Bread Baking Fundamentals

Baking bread is one of those things in life which is both simple and complicated. Easy to get into, difficult to master. Here are some of the fundamental knowledge I’ve collected over time, with less voodoo and more pragmatism.

Autolyse

Autolyse is the process of mixing flour and water together and allow the mixture to sit anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours. The dough will transform and behave differently, making it less work to knead. Bakers should be lazier.

There are a few motivations and outcomes from autolyse:

• the flour fully hydrates
• dough extensibility is increased
• required kneading is greatly reduced

Protease enzymes break down proteins, which increases the dough’s extensibility. This happens anyways during bulk rise but will make for easier initial kneading.

Amylease enzymes breaks down starches, which introduce sugars. The sugars are eaten by yeast and the sugars contribute to colour and browning during baking.

Salt and yeast are not added during the autolyse process, as they both increase dough elasticity. This tightness reduces the movement within the dough, hindering the autolyse.

In addition to requiring less effort during kneading to develop gluten, the reduced mixing results in less overall oxidation and dough colour is less white and more flavourful.

Kneading

Kneading is the manual process of mixing the dough together to develop the gluten matrix. It can be done by hand or with a mixer. The hand technique is more effective and will take less time.

With bread doughs, the desired gluten matrix is non-directional. We want the dough to have tension in all 3 dimensions. When baked, it should expand in all direction equally.

Forming a tight surface or skin during final shaping is very common. This guarantees that the surface has a common gluten matrix surface and is equally tight all over. When baked, it will balloon evenly.

Over-kneading and Under-kneading

Over-kneading will over-develop gluten and the dough will have too much strength. When baking, it will be too rigid and not expand to capture gases. The final bake will be firm and dense. The crust will be thick and hard.

It’s basically impossible to overknead by hand. With a machine, it takes a long time.

Under-kneading will not develop enough gluten. The dough will not hold on to much of the gas and will not rise. The result is just the same over-kneading, firm and dense.

The optimal amount of kneading is to develop just enough gluten to barely contain teh shape.

Noodles

When making noodles, the desired gluten matrix is longitudinal. It should form a long chain down the noodle. This allows it to be stretched long.

This requires a different kneading strategy. Whether kneading by hand or with a roller, the strategy is to rolling the same direction. To develop more gluten, fold the dough sheets in half and continue rolling. Or wrap the noodle strands back on itself, twist it, and restart the stretching again.

No-Knead

No-kneading techniques are a minimal kneading approach. It isn’t a choice between traditional kneading vs. stretch-and-fold. It’s using the right tools for the job. A high hydration dough will not be kneaded by hand, they can only be done with stretch and fold.

Stretch and fold or slapping are the common ways to handles these doughs. The idea is the same, move the dough around but along the gluten matrix. This redistributes the food for the yeast,as well as avoiding tearing the existing gluten structure.

Enriched Doughs

Enriched doughs include fats. Fats act as a tenderizer and add flavour.

Enriched doughs rise more slowly due to reduced gluten development and less water activity. They tend to be mechanically kneaded to develop speed up gluten development.

Enriched doughs do not typically go through a long rise. They do not need the flavour development from fermentation because we’re already adding flavour directly to the dough.

Window Pane Test

The purpose of the window pane test is to ensure the dough has been worked enough. It demonstrates that the dough is extensible and can stretch out without tearing. We want maximum extensibility.

Extensibility is necessary for a dough to expand during rise and baking. This allows it to capture gases and bake up light and fluffy.

Bulk Rise

This is also called fermentation. After water and yeast are added to the dough, the microbial activity will kick into gear. This will develop flavours and air bubbles.

Let the dough rise until an hour before desired height is reached. Now is the time to retard the dough if desired. This means to put the dough in the fridge, which will slow down the yeast but allow other bacteria to continue developing flavours.

Note, sometimes fermentation during final rise. This allows the shaping to be done and then the dough is chilled to develop flavours and is immediately ready to bake.

8-12 hours in the fridge will be equivalent to 1 hour on the counter.

The other rate to consider is the initial yeast amount. It takes yeast about 90-100 minutes to double in numbers. If you use half as much, expect to wait 90 minutes for it to catch up. The rate can be manipulated by warming up the dough, which will increase activity. Going beyond 35 C would be inadvisable.

Manipulating yeast development is usually for the sake of fitting a time schedule. In the absence of a deadline, it’s preferred to use overnight rise to ensure flavours are develop, then pull the dough out of the fridge to rise when timing is more convenient.

Shaping

Shaping bread is crucial to success. It’s important to shape bread to develop even surface tension. This will allow the dough to rise in all directions evenly.

Shaping is important for developing a tight surface that will immediately begin capturing gases during rise. If it’s too slack, the dough will rise in a weird floppy shape.

To shape, begin by folding the dough into itself. This is sometimes called the envelope fold. Pinch the top and pull it all the way down. Do the same for both sides. Repeat for the bottom but only overshoot a little.

Next, flip the dough over and place down on the seam. That was to get a a rough surface started, now the goal is to finish and minimize the seam. Using hands or a bench scraper, push the dough around on an unfloured surface. As you push the ball, you can see that it will stick and drag, pull the surface taut. Repeat in a circular fashion until there is a uniform ball.

Final Rise

After shaping, there is a final rise before baking. This gives time for the gluten to relax. Yeast can continue to lighten the dough, of which a lot of air was removed due to handling during shaping.

If baked immediately without final rise, the dough would show signs of overkneading, with a dense firm dough.

When is the Dough Ready To Bake

The poke test is used to test the dough’s elasticity. Elasticity decreases as the dough is given time to relax.

To perform the poke test, poke the dough about 2-3 cm deep and observe the behaviour of the dough afterwards. If the dough is tight, it will spring back immediately. If the dough is too lax, it will have no spring back. The ideal is when the dough springs back partially. This indicates it is loose enough to allow oven spring but still have enough elasticity to force the dough to expand in all directions.

A tight dough will not allow expansion, which will force gases to channel and escape. If the dough is too lax, it will not keep its shape, will not bake tall and round.

After final rise, the dough will have risen and stretch the dough. Given enough time, the rise will decrease and the dough will continue to relax. The goal is to bake the dough at minimal elasticity, which will give bread the most freedom to stretch during baking.

Protein in Flour

There are two major types of protein in wheat flour: gliadian and glutenin. One is responsible for elasticity and the other for extensibility.

Protein content is the major difference between cake flour, all-purpose flour, and bread flour in North America:

• cake flour is typically <9% (pastry flour implies even less than cake flour)
• bread flour is >11%
• all-purpose is somewhere in between

These are all general estimates because there are not really standards. And using the different type of flour is doable, even though it will change the intended product:

Using lower protein than desired may require developing more gluten. And the product might have less chew and texture. Not good for breads or pizza.

Using higher protein than desired may require more gentle handling. The end product might be chewier than expected. Not great for a delicate cake or cupcakes.

It’s possible to substitute flours. It’s not advisable to modify the protein content more than 1-2%. These substitutions do not add or remove gliadin and glutenin proportionally.

Cake flour can be made by substituting with non-gluten starch, such as cornstarch, tapioca, or potato flour. This preserves the starch while removing the gluten protein.

Vital wheat gluten can be added to flour to increase protein content.

Baking Temperature

Breads finish baking when moisture is driven off. This means they approach 100 C, at 95 C (205 F).

Breads are baked at high temperatures. This will quickly heat the dough and cause expansion. The goal is to expand before the outer lay sets. A low temperature would not transfer heat at fast enough rate, reducing the rise. This is commonly referred to as oven spring.

To further delay crust formation, steam is added to the oven. This extra moisture delays the surface from drying and grants more time to oven spring.

After the bread reaches close to 95 C, it will begin to darken and form the crust. This is why bread needs to be baked darker. Enriched breads and cakes have sugars that caramelized sooner. But bread must be baked darker.

Cooling

It’s important to allow the bread to cool before cutting in. This can take more than 30 minutes.

If cut in too soon, the starches and structures will not have cooled and set. The moisture can escape from the cut.

If soft and chewy crust is desired, wash with butter while hot. Or cover with a towel to increase the humidity of the loaf as it cools.

If crusty bread is desired, ensure the moisture has room to escape. This means leaving the bread on a rack for as long as needed.

Sometimes, it can be a good idea to put the bread back in the cooling oven. This will encourage more moisture lost during cooling, which keeps a crispier crust.

Staling

Bread stales as it absorbs moisture. Staleness is perceived as the interior and exterior. Freeze bread early, if not planning to eat soon, is the best strategy.

Toasting is a way to combat this, as it drives off this new moisture. If the bread is a thin slice, this is fine. If it’s a roll or thicker loaf, toasting is too aggressive and the innards will still be stale.

To toast bread, wrap in tin foil and bake on a lower temperature. The goal is to increase the temperature of the whole loaf beyond 65 C (150 F). This is the temperature when starch gelatinizes (starch retrogradation) and can drive out moisture. Wrapping it in tin foil will prevent the surface from drying out, while drying out the innards.