How to make homemade bread?

By fashionlifeshopping 14/02/2023 1176 Views

Basic ingredients

As in everything, if you do not have the necessary ingredients for this preparation, your bread may not taste too good. You will therefore only need 4 ingredients: 500 g of flour, 320 g of water, 10 g of yeast and 10 g of salt.

Choosing the right flour

To make bread as good as at the bakery, you don't choose the same flour that you use to make pastries. There may be many kinds of flour on the shelves, so take T55 wheat flour.

Good water

Prefer bottled water and not tap water which can alter the taste. In addition, it is strongly recommended to use water that is at room temperature.

Which yeast?

As with flour, it is not the same yeast used in baking. You can therefore buy it fresh from your bakery or dehydrated at the supermarket.

And the salt?

As for salt, any type of salt is suitable, however many chefs add a pinch of sugar to the regular pinch of salt, to "activate" the yeast and allow your bread to rise more easily...

The chef's technique

How to make homemade bread?

Start by mixing the flour and salt, before adding the baker's yeast and water. From there you can knead with all your heart, until the dough is soft. If you do it manually, count about 30 minutes. Then, place the kneaded dough in a container, cover with a cloth, and wait for the bread dough to rise for about 1h30-2h in a warm place. The dough should just double in volume. When the dough has risen well, flour your work surface and place on it. Then grab the dough on the side, and fold it down in the middle, so as to release the air and form a ball of dough. Then, place the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and wait for it to rise for another 30 minutes.

Finally, place the bread dough in a hot oven (preheated to 250°C), incise your bread ball, and bake it for 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of the bread). Take care to lower 20°C after 10 minutes, and another 20°C 5 minutes before the end of cooking.

The ideal temperature

Beware of the ambient temperature of your kitchen, which plays a considerable role in your preparation! Indeed, the temperature of the room must be high enough for the yeast to develop in complete serenity. The ideal kitchen temperature should be 25°C which is much higher than usual.

When is the bread well done?

The baking time for homemade bread obviously depends on the size of the loaf. But to be sure that your bread is well baked, there is a very simple little trick: you will gently knock the bottom of the bread with your hand. If it sounds hollow, it's good, your bread is baked! All you have to do is let it cool on a wire rack!

The golden rule

To make beautiful homemade bread, there is a very simple little rule that turns out to be very effective: when putting your bread in the oven, put a container full of water in the oven. The purpose of the maneuver? That the evaporating water gives off some moisture. This prevents the bread from being too dry, and especially that the crust is very pretty and very crunchy.

A golden color

If you want your bread to be nicely browned, don't leave it there for 5 more minutes, it will be nicely browned, but before putting it in the oven, brush it with hot water.

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