Baking Tips

I was going to put all of this on my hints and tips page, but I felt it deserved a page of its own. If I haven't covered something that you would like to know, just comment and I'll answer it as soon as possible.

Bread

Helping Gramps make flowerpot bread (I’ll get to that bit) is one of the earliest memories I have of cooking. It is amazing the sheer pleasure that the smell and taste of freshly baked bread can bring. He’d slice it still warm from the oven with his electric knife and, other than perhaps my father, I have never known somebody to slice bread so perfectly and thin. The smell of bread in the house will still take me right back to that kitchen, sitting around the breakfast bar and eating it spread simply with butter…bliss!

How to knead bread

Kneading is really quite simple and essentially all about brute force and ignorance. The (very simplified) science behind it is by stretching the dough and folding it back together, you are elongating the strands of gluten in the wheat which gives the dough its elasticity. Have a look here for more details on it. 

Push forward and down with the heels of your wrists, you'll see the dough stretching out.

If you find you aren't really stretching the dough then you can use one hand to push forward and another to pull back.

Then fold the dough back on itself, and repeat. 

The more you do this the more you see the bread-like texture appearing in the dough and it will become more elastic (and break less). The dough also becomes MUCH less sticky the more you knead, so do not be tempted to keep adding flour to the mixture. 

What is Strong Flour?

Strong flour has a higher percentage of gluten than regular flour and give a better texture to the bread. Very strong flour has an even higher percentage of gluten. Plain flour really wont give the same result I'm afraid.