January Poll Results: Honing Your Bread Baking Skills

Well January 2008 is gone, and with it the January poll.  This is how the vote went:

What Baking Skill Do You Want To Learn In 2008

Bread baking-  9

Pastry making- 8

Cake Decorating-5

Choux Pastry- 2

Those are all skills I want to be better at, so if you voted, you are in luck..I am going to be working on all of them and sharing my experiences, failures, and ideas as I go along.

I tend to feel sort of comfortable with bread because I have been making bread since I was 14.  That was a long time ago… bell bottoms, love beads, and Marvin Gaye…Jethro Tull… Love Story…Summer of 42….

I think the hardest thing that new bread bakers have to learn is that bread baking is not an exact science. The amount of flour needed for the dough can vary from day to day by as much a 2 cups!  This can be frustrating as someone new to bread watches an experienced baker add flour by feel, rather than cups.  Here are some *insider tips* that I have picked up over the last (gulp) 34 years…..

• Water should be warm to the touch in the winter, like baby bath water, but just body temp in the summer
• Add 1/4 tsp powdered ginger to the yeast to help activate it
• The texture of the kneaded dough should be silky and like kneaded playdough..but with elasticity
• Nothing is exact in bread making
• Warm the flour and other ingredients in the microwave when the house is cold
• Learn to make the bread by hand before you try it in a mixer. You  need to learn to feel the dough, and know its needs by touch
• Try, try again
• You can get the bread to rise fast in the microwave IF you have a low setting.  5 minutes on the10% power, 5 rest, 5 on 10% power
• A longer first rise often gives more flavor

Now, there are many more tips and tricks that I will be sharing, but these are a start.  Why don’t you try to roll recipe I posted yesterday and see how you do?