Bread, to me, is one of the most fascinating chemical reactions that can exist in the kitchen. It's true chemistry at work and kind of makes you feel like a mad scientist as you get to see biology at work and create a giant mass of dough that rises and breaths from materials that (Except for one) Were not living at the time.

Breads are indeed one of the most versatile edibles out there, and yet fresh and hot out of the oven is perhaps one of the most simple and best ways to enjoy them. We'll just look at basic yeast bread first and how it chemically works from there. Once that is understood you can change things around, add elements, take them away, and come out with new things off the base. Learn the basics and then everything else just works from it.

Bread consists of...


A starch/gluten component (Most often, flour of some kind). Flour, when worked with water, develops within it "Gluten" already present but by kneading the dough the strands of gluten within start to stretch, overlap, and basically create a net that catches expanding gasses made from....

YEAST - So, why is Yeast always the life of a party? Because he's a real "Fun-Gi!"

A lovely bit of tasty fungal greatness. Yeast are living organisms that, when combined with moisture, some heat, and food (Namely sugar of some kind) They start having a party, multiply and... like a bunch of drunkards, start burping... Well, that's basically it. They produce gasses and alcohol. These gasses expand, caught in the gluten of the bread forming the "Rise" of the loaf of bread. (In the Picture here, Picture C shows what putting together moisture, yeast, Sugar, in a warm environment can do. That's after ten minutes it gets nicely frothy!)

Those are the two most commonly known components of bread, also important are...

Inhibitor - This is usually salt. This not only adds a little flavor, but makes it so the yeast don't burn out to quickly or make the bread overproof. Salt also helps the gluten strands to be a little stronger.

Fat - Provides richness and tenderness to the bread. A Brioche is going to have a good bit of butter in this part as well as eggs. Challah would have a good bit of egg here. Other breads sometimes use milk or shortening depending on their desired end. Fat though can make it so it takes longer for gluten to develop in bread and makes it so more kneading would be required on Rich Doughs.

Sugar - Sugar, honey, beer ; Those are all acceptable "Foods" for the yeast. Without this, yeast isn't going to have anything to live on and thus it's to sit there doing nothing. Beer was probably responsible for the first bit of leavened bread being in existence, due to both the yeast in it and the food it provides.


Those are your main components you'll find in most breads (Though like all things in life, there can be some exceptions, like unleavened breads, and also there are some things called "Quickbreads' Which are muffins and banana bread but those are actually more related to cakes than they are to real "Bread". )

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Kneading the dough - Kneading refers to the process of developing the gluten in the flour to make a net capable of catching the gassy expulsions of the yeast. In a mixer "WITH A DOUGH HOOK" this is fairly easy to be done as the act of kneading the dough is done over two or three minutes with the dough hook on a lower speed. Now, when being done by hand generally one starts with your ball of dough. Push in with the palms of both hands which stretches the dough out forward a bit. Fold over one side. Turn the dough ninety degrees. Repeat... for about ten to fifteen minutes. (You'll get some arm muscle in from this). What you are looking for in the end is the ability to take a piece of the dough, flatten it thin enough that it's translucent and still holding together without breaking apart. Kind of like making a "Window" of dough. Some call it the Window Pane test because of that. If you can get it like that, you've got some good dough ready to be able to rise! (For an example of kneading by hand, feel free to go here. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3738463/ )

Fermenting and Proofing - Bread is something that is actually easy to do, but it takes time and planning. It takes time for those little yeasties to do their work. That time that we wait for them to work is usually referred to as "Fermenting" or "Proofing" the dough. Why Proofing? Well, I don't know, but it refers to letting the dough rest so the yeasts can burp up their CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) and make the bread rise. Proofing is best done in a warm, slightly moist, non-drafty environment. My personal favorite proof box is the oven. I'll usually turn it on and let it go for a minute then shut it off. This heats the air in the oven just a little bit to make it usually a little more warmer than simply room temperature. It's free of drafts in there. I also will sometimes add a pan of hot water into the base of the oven to add extra moisture which will help to prevent the dough from drying out while proofing. The dough is placed in a bowl with a slight coating of oil over top to help prevent drying out and a towel placed over that. Depending on the type of yeast you have, how much food they have, and how excited they are getting most doughs proof anywhere from thirty minutes to a couple of hours. Proofing is also done after the dough rises once, is shaped, and is then getting ready for the oven.

Punching the dough - After the dough has proofed (Which usually means it has doubled in size) one needs to let out some of those gasses that are trapped. You need to "Punch" down the dough. Now, as fun as it sounds, Punching, is not really the best method (But having done it before, it really is kinda fun!) And the best method is to gently fold in from the sides to the center, gently releasing the trapped gasses until the dough is smaller.

Shaping the dough - Well, less lingo and more of a "How to" here... Shaping the dough is simple enough. If you are just doing it on a sheet pan, shape as needed, cut a couple of slits in the top and put on pan. Allow to rise another half hour or so. If you are putting it in a loaf pan, roll out the dough so it's about as long as the loaf pan and flatten out a bit. Then, roll dough into a "log" and place, seam side down, into the GREASED AND FLOURED loaf pan. Cover and let rise in the proofing area for another half hour or so. Then, time to bake.

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Recipe Time!

This Recipe is designed to make about two large loaves of bread, but you can use it for rolls of all shapes and sizes, season it up different ways, it's pretty flexible in what you want to do with it. It's just a good, basic, white bread.

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A:
1 cup Water
1/2 cup milk
2 Packs Active Dry Yeast (1/2 oz active dry yeast)
2 Tbsp Sugar

B:
2 Eggs
3 Tbsp butter (softened)

5 1/2 cups flour (More or less may be needed though.)
2 Tsps salt ( I used Sea Salt here, just to be different and I like it.)

(Pic A)
I like to start by letting the yeast wake up before mixing with the flour. So I lightly heat in the microwave or stove the milk, water, and sugar together. For Active Dry yeast 110 Degrees to 120 degrees is good. Do NOT go above 138 degrees as you'll kill the poor guys, then no lovely yeast action for anyone! Allow this mixture to sit together for about ten to fifteen minutes, you should have a good amount of froth from it as the yeast wake up and start making alcohol and Co2. (Pic C)

Put the yeast mixture into a mixing bowl, add about TWO CUPS of flour and the salt and start to mix. I'm using a Dough Hook (Pic C) here in a mixer, if you can mix using a spoon until the dough is unable to be effectively mixed. Once the Flour and salt are mixed in somewhat add in the softened butter in pieces and the eggs. Mix until incorporated.

Start to add in Flour about a 1/4 cup at a time while mixing on speed two (Or whatever speed is most appropriate for your mixer for bread.) Let each bit added get incorperated before adding more (Yes, it may take a bit.) What you are looking for is the dough to be scraping and basically cleaning the inside of the bowl and stickiness to be lessened. (Pic D shows it mixing but it doesn't quite have enough flour yet. You can see in the pic how the very base has a sticky, gooie bit of dough there, once that's gone it's pretty close to what you want.)

Allow the Dough to knead for about eight minutes or so... What you are looking for though is...

What I call "The Window Pane Test" (Pic E). Take a piece of the dough (Which should not be sticky at all) Roll it into a ball, flatten it, and spread it out and hold it up towards a light. You should be able to stretch the dough to the point that you can see light through it without it breaking apart.

The dough is then ready to shape into a ball, put into a greased bowl, and cover and let rise for about an hour or hour and a half until doubled in size (Or, two fingers pushed into the dough have little or no spring back.)

More to come in Part II!