Boiled Bread

Today I finally got round to making a bread that has interested me for a long time. The humble Bagel, favoured by Jewish communities around the world but especially in New York, is unusual in that the dough is boiled before it is baked. Although this is for less than a minute it creates that unique consistency and crisp crust.

This odd method does mean it is slightly more labour-intensive than some of the breads I favour, but I think it is well worth the extra effort. The recipe I have used makes ten relatively small bagels, but I think eight may have been a better division. If ten is too many, cutting and freezing the extra is always an option too.

The only other rather odd thing is the use of Malt Extract. This ingredient should be fairly widely available, but if you're having trouble finding it try health food shops or brewing suppliers. It lasts well, so don't be afraid of buying a large jar.

Barney's been baking bagels.

Basic Baking 1

This is the first in a series of posts describing the basic techniques of bread making. A number of people who read this blog are new to baking and find things like kneading, especially as described in books, difficult to get to grips with. Well, the purpose of this site is to explain how easy it is to make great bread in your own home, so this series of videos focusses on basic techniques.

The main difference between breads, other than exotic ingredients, is the type of dough that is prepared. These can be divided into, for example, Stiff, Medium, Moist and Wet. Each is prepared slightly differently and considerable time and effort can be saved by knowing a little about each one.

The first we shall deal with here is the Stiff Dough. This is characterised by the use of around half as much water as flour as can be found in this recipe. Although used primarily for pizza dough, it also produces relatively long-lasting loaves and rolls with an even crumb (meaning the air holes inside are of a similar and generally small size). It is one of the doughs that requires tough kneading and this is demonstrated (at length!) in the video, along with other techniques such as forming loaves and oiling film, which will be useful in any bread preparation.



Apologies for the sound quality.

Be boisterous bakers.

Child's Play

With my lovely nephew Owen over for the weekend, baking seemed like a good way of entertaining a ten year-old for a while. It was also the perfect opportunity to show just how easy it is to bake delicious bread. Using the most simple recipe I could think of to illustrate the basics of baking, we made some rolls; varying the forms to make it a bit more exciting. The photo here is of the finished result (can you tell which were made by the ten year-old?) and the consensus opinion was: delicious.

The Most Basic Bread

I know it has been a long time since I have last posted to this blog, but that time has not been wasted. I have been developing what I hope is the most simple bread recipe possible to encourage the complete novice (or the jaded lazy baker) to get on and bake.

There are a number of things that affect the final product in bread making, and it has been experimenting with these that has taken the time (plus a bit of laziness on my part once I cracked it!). I was especially interested, as ever, in the overnight technique; with an emphasis on those that do not have a lot of time to spare in the morning. Since my wife changed jobs I have no longer had the impetus to rise so early, so I have been concentrating on developing a bread that is ready to bake first-thing. For those of you familiar with my overnight Focaccia you will know that this is the king of early baking, but for the novice it may seem a bit daunting, and there is quite a bit of work the night before.

So having thrown out the rule book on baking (apologies to any dyed-in-the-wool bakers out there) I started experimenting with single rise doughs. To vary the rising speed of the dough one can alter three main factors: the amount of yeast; the temperature of the environment; and the flour to water ratio. To achieve the result I wanted I realised I would have to meddle with all three of these.

Rising in the fridge overnight obviously takes care of point two, in order to get the rise just right I then needed to fiddle point three, the quantity of yeast, and to stop the dough sagging over such a long rise I also needed to find a balance with the flour and water ratio. This requirement for a certain stiffness does unfortunately mean the dough requires kneading, something the novice is often uncomfortable with, but it was the lesser of a number of baking evils and I intend to cover the subject in video tutorials in my next post. For now just taking out any work, family or political stress on the pliable ball in front of you should more than suffice (i.e. give it a good pounding).

So here is the finished recipe for the overnight method, and also a slightly more lengthy process for traditional baking. Both make a good crusty roll that will be cool enough to make sandwiches within half an hour of leaving the oven and can take as little as twenty minutes of actual work-time to produce (most of this the evening before). As always any leftovers can be cut, bagged and frozen to make even quicker rolls on the following days. Hopefully this will provide the new baker with the confidence to try experimenting with more technical breads and a good staple to fall back on in busy times.

So don't be shy, give it a try.