a significant amount of gluten.
Let’s take a look at the dough on a microscopic level & see what’s really going on.
Flour is composed mainly of two things: starch & proteins. Of these proteins, glutenin & gliadin are the most important. They’re the good guys who get together to form gluten.
In their normal state, the long protein strands are tangled up with themselves, like a knotted fishing line. Your goal is to untangle the proteins, tie them together into a longer line, then use those lines to weave a net, which can be used to trap carbon dioxide produced by yeast. This is what kneading accomplishes.
By gently rubbing the proteins against each other, you stretch them out & cause them to line up & cross-link. With enough kneading, you eventually form them into sheets of gluten.
How does the no-knead bread recipe, which, appropriately, has no kneading involved, produce the same effect?
With the help of enzymes. Flour naturally contains enzymes that break down long proteins into shorter ones in a process called autolysis (auto meaning “self” & lysis meaning “break down”). Bakers have known about this process for years, & many incorporate an autolysis step into their recipes, mixing together flour & water & allowing it to rest before adding the remaining ingredients & kneading.
After the proteins break down into shorter pieces in this way, they become much easier to untangle & re-align, greatly increasing the efficiency of kneading.
The No-Knead Bread recipe simply takes this concept to the extreme. After you mix your ingredients together & let them sit around at room temperature for a long, long time (at least 12 hours, & up to 24—remember, there’s salt in the dough which inhibits autolysis, so you need to compensate for this),
Salt v Sugar: Let dissect the role both salt & sugar play in the development of bread dough
Salt plays several important roles in bread dough:
1. Controls Yeast Fermentation: Salt slows down the activity of yeast in bread dough12. This reduction in water slows the yeast’s ability to conduct its fermentation process. The correct balance of salt in a bread dough helps gas production to be distributed evenly.
2. Strengthens Gluten: Salt strengthens the gluten strands in the dough, enabling it to hold carbon dioxide more efficiently. This is important because carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the fermentation occurring.
3. Improves Flavour & Texture: Salt helps to balance the sweetness of the dough & the astringency of alcohol. It helps the dough to rise without tearing to produce bread with better colour & a higher rise.
4. Preserves Bread: Salt is the original flavour enhancer & preservative, & is just as popular in the production of food today as it was centuries ago.
Sugar plays several key roles in bread development:
1. Enhances Flavour: Sugar enhances the flavour of bread. It provides a pleasant sweetness that balances out the taste of other ingredients1. It also helps to round out the flavour profile & create a more enjoyable eating experience1.
2. Feeds Yeast for Fermentation: Sugar is a source of food for yeast, the microorganisms responsible for fermentation in bread dough1. Yeast consumes sugar & converts it into carbon dioxide gas & alcohol through a process called fermentation1. The carbon dioxide gas produced by yeast creates air pockets in the dough, causing it to rise & give the bread its light & airy texture1.
3. Promotes Browning: Sugar aids in the browning process during baking1. As the bread bakes, the sugar caramelizes & develops a golden-brown crust1. This not only adds visual appeal but also contributes to the flavour by creating a slightly caramelized & rich taste1.
4. Retains Moisture & Increases Shelf Life: Sugar holds onto moisture, which keeps the bread fresh for longer2. It also increases the shelf life of the bread1.
5. Balances Overall Taste Profile: Sugar helps to balance the flavours by reducing the perception of bitterness1. It counteracts any bitter taste that may be present in the bread due to ingredients such as hole grains or certain flour
But I thought this was no knead dough
Yes, indeed it is, & truth be told, there is some kneading going on, but it’s not being done by you, nor any other human, for that matter. It’s the yeast. Let’s take a quick look through a time lapse series of photos of the dough as it sits overnight
0 Hours: Dough is still lumpy. Gluten formation is minimal.
4 Hours: Enzymatic action has broken down some proteins, causing the dough to slacken & spread.
8 Hours: Yeast has produced quite a bit of carbon dioxide. As these bubbles slowly grow, their stretching causes proteins around their edges to align with each other.
12 Hours: Slowly but surely, the bubbles moving through the dough, effectively forming the same gluten that would be formed by manual labour.
16 Hours: The yeast has completed its task, both leavening & kneading the dough for you
What you’re left with is a slack, easy-to-work dough that stretches beautifully, & bakes up with excellent gluten structure & massive bubble formation. Since no-knead doughs require a large amount of hydration (usually water has to make up at least 70% of the weight of the flour, as opposed to, say, white bread which is closer to 60% or a baguette, which is more like 65%), they can be a little challenging for first time bakers to work with. They stretch easily, practically pouring out of their rising vessel.
Improving No-Knead Bread
Yeast produces different byproducts depending on the temperature it ferments at. Dough formed with a warm ferment ends up with a sour, yeasty off-flavour, as opposed to the richer, malt like aromas you get from bread fermented at cooler temperatures; giving lean doughs like this a stay in the fridge for three to five days can massively increase its flavour & its performance. Same goes for the no-knead bread.
After allowing it to rise at room temperature overnight, place in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. There’s another advantage built into this as well: Cold dough is much easier to handle. Gluten gets stiffer as it cools, which means that well chilled dough will be easier to shape into a ball or a long loaf, or whatever shape you wish to bake it in.
After shaping, cover it with a bowl or a flour-coated kitchen towel & let it rise at room temperature for a couple of hours to take the chill off it & leaven for the final time. Using a baker’s lame (a special curved blade) or a very sharp knife, make three to five long (horizontal to the dough) slashes into the dough.
How do you know your bread is done when you bake it? Same way you know your meat is done: with a thermometer. As bread bakes, water is both evaporated & bound into the structure of the crumb. This occurs pretty much in correlation with the internal temperature of your bread. Once it reaches around 98-99°C, not much else is going to happen, therefore, time to remove it from the oven & let it rest.
No-Knead Bread Recipe
Prep 5 mins
Cook 60 mins
Active 15 mins
Rising Time 86 hrs
Total 87 hrs 5 mins
Serves 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
1kg bread flour
15gms salt
10gms instant yeast
700mls lukewarm water
Method:
To 100 parts flour, add 1.5 parts salt & 1 part instant yeast. Whisk those together. Add 70 parts water, & stir to combine. Cover, then let rise overnight. Transfer to the fridge, let ferment for three days, then turn dough out onto a well-floured surface. Shape dough, sprinkle with flour, & cover with a floured cloth. Let it rise for at least two hours & up to four at room temperature. Slash, then bake in a preheated 230°C Dutch oven for 15 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid, & continue baking until you no-knead bread achieves an internal temperature of 97-99°C, 30 minutes or so. Let it cool.
No-Knead “Pane di Genzano”
For a more definitive understanding of how a “no knead” dough actually works, read the above article on the importance of humidity & how to develop gluten without kneading. Both the above recipe & the “Pane di Genzano” have a hydration ratio of 70% or above; this can be considered a wet dough which promotes the extensive hole formation you wish to develop when making a rustic farmhouse style bread. The fermentation period is essential for two reasons, enzymes break down the long proteins though the process of autolysis which creates a realignment of the proteins. In addition, the fermentation period, firstly at room temperature for between 16 – 24 hours & then refrigerated for 3 days.
• Flavour Development: A longer proofing stage allows the acid-producing bacteria in the dough to create a more developed, tangy flavor. The fermentation process changes available sugars into organic acids & gases, which contribute to the flavor & leaven the dough.
• Improved Texture: The fermentation process that occurs during proofing breaks down complex sugars & proteins in the dough, resulting in a loaf with ample volume & improved eating quality2. It also helps create the right crumb texture for risen bread
Ingredients
600mls lukewarm water
2 tsp (12g) kosher salt
3 tsp dried yeast
840gms bakers flour, plus more for dusting
Method:
To 100 parts flour, add 1.5 parts salt & 1 part instant yeast. Whisk those together. Add 70 parts water, & stir to combine. Cover, then let rise overnight. Transfer to the fridge, let ferment for three days, then turn dough out onto a well-floured surface. Shape dough, sprinkle with flour, & cover with a floured cloth. Let it rise for at least two hours & up to four at room temperature. Slash, then bake in a preheated 450°F (230°C) Dutch oven for 15 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid, & continue baking until it hits around 209°F, 30 minutes or so. Let it cool.
Bakel’s Australia & BNG Trading have had a unique & proud association for over 20 years. We will complement this marriage by producing a series of informative fact sheets highlighting how Bakel’s can enhance your business while expanding your bakery’s repertoire.
Bakel’s Country Oven Artisan Concentrate (Ciabatta Bread)
Italy’s light-textured & airy ciabatta bread develops wonderful flavour. Translated to rolls, ciabatta becomes the perfect vehicle for an overstuffed sandwich. Sturdy enough to hold any filling, these flat rolls are mostly crust, meaning you don’t have a lot of bread competing with the mozzarella, tomato & basil.
Ingredients
Group 1
Bakers Flour 2.000kgs
Country Oven Artisan Concentrate 0.200gms Instant Active Dried Yeast 0.030gms
Olive Oil 0.040mls
Water (Variable) 1.800mls
Total Weight: 4.070kgs
Handling or kneading wet dough, like that used for a ciabatta loaf, can indeed be challenging due to its high hydration ratio. Here are some techniques to help you manage this process:
Use a Stand Mixer: If available, a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook can be used to mix & knead the dough until it becomes elastic & sticky. If you don’t have a stand mixer available, I would personally suggest you visit your local specialty Italian baker & purchase a loaf or two.
No-Knead Approach: If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use the no-knead approach. This method involves mixing the ingredients & allowing the dough to rest for an extended period, which develops gluten without kneading. (refer above)
Hand-Kneading Techniques: If you prefer to knead by hand, there are techniques to handle the wet dough:
Scraping: Use a plastic scraper to handle the dough & scrape it off your hands.
Cold Water: Wash your doughy hands with cold water, as it dissolves the dough from your hands better than warm/hot water.
Oil: Some people lightly oil their work surface & hands during kneading or folding to prevent the dough from sticking.
Stretch & Fold: Another technique is the “stretch & fold” method, where the dough is gently stretched & then folded over itself. This method helps develop the gluten structure in the dough without traditional kneading.
When working with high hydration doughs, it is generally a messy affair, but the result is often a lighter, airier loaf with a wonderful open crumb. Patience & practice are key when handling wet doughs!
Filipino Pandesal Rolls
Filipino pandesal, which means salt bread in Spanish, is reminiscent of the American-style dinner roll but it leans more sweet than savory, with a pillowy interior & a golden, sandy exterior dusted with breadcrumbs. A popular breakfast choice, pandesal are also eaten as a snack throughout the day.
Ingredients
550gms baker’s flour
115gms sugar
8gms instant yeast
5gms kosher salt
225gms whole milk
60gms vegetable oil
2 large eggs (100gms)
1 large egg yolk (15gms)
60gms plain breadcrumbs
Method
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine flour, sugar, yeast, & salt. Mix on low speed until well combined. Add milk, oil, eggs & egg yolk, & mix until a shaggy dough forms, about 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium & continue to mix until dough is smooth & pulls away from the sides of the bowl (it will remain attached to bottom of bowl & be sticky), about 10 minutes.
Using a bowl scraper, transfer dough to a lightly oiled large bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap, & let sit at warm room temperature 24°C until roughly doubled in size, about 1 ½ hours.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Fill a wide shallow bowl with breadcrumbs. Turn dough onto a clean, floured surface, but do not deflate. Divide into 16 equal portions 65gms each.
Working with one portion at a time, cup dough beneath your palm & work it in quick circular motions to form a smooth ball. Transfer portion to bowl with breadcrumbs, roll to evenly coat with breadcrumbs on all sides, & transfer to prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining portions of dough, spacing each about 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, & allow to rise at warm room temperature 24°C until almost doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Alternatively, cover tightly with plastic wrap, & refrigerate overnight until puffy & soft, between 10 & 12 hours. This will further develop the flavour as the dough rises slowly in the refrigerator.
Thirty minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to middle position & preheat to 180°C. Bake pandesal until puffed & golden brown, about 20 minutes
Japanese Milk Bread
This recipe is our take on Japan’s Hokkaido milk bread, a loaf so light it’s often described as feathery. The technique involves pre-cooking some of the flour & milk into a soft paste called tangzhong.This simple step yields a loaf that’s tender, moist, & stays fresh longer than loaves prepared the standard way.
With Japanese origins, tangzhong is a yeast bread technique popularized across Asia by Taiwanese cookbook author Yvonne Chen. Tangzhong involves cooking some of a bread recipe’s flour in liquid prior to adding it to the remaining dough ingredients. Bringing the temperature of the flour & liquid to 65°C pre-gelatinizes the flour’s starches, which makes them more able to retain liquid.
Ingredients
Tangzhong
3 tbsp (43gms) water
3 tbsp (43gms) whole milk
2 tbsp (14gms) Bread Flour
Dough
300gms bread flour
2 tbsp (14gms) non-fat milk powder
¼ cup (50gms) sugar
1 tsp (6gms) table salt
1 tbsp instant yeast
½ cup (113gms) whole milk
1 large egg
4 tbsp (57gms) unsalted butter, melted
Method
To make the tangzhong: Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan, & whisk until no lumps remain.
Place the saucepan over low heat & cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until thick & the whisk leaves lines on the bottom of the pan, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Transfer the tangzhong to a small mixing bowl or measuring cup & let it cool to lukewarm.
To make the dough: Combine the tangzhong with the remaining dough ingredients, then mix & knead until a smooth, elastic dough forms; this could take almost 15 minutes in a stand mixer.
Shape the dough into a ball, & let it rest in a lightly greased bowl, covered, for 1 to 1 ½ hours, until puffy but not necessarily doubled in bulk.
Gently deflate the dough & divide it into four equal pieces; if you have a scale each piece will weigh between 170gms & 175gms
Flatten each piece of dough into a 130mm x 200mm rectangle.
Fold the short ends in towards one another like a letter. Flatten the folded pieces into rectangles again (this time about 75mm x 150mm &, starting with a short end, roll them each into a 100mm log.
Place the logs in a row of four — seam side down & side by side — in a lightly greased loaf pan.
Cover the loaf & allow it to rest/rise for 40 to 50 minutes, until puffy. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 175°C.
To bake the bread: Brush the loaf with milk & bake it for 30 to 35 minutes, until it’s golden brown on top & a digital thermometer inserted into the centre reads at least 88°C.
Remove the loaf from the oven & cool it in the pan until you can transfer it safely to a rack to cool completely.
Make an egg wash by whisking together 1 large egg + 1 tablespoon cold water. Just before putting the bread into the oven, instead of brushing the top crust with milk, brush it with some of the egg wash.
Store leftover bread, well wrapped, at cool room temperature for 5 to 7 days; freeze for longer storage.
Yukone & Tangzhong are both methods used in bread making to create a soft, fluffy texture. They involve cooking a small portion of the dough’s flour & liquid to form a thick slurry, which is then mixed with the rest of the ingredients.
This process pre-gelatinizes the starches in the flour, allowing them to absorb more liquid. The result is a dough that has more moisture, leading to a softer texture in the baked bread & a longer shelf life.
The main differences between the two methods are:
Preparation: Yukone, also known as Yudane, involves scalding the flour with boiling water, while Tangzhong involves cooking the flour & water over low heat until it thickens to a glue-like texture.
Ratio of Flour to Water: In Yukone, the ratio of flour to water is 1:1, while in Tangzhong, the ratio is 1:5.
Resting Time: Yukone needs to rest for at least 4 hours or overnight in the fridge before it can be used, while Tangzhong can be used as soon as it cools to room temperature.
Amount of Flour Used: Yukone uses 20% of the total flour in the recipe, while Tangzhong uses 7%.
Banana Bread
Ingredients:
4 medium bananas
115gms Greek yogurt
2 large eggs, chilled
15mls vanilla extract
280gms all-purpose flour
150gms toasted sugar
85gms oat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
Salt, pinch
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground or grated nutmeg
150gms coconut oil, virgin or organic
100gms toasted almonds
Method:
Line loaf pan with parchment paper. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position & preheat to 190°C. Peel bananas & mash with Greek yogurt, eggs, & vanilla in a medium bowl. If bananas are underripe, cover bowl with plastic & let mixture stand 30 minutes.
Combine flour, sugar, oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, & coconut oil in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low until coconut oil disappears into a mealy powder. Add banana mash & continue mixing only until fully incorporated.
Fold in, scrape into prepared pan(s), & spread into an even layer. Bake until well risen & golden brown, or to an internal temperature of around 97°C, about 70 minutes for a large loaf or 45 for small.
There are over 1000 different varieties of bananas growing around the world, subdivided into 50 groups. Some are sweet, like the Cavendish bananas, which is the most common & most widely exported.
In 2010, an American man named Ashrita Furman took the title of “Most Bananas snapped in 1 minute” by breaking 99 of the yellow fruit with both hands in 60 seconds.
The banana is scientifically a berry, whereas the strawberry is not. This comes down to the classification of a berry. A berry must contain seeds inside the flesh, not outside.
In 2012, a resident of Illinois managed to break a world record by peeling & consuming 8 whole bananas in 60 seconds.
A U.S. study found that bananas can actually help lower your risk of stroke & heart attack due to the level of potassium they contain. They do this by lowering the risk of stiffness in the aorta & hardening in the arteries.
Bananas are made of about 75% water, which isn’t very much compared to other healthy wonders like the cucumber or radish, which has 96% & 95% respectively.
Bananas are a healthy source of fibre, potassium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, & various antioxidants & phytonutrients.
The banana we all know & love is under threat from the same disease that struck the predecessor. Panama disease is rife amongst the Cavendish variety (the common variety) after being identified in Africa in the mid-2010s.
The oils inside a banana skin can actually help inflammation & itching caused by insect bites.
The banana is produced asexually because it’s a sterile species, making it basically a clone of the elder.
The perfect soil for growing bananas must contain a ph. of between 5.5 & 6.5 & must not be salty or too cold. One of the biggest problems for bananas is root rot caused by the soil being too cold & other factors.
The Latin name for banana is “musa sapientum,” which translates to the fruit of the wise men.
Green bananas have a very high starch content – as the fruit yellows, this starch turns into sugars.
The 2014 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics was won by a team who discovered why bananas are so slippery. As it turns out, it is all down to the polysaccharide molecules in the peel, a substance also found in our joints.
Walnut Bread
Ingredients:
340mls warm water
1 tbsp (11g) active dry yeast
170gms honey
50gms olive oil, or walnut oil
1 ½ tsp (9g) table salt
720gms King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, divided
227gms walnut pieces, toasted until lightly browned
Method:
Dissolve the yeast in the water. Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Add ½ cup (60g) of all-purpose flour & let sit for 10 minutes to give the yeast a chance to get going.
Stir in the honey, oil, & salt.
Add the remaining 660gms flour, 120gms at a time, until the dough has formed a shaggy mass.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Knead the dough, adding flour as necessary, to form a smooth & satiny ball.
Put the dough into a bowl & drizzle with a tablespoon of oil; turn the dough to coat it with the oil.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Let the dough rise until double in size, about 1 ½ hours.
Gently deflate the dough & knead in the walnuts.
Divide the dough in half & form each half into a ball. Place on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment or greased & sprinkled with cornmeal or semolina flour.
Cover the loaves with damp towels & let rise until swollen. This will take 30-45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 175°C; the loaves will burn if the oven is too hot.
Sprinkle flour on top of the loaves, & use a serrated knife to slash a cross in the top of each loaf about 1″ deep.
Bake the loaves for 35-45 minutes, until they are well browned & sound hollow when thumped on the bottom; their internal temperature will measure 190°F on an instant-read thermometer.
Put the loaves on a rack to cool, & let sit for at least 20 minutes before cutting.
Amish Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
2 large eggs
67gms granulated sugar
2 tsp (12g) table salt
6 tbsp (85g) butter, softened
213gms mashed potatoes, lightly packed
2 ½ tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
170gms water, lukewarm (water in which the potatoes were boiled.
510gms All-Purpose Flour
*1 medium-to-large baking potato will yield 227g of mashed potato.
Method
Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. To make the dough, mix & knead all of the ingredients together — by hand, mixer, or bread machine set on the dough cycle — to make a smooth, soft dough.
Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, & let the dough rise until it’s doubled in bulk, about 90 minutes. If you’re using a bread machine, allow the machine to complete its cycle, then leave the dough in the machine until it’s doubled in bulk, perhaps an additional 30 minutes or so.
Gently deflate the dough, & divide it into 16 large balls, or 24 smaller balls. Round each ball into a smooth roll.
Place the rolls in a lightly greased 9″ x 13″ pan. Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, & let them rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours, until they’re quite puffy. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 175°C.
Bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re golden brown & feel set. Remove them from the oven, & turn them out of the pan onto a rack. Brush with melted butter, if desired.
Serve rolls warm, or at room temperature. Store rolls, well wrapped in plastic, for several days at room temperature; freeze for longer storage.
These rolls have the characteristic golden brown, rounded, smooth top of a classic dinner roll; consider baking these rolls tightly spaced, in a 9″ x 13″ pan, so that they crowd each other & become pull-apart rolls
French Brioche
Ingredients
500gms bakers flour
250gms cold eggs
250gms cold butter, cubed
7gms instant yeast
30gms sugar
1 tsp salt
egg wash
The hydration ratio in brioche bread is relatively low compared to other types of bread due to its unique composition. Brioche is a rich bread, known for its high content of eggs & butter.
In breadmaking, hydration refers to the total quantity of moisture in a bread dough. We quantify it using a ratio found by dividing the total weight of water (or water-containing liquids such as milk, juice, tea, or even alcohol) by the total weight of flour in a given recipe.
For brioche, the hydration calculation becomes a bit more complex because of the additional moisture from the eggs & butter. The water in the eggs & whites totals just over 20% of the total weight of flour.
When you factor in the moisture from the eggs & butter, the overall hydration of a brioche dough can be around 60% to 70%. However, if we consider only the water added to the dough, the hydration can be as low as 47% when the fat content is 20%.
This lower hydration ratio contributes to the characteristic texture & richness of brioche bread. It’s part of what makes brioche so distinct from other types of bread. The lower hydration ratio, combined with the high fat content, results in a tender, rich, & buttery bread.
Method:
Day before Preparation:
The first stage of a Brioche preparation has to be completed a day ahead & refrigerator overnight.
Add the cold eggs to a stand mixer bowl followed by the sugar & the yeast & combine. In a separate bowl, combine the salt to the flour & mix well.
On its slowest setting, add the flour to the egg/yeast & sugar mixture a little at a time.
Once a stiff dough has been established, add the diced cold butter; again, a little at a time. Fully combine & increase speed to next setting & mix the dough until it starts to release from the sides of the bowl, approximately 10 to 15 minutes.
The extended resting period enhances & develops the flavours of the dough. A brioches is unique in that it uses eggs as it primary hydration sources. While butter does contribute to the overall hydration of the dough, it’s not typically considered a primary hydration source, as the water content in butter is only about 15-20%, while the rest is fat & milk solids.
In the case of brioche, the butter is typically incorporated into the dough after it has been mixed & kneaded, & this serves to enrich the dough & give it a tender, flaky texture.
So, even though butter can sometimes behave like a liquid in baking, it’s usually categorized as a fat due to its composition & the role it plays in recipes. It’s also worth noting that the state of the butter (solid, softened, or melted) can affect the texture of the final product. For example, using chilled or solid butter can result in a flakier texture.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, roll into a ball & place it into an oiled bowl, covered & allow it to relax for 30 minutes. Knock the dough back & return to the bowl, cover & refrigerate for at least 12-16 hours.
Next day you turn out the dough knock it back, try to handle the cold dough as little as possible.
Shape the dough into whatever shapes you like (see the video for examples) & place them on greased baking trays Once you have you shapes dust with flour & allow to rise at room temperature for at least 45 minutes until the shapes have doubled in size, this time may vary on the temperature of your kitchen, but no less than 45 minutes.
When there’s only 10 minutes left on the timer: preheat your oven to 170°C.
After the rise brush all of your chosen shapes with egg wash, made up from 1 egg & a small amount of milk.
Add whatever topping you like i.e. sugar, seeds, etc. See the video for examples.
Place the shapes in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven when golden brown, & transfer the shapes to a wire rack & allow to cool for 20 minutes.
Ciabatta Loaves
Ingredients
550gms Bakers flour
440gms cold water
1½tsp kosher salt or 1tsp Table Salt
7gms Instant Yeast
½tsp of Vegetable or Olive oil (used for greasing the bowl)
Method
To start the recipe; make the poolish the day before.
Out of the main ingredients list start by adding 200grams that’s 7oz of the water followed by the same in strong white flour to a small bowl, then add the ¼tsp of instant or active dried yeast, thoroughly mix & cover the bowl with plastic wrap, I use a shower cap for mine.
Place the bowl on the top shelf of your fridge for at least 12 hours, longer is better up to 3 days.
Next day, add rest of the flour & water & salt, plus the poolish to your stand mixer bowl (see the video for the best way to do this).
Using the paddle attachment, mix on slow for 1 minutes move up to the next speed for a further 1 minute then move to the next speed for 3-4 minutes or until the dough releases from the side of the bowl.
Grease a clean bowl with a ½tsp of olive or vegetable oil; carefully transfer the sticky wet dough from the mixer bowl to the oiled bowl.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
The next stage in making Ciabatta bread is to let the dough rest & rise for 2¼ hours, but the dough needs a quick turn 3 times, that’s every 45 minutes.
Follow the instructions in the video on how to turn the dough by hand.
While waiting for the last 45 minutes rest period prepare a bakers chouche as shown in the video.
After the last 45 minute rest period, turn out the dough onto a floured surface & give the dough a good dusting with flour as shown in the video.
Using a bakers scraper cut the dough into 2 loaves.
Transfer the dough to the Couche using 2 scrapers as shown in the video, set your timer for 20 minutes.
When there’s only 10 minutes left set your oven to 230°C.
Place 2 baking tray upside down in the oven as shown in the video.
To make the finished bread crispy you’ll also need a tray of hot water in the bottom of the oven, & a spray bottle with water in at the ready.
After the 20 minute rise transfer the dough to a parchment paper lined peel (see video for details) & carefully slide the dough onto the upturned trays in the oven, one at a time, give the inside of the oven a quick spray with the water bottle.
Set your timer for 18m to 25 minutes depending on how well done you prefer your Ciabatta.
Remove from the oven & onto a wire rack & allow to cool for 30 minutes.
What is baker’s couche? A high quality baker’s couche is professional grade 100% flax linen that is natural, untreated & unbleached. It is used to support dough, especially baguette, during proofing. Linen is durable, flexible & light, & is the best material to proof bread.
Rye Bread
Ingredients
400gms rye flour
200gms white bread flour
400mls warm water 35°C.
2tsp / 7gms instant yest
2tbls / 30gms treacle or Dark Molasses
1tsp / 8gms salt
2tbls / 30gms Vegetable or olive oil
1tsp / 8gms sugar
flour for dusting
Method
Add the sugar yeast & treacle to the warm water, wait for the yeast to activate (bubbles should appear on top, if no activity appears after 10 minutes, then your yeast is dead, & needs replacing)
Add the flour to a warm bowl & mix in the salt.
Once the yeast has successfully activated, add the liquid & oil to the flour in the bowl & mix until it’s all in combined.
Cover the bowl & allow it to rise for at least one hour, depending on the temperature of your kitchen, this may take longer, the temperature in my kitchen in the video was 21°C.
After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a floured surface & knead for 3 to 4 minutes, adding a dusting of flour when required, it is quite a sticky dough so you’ll need to dust a few times, but use as less flour a possible, I use white bread flour for dusting.
Form the dough into a loaf shape & place on a greased baking tray, cover with a lightweight dry towel & allow to rise for at least 30 minutes, once again, depending on the temperature in your kitchen.
When there’s around 10 minutes left on the rise, place a tray of water on the bottom shelf on your oven, then preheat the oven to 200°C.
Once the dough has risen dust with a little flour, score the loaf as shown in the video, then place the tray in the preheated oven, (the following step is optional) spray inside the oven with a little water for extra crispness. Set the timer for 35 minutes.
Remove from the oven & place on a wire rack to cool.