Our Best Bread Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to bread rising? ›

But almost as good as a proofing box is taking a Mason jar filled halfway up with water, microwaving it for two minutes, then putting your bowl of dough into the microwave with the jar to rise. The other thing you can do is place your lidded container or bowl of dough into a second, larger bowl of warm water.

Quick breads are typically mixed by hand, and it's important not to overmix the batter. Overmixing can cause the gluten in the flour to develop, resulting in a tough and chewy bread. Mix the batter just until the ingredients are combined, and then stop. If there are a few lumps in the batter, that's okay.

Fat. If you're looking to ramp up the taste of your favorite bread recipe, we recommend adding a bit of fat. A fat like butter, olive oil or coconut oil in small quantities will help your bread achieve a higher rise and it will also boost its flavor by tenfold.

To determine whether bread is of good quality, there are several factors and characteristics you can identify. For example the crust must be crisp and of a darker tone than the inside, a strong flavour and taste due to the flour, as well as a pleasant smell. What's also important is that the conservation is longer.

The gluten in the dough traps the carbon dioxide gas, preventing it from escaping. The only place for it to go is up, and so the bread rises. Carbon dioxide actually also helps gluten develop in bread.

Think of leavening as a continuum: The more commercial yeast you add to your dough, the more quickly it will rise. This isn't always a good thing, though; yeast bread (including sourdough) develops its best flavor during a long, slow rise.

Butter in bread dough tenderizes the dough, making the soft, pull-apart texture of bakes like brioche, dinner rolls, and Pullman loaves.

Some of the most common bread mix-ins are dried fruits like cranberries, apricots, raisins, and currants. Since these mix-ins are dried, they naturally absorb water. If we added them straight into the dough, they would absorb a significant amount of our dough's water, and would affect the final results.

Sweeteners such as malt and honey are used to add flavor to bread dough. Malt, which is available in powder and liquid form, can be added to almost any bread. It's important to use a nondiastatic version, though, as diastatic malt has active enzymes, which, in excess, will make dough extremely sticky.

What is the best flour for bread? ›

While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.

Wheat flour is the key ingredient in most breads. Flour quality is particularly important in breadmaking as the quality of the flour will have a significant impact on the finished product. When flour is moistened and stirred, beaten or kneaded, gluten develops to give dough `stretch`.

Firstly, the amount of yeast that you put in. The more yeast, the more gas is produced and the more quickly your dough rises. You may therefore think it best to add more yeast if you'd like to get your dough to rise as quickly as possible.

In bread and idli preparation, yeast is used as a leavening agent. The leavening agent, or yeast, changes the sugars in the dough to carbon dioxide and generates energy in the form. As a reaction, yeast cells grow and dough spreads.

Nail the sweet spot — warm enough to rise at a decent rate, yet cool enough to develop flavor — and you're golden. Studies have shown that the optimum temperature for yeast to grow and flavor to develop is 75°F to 78°F.

These dry patches won't stretch during rising to develop an elastic dough, resulting in a dense, squat loaf – not something you want! For best results, use a non-porous, tight fitting cover such as a saucepan lid, bowl cover or even a sheet pan laid on top of the bowl, weighted down with something.