If you want to use fresh yeast instead of dried yeast for your recipe, then you will need to weigh out twice the amount than that of dried yeast. So, if a recipe calls for 7g of dried yeast, use 14g of fresh yeast. Many bread recipes suggest putting dried yeast directly into the dry ingredients before adding tepid water to make the dough. I have always found it better to place the yeast with a teaspoon of sugar into a jug of the required amount of tepid liquid (water or milk), allowing it to stand for 10 minutes to start proving and then pour the yeast and water mixture into the flour. This ensures that the yeast will work, and also avoids allowing the yeast to come into immediate contact with any salt which might prohibit a successful rise.
Always use strong bread flour when making bread unless the recipe specifically asks for plain. I would recommend using Spelt flour when making wholemeal breads. It is an ancient subspecies of wheat and contains a higher proportion of nutrients than ordinary wheat as well as using less fertilizer in its cultivation.
When you add the liquid to the dough you may well need to add more than the recipe calls for. Although you don’t want a sloppily wet dough you don’t want a dough that is too dry or the resulting bread will be rather tough. Try to make it as wet as possible without it being sloppy.
If you are making an enriched dough i.e. with eggs and butter, then it is often better to add these into the dough after its first rise. It is rather a messy business but by adding the eggs and butter to the original dough mixture it can make it rather heavy and slow to rise.
If your bread requires the inclusion of dried fruits, seeds or nuts then add these after the first rise by scattering over the dough as you gently knead them in.
The point of kneading dough is to stretch it so that the protein strands knit together and develop a strong gluten net. The usual method is to push the dough away from you with the heel of your palm, fold over and pull back before repeating. However, when teaching my 13 year old god-daughter how to make bread, she got rather bored with this method and found it much more interesting to stretch the dough between her hands in the air. She then twisted it round her hands (much as a dough hook does in a machine) and rather than the usual robust and energetic kneading on the board she took her time and carried out these actions quite slowly. I let her continue assuming that her bread would be a failure. But her dough rose beautifully to a soft billowing pillow and the final bread was soft, airy and delicious. I have used her method ever since. Apart from anything else it keeps your board clean and doesn’t require a scattering of flour on the board to stop the dough sticking which, in turn, adds flour to the dough, making it less moist.
Most recipes call for the dough to be left to rise for an hour or two. However, this has health disadvantages as a dough risen quickly will not ‘mature’ enough to be good for your gut. Most industrially manufactured bread is risen very fast and can cause problems such as irritable bowel syndrome. If you want to be kind to your gut then the longer the rise, the better. Instead of placing the dough in a warm place for an hour or two, place it in the fridge for at least eight hours (overnight). The next day take it out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature before knocking back for the second rise.
Before putting your loaf in the oven, pour hot water from a kettle into a roasting pan laid at the bottom of the oven. This will create steam which will ensure a good crust to your bread. Keep checking the bread in the oven through the oven window. If it looks as though the top is burning quickly cut a large square of kitchen foil out and place it loosely over the top of the bread. This will prevent it burning.
The practice of fermenting a mixture of flour and water which takes in natural yeasts from the air goes back thousands of years to the beginning of agriculture. It was the way all breads were leavened until Anglo Saxon times when it was replaced by ‘barm’ a constituent of the beer and ale making process. Sourdough breads were still made throughout most of the world alongside the use of barms and fresh yeast and during the 1840s French bakers introduced the sourdough method to bakers in California during the Gold Rush. Sourdough has remained popular, particularly in San Francisco, ever since. Reports of sourdough bread’s health benefits (the slower fermentation process is much better for the gut) and its particular texture and sour taste started to spread throughout the United States and then, more recently, to Britain. Sourdough breads are now a common feature and can be found in artisan bakeries throughout the country. Avoid buying sourdough from supermarkets. It is industrially made and the ‘rise’ is forced due to time constraints which means the health benefits are reduced.
If you want to use a sourdough starter for any of the bread recipes you will need 20g of sourdough starter per 100g flour so for a loaf asking for 450g flour you will need 90g of starter.
In a plastic container mix 50g flour (spelt or rye works best) and 50ml room temperature water. Leave uncovered for a couple of hours preferably outside). My best sourdough is made in the early autumn when I leave my starter under my apple tree – it catches the yeasts created by the fermenting windfalls. Then cover with a teacloth and leave for 24 hours.
Add 50g flour and 50g water to original mixture and mix thoroughly. Cover with teacloth and leave for 24 hours.
Repeat Day 2.
By now there will be 900g of bubbling active starter. Take out 150g of starter and place in another container and put remaining 750g in the freezer for later use. Add 200g flour and 200g water to the 150g of starter and mix in. Leave at room temperature until bubbly (6-12 hours). Cover with a lid and keep in the fridge. Whenever you take any out to make bread replace with the same amount to keep it alive and don’t keep in the fridge without feeding for more than 2 weeks. If you need to leave it for more than 2 weeks then freeze it.
If you leave it longer and are worried by the grey water on top, simply take 1 tablespoon of starter and feed 100g flour and 100g water, repeat this for two or three days leaving at room temperature until bubbly. Then discard ¾ and feed back up to around 500g.
