Bread making is both an art and science. You have to understand the process, as well as the ingredients you are using to make the healthiest and freshest breads possible. You may not realize that time is a very important factor to consider to avoid rancidity and other problems when milling and baking. Here are some more tips about freshly milled grains and how you can prepare these to get the best results.

About Milled Grains

There are 25 vitamins, proteins and minerals, plus high fiber from freshly milled flour of whole grain berries. Since grain is naturally preserved inside its shell, it is vital to preserve the entire grain until the final moment to get the most nutrients possible. Natural occurring vegetable oils are encapsulated so that these do not spoil quickly in the whole grain kernel.

As soon as these are milled, flour can get rancid in a short time, because vegetable oils are released. A number of studies present that vitamin loss happens within 3 hours after milling. To make the healthiest breads, you have to mill and bake within 3 hours. Flours left on the shelf for several months have already lost parts of their C and B complex vitamins.

Durum Wheat, Hard Wheat and Soft Wheat

Durum wheat contains high levels of protein, although these create lemon yellow mealy flour referred to as Semolina, such as the one used for making past. Kamut can also be used to make pasta. Hard white spring wheat, referred to as Prairie Gold and Golden 86 can also be used to make bread. This is a hybrid, wherein the bitter compounds of the bran are bred out. The grain is lighter and sweeter, making it an ideal ingredient in making pizza dough and French bread. Soft white winter wheat is referred to as pastry wheat and is used for cookies, pies, pastries, biscuits, muffins and cakes.

The high gluten grains are kamut, spelt and hard wheat. These result to high rising breads containing high levels of protein. Hard wheat can also make yeast bread. Kamut grain and spelt grain lead to yeasted breads. There are several other nutritional grains, although these should be mixed with wheat to create yeast bread.

More on Grains

Changing the grains used can lead to a certain recipe. For example, 10% to 20% of rice flour results to crunchier cookies. Mixing soft white wheat and red wheat 2:3 leads to soft yeasted rolls. Mixing oat flour and soft wheat 1:3 leads to cake flour ideal for a very delicate chiffon cake. Other flours like grains or beans can be substituted for wheat flour in bread recipes, in turn, presenting its own special features. Spelt and kamut do not have adequate gluten inside to successfully raise yeast bread. You can add 1/6 cup of wheat flour to the mix to get high rising breads.

On Wheat Flour

Wheat flour has the highest gluten, a type of protein. It is also that portion of the grain that leads to elasticity, when kneaded. The substance trapping the carbon dioxide provided by the fermenting yeast provides rise and texture to the bread.

Bread can come in different flavors, forms and sizes. However, they are typically all the same. You should know more about the different kinds to learn the many ways of making them. The more you understand the features and characteristics of dough, the better the quality of your products. Find out more about bread and see how much more you can add to create your own special taste and design.

What is Bread?

Bread is a basic food prepared by cooking water and dough of flour and potentially other ingredients. Dough's are generally baked in the Western world and several other countries. In other cuisines, bread is fried, steamed or baked on a hot skillet. It can be unleavened or leavened too.

Salt, leavening agents and fat like baking soda and yeast are basic ingredients. Bread may also have other ingredients like egg, sugar, milk, spice, fruit like raisins, nuts like walnuts, vegetables like onion and seeds like poppy seeds. Bread is among the oldest prepared foods in the world, dating back hundreds of years. Leavened bread can also be traced back to prehistoric periods.

More about Bread

Fresh bread is acquired for its quality, aroma, taste and texture. It is important to maintain its freshness to keep the food appetizing. Bread that has dried or stiffened past its ideal state is known to be stale. Recent bread is usually wrapped in plastic or paper film. It may also be stored in a container like a breadbox to keep it from drying. Bread kept in moist and warm environments is prone to mold growth. Bread that is kept at low temperatures like being placed inside a refrigerator can grow molds slower compared to bread kept at room temperature. This will turn stale immediately because of retrogradation.

The crumb is described by culinary experts and bakers as the soft inside part of the bread. This should not be mistaken with small pieces of bread that usually fall off called crumbs. The outside hard part of the bread is known as the crust.

Serving Bread

Bread can be served regardless of temperature. As soon as it is baked, it can eventually be toasted. Bread is usually eaten using your hands or a knife and fork. It can be eaten independently or together with other food and sauces like gravy, olive oil and sardines. It is also best served as a sandwich with cheese, vegetables or meat contained in between.

About the Crust

The crust of the bread is created from exposed dough during the cooking procedure. It is browned and hardened from caramelization of the proteins and sugars using the intense heat at the surface of the bread. The nature of the bread crust is different, based on the kind of bread and the manner of baking. Commercial bread is baked using jets the steam towards the bread directly to make a nice crust. Some bread crusts are unpalatable, especially among children. Crusts always have a different color compared to the rest of the bread.

If you want to successfully make bread, you have to know more about its composition and chemistry. There are different ingredients that have relative effects to the process. Choosing the right ones will result to delicious bread with good form that keeps for several days or weeks. You have to learn the balance between the ingredients to get the most benefits possible.

About Bread Chemistry

The amount of flour and water is very important when making bread, since these change the crumb and texture of the bread. Professional bakers use a system of percentages called Bakers' Percentage when following recipes and making formulations. They measure all the ingredients according to weight instead of volume. Measuring by weight becomes more accurate and consistent, compared to volume measuring. Dry ingredients are also easier to measure when weighed.

Flour always has 100% and all other ingredients get a percentage of that amount according to weight. The common table bread in America uses about 50% water, leading to light and finely textured bread. A lot of artisan bread formulas also have 60% to 75% water. In yeast bread types, high water percentages lead to CO2 bubbles, plus a coarser bread crumb. One pound of flour will result to regular loaf bread or 2 French loaves.

Knowing Bread Flour

Flour is a product created from grain which has been ground into a powdery consistent form. Flour gives the primary structure to the final baked bread. Common available flours are created from barley, maize, rye and other grains. Wheat flour is the most commonly used for breads, with each of the grains giving protein and starch to the resulting product.

Wheat flour, aside from its starch, also has 3 water soluble protein groups, globulin, albumin, proteoses and 2 non-water soluble protein groups called gliadin and glutenin. When flour mixes with water, the water-soluble proteins dissolve, which trigger gliadin and glutenin to create the structure of the remaining dough. Glutenin creates strands of long thin and chain-like molecules when kneaded, while gliadin creates bridges between glutenin strands. The networks of strands create by the 2 proteins are called gluten. Gluten boosts the quality of the dough.

About Bread Liquids

Water or any other liquid can be used to create the flour and turn it into dough or a paste. The volume of liquid needed will change between recipes, although a ratio of 1 cup of liquid to 3 flour cups is basic for yeast breads. Recipes using steam as a main leavening procedure can have liquid content in excess of 1 part liquid to 1 part flour according to volume. Aside from water, other liquids can be used such as fruit juice, dairy products and or beer. These can provide added fats, sweeteners and leavening components.

Bread Recipes

Bread recipes will differ, but it is important that you stick to the ratios provided. You will find that later on, you can change the amounts slightly to get the right consistency, flavor and texture that you prefer. Some countries have varying components to provide more uniqueness and creativity to the mix.

There are different agents used to make bread, thereby resulting to a variety of characteristics and properties. The yeast does not produce the sour taste of sourdough. It is actually lactobacillus, wherein the yeast lives in symbiosis. The lactobacillus feeds on end-products of yeast fermentation, in turn, creating the culture that goes sour through the excretion of lactic acid. This protects everything from spoiling.

All breads before were sourdoughs, and the leavening process was not fully known until the 19th century. Only with the development of microscopes did scientists find out that dough can rise through microbes. The strains of yeast have been chosen and packed as Baker's Yeast. Bread created using Baker's yeast is not sour due to the absence of the lactobacillus. The yeast was then embraced by bakers all over the globe.

More on Sourdough Bread

Sourdough breads are usually made using sourdough starter. A sourdough starter is a culture of lactobacillus and yeast. It is a pancake-like flour and water mixture wherein the lactobacilli and yeast live. A starter can be managed nonstop by regularly eliminating a part then refreshing by adding water and fresh flour. There are starters owned by families and bakers that are many generations old. Starters can be acquired by getting a piece of starter and growing it. These can also be made from nothing. There are groups online who can send you starters. Other companies also can send you starters through mail order.

Other procedures can also be done to bake and culture sourdough. A more traditional approach is the process followed by peasant families all over Europe in the past. The family usually bakes on a regular basis, like once a week. The starter is saved from the dough made the previous week. The starter is then mixed using the new ingredients, and the dough left to rise. A piece of it will be saved to become the starter for the following week. The others are formed into loaves and marked with the family sign. The communal ovens will evolve into bakeries, with people beginning to specialize in bread baking.

On Bread Bacteria

Salt-risen bread uses a type of bacterial leavening that does not need yeast. Even though the leavening action is not consistent and needs close attention to the incubating conditions, the bread is become more common because of its special cheese-like flavor and smooth texture.

Fats and Preparation

Fats like vegetable oils, butter and lard can change the gluten development in breads by lubricating and coating the single protein strands and helping in holding the structure together. If there is too much fat inside the bread dough, the lubricating effect usually leads the protein structures to separate. The greatest leavening action is achieved by using fat content of 3% by weight.

Bread preparation among cultures will vary. The crusts, body and texture will change depending on the ingredients used and the methods incorporated. Some bakers will use special personalized methods to give it a sense of originality that no other can copy.

Originally, sourdough points to the cultures of various microbes located in the San Francisco area. Later on, the term refers to miners who brought sourdough starters everywhere they go. In recent periods, the growth of huge-scale commercial baking, plus the invention of different dough flavoring agents, led to sourdough referring to any type of sour bread, regardless of whether it is leavened with natural leaven starter or using commercial baker's yeast. The term may confuse a number of individuals, but knowing the details and understanding how it is made can better improve your technique.

The Differences

Sourdough starter is a culture of natural or wild yeast, together with lactobacilli in a medium of liquid and flour. It is propagated using ongoing feedings or refreshments with the sole purpose of leavening bread dough. It is ongoing and continues from one activation or bake to another. Sourdough bread has been leavened using a sourdough starter. It may or may not be sour bread, based on the characteristics of the starter.

Sourdough is the term used to describe the natural leaven of natural or wild yeast and lactobacilli. It is the process of leavening bread using a natural leaven. The yeasted starter describes the starter that has the commercial bakers' yeast.

Being Sour

Sour bread, also known as faux sourdough, describes any kind of bread that has the sour flavor, because of a flavoring agent like souring salts, ingredients like vinegar or yogurt or process that does not include a natural leaven starter or a sourdough.

Sourdough bread does not have need to be sour bread. Sourdough bread can be very sour, although it is also normal for it not to be sour. It can be subtly flavored using delicious and rich wheat flavors. With sourdough, the level of sourness will depend on several factors like the kind of grains, temperature, length of fermentation, specific yeast strains and lactobacilli and the amount of water.

About Hooch

As the starter is left in the refrigerator, the mixture will begin to separate, leading to a layer of liquid forming at the top. The liquid will have about 12 to 14 percent alcohol. Hooch is described as the alcoholic by-product of the process of fermentation. This is will feature a unique brownish color. The alcohol dissipates while baking. You can stir the liquid back into the starter before you use it. Hooch can build up in the starter, especially if you keep it in the refrigerator. You can pour it or stir it back inside. You can mix the hooch back in if the sourdough starter is on the dry area. Throw it away if the starter is very moist.

Natural Leavens

Starters created using commercial bakers' yeast are not natural leavens. These are actually yeasted starters that do not produce the same results in terms of shelf-life, flavor and texture like natural leaven starters. It is possible that a yeasted starter can be taken over using natural yeasts and changing it into a natural leaven.

Making bread will involve a variety of ingredients and tools. Understanding the effects of each one will ensure that you make bread that is flavorful and of good quality. You may be surprised to know that some of the most common ingredients can change the nature of the bread drastically even with mild application. You can acquire these in many outlets, the internet and through local dealers. Here are some more tips about baking ingredients.

On Sweeteners

Liquid sweeteners help provide more taste to the bread. Honey and molasses are some of the most common options. Sweeteners provide moistness to the bread as well, giving it a better appearance and longer shelf-life. Sweet things also feed yeast. You can also use barley malt syrup. When using honey, be careful about using very high temperatures, since it can scorch and brown the bread. 1/3 cup of honey for every 2 loaves is recommended.

About Salt

Salt generally boosts the flavor of the bread and manages the fermentation process. Bread without salt becomes flat and tasteless. Do not add salt to the liquid wherein the yeast is dissolving since this can prevent yeast growth. You can use real salt, earth mineral salt or unrefined sea salt. Use 1 tablespoon for every 2 loaves. A lot of recipes require less.

Other Present Ingredients

Lecithin comes from soybeans and helps keep bread soft and moist. It slows down the oxidation of the liquid components and functions as a binder. Lecithin appears in liquid, granular or powdered form. 1.5 tablespoons of granular or liquid per loaf is enough as a binder. If you use the powdered form, make sure to follow the guidelines written on the can.

Malt, barley malt syrup or diastatic malt powder are sweet derivatives of toasted barley. These provide nutrition and boost texture, shelf life and appearance. Exchange 1 tablespoon of sweetener in the recipe together with 2 tablespoons of syrup and 1/2 teaspoon of powder. If you put in too much, your bread can become gummy, very sweet or bitter and dense. Vital wheat gluten or gluten flour is taken from high protein wheat. It also serves as a binder, resulting to dough becoming more elastic.

If the flour is lower than 16% protein, you need to add more gluten. Gluten also aids in the compensation of damage done to bread gluten because of the jagged edges of the bran, happening during the milling procedure. 1 to 2 tablespoons for every loaf is adequate. Too much gluten flour will lead to bread becoming rubbery and tough.

Final Ingredients

Oats or oatmeal provides added moistness and crunch to bread. This will lead to good toasting bread. You can add 1 cup of rolled oats for every 2 loaves. Pour 1 to 2 cups of boiling water over the rolled oats and allow to cool. Whey in liquid or powdered form is a dairy by-product. It contains a lot of milk sugar, protein and minerals. It also helps in the browning process and sweetens the bread a little.

If you want to bake homemade bread successfully, you have to understand that there are different available types. You need to know how each one appears and follow the guidelines that will lead to the best quality, flavor and texture. Homemade breads have been formulated by families for hundreds of years. Here's your chance to finally whip out your own recipe.

About Industrial Bread

The difference between homemade bread recipes with commercial ones is that commercialized bread is made to have uniform substance and texture, to be produced on a massive scale and to have just enough shelf-life for you to keep returning to the grocery. Excessive amounts of yeast help produce a lot of bubbles inside the bread, which leads to the light texture of the bread. Lower quality grains are also used and can lack the essential nutrients. The main goal of commercialized bread is to be produced as cheaply as possible to earn the highest profit.

Preservatives may also be used to help boost shelf life, which reduces manufacturing cost. Some of the ingredients you need to be cautious about include high fructose corn syrup, calcium dioxide, datem, ethoxylated mono and diglycerides, dicalcium phosphate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium propionate, soy lecithin, ammonium chloride and ammonium sulfate.

Advantages of Being Homemade

Homemade bread has the advantage of having high quality ingredients, better flavor, taste and texture and longer shelf life. You put in the right materials into the mix to ultimately create the best-tasting bread. Some of the things you need to know are that different flours function differently too. Try to make whole wheat bread or rye bread. The flour will also have various properties. Add the flour slowly into the bowl until it barely sticks to your hands. Whole wheat flour will need one-half cup less flour compared to white flour.

When making Italian bread, substitute salt with garlic salt. Add the Italian seasonings like rosemary and oregano before you begin to stir. Double the recipe to make two loaves of bread instead.  You get to save more time and effort too. Try to experiment with different ingredients. You may want to work on pizza dough and cinnamon rolls later on.

Shopping for Ingredients

When making your homemade bread, you can shop for ingredients in different places to get only the best quality ingredients. You can actually search the internet and have some materials and ingredients shipped right to your doorstep. You can even have starters sent. You should also visit different groceries and supermarkets and look at the difference between breads. Try to determine the special ingredients that bakers add to get the appearance, flavor and texture you want.

Feel free to add condiments and other sweeteners to make special kinds of homemade bread. It will also require some more techniques to get the right crust and make toast bread. Depending on the kind of bread you want, you will have to employ different techniques and tools. Homemade bread is convenient, easy and cheap, so enjoy the experience and learn every step of the way.

Banana bread has become a very popular type among families and kids, since it is delicious, nutritious and very easy to prepare. You can serve this for breakfasts, as a dessert for guests or for your child's snacks at school. You can also save more dollars by using bananas that have ripened more than enough to be eaten independently. Here's how to begin.

Gather the Ingredients

To start, gather all the materials and ingredients you need. Take 1 3/4 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 2/3 cup of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/3 cup of shortening or softened butter, some extra flour, cooking spray or butter to grease the pan and a cup of mashed bananas. Try to aim for 2 bananas mashed completely.

The Process

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease all the surfaces of the inside of the pan. Sprinkle some flour into the pan, and then shake the flour around until all the sides are already covered with flour. You can ensure that the bread will come out very smoothly this way. Mash the bananas, and then mix them in with the other ingredients. Mix the sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and baking soda inside a medium-sized bowl.

Add the softened butter to the flour mixture, plus the shortening, and then mix everything until the mixture appears like crumbs. Add two of the eggs then continue stirring. Pour the batter into the floured and greased pan. Put the pan inside the oven, and then bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes. Try to insert a toothpick into the middle of the banana bread. It should come out clean to confirm that the bread is baked well.

Final Tips

You will find that work can be easier if you use a bread pan measuring about 4 x 8 inches deep. Try to reduce the total number of times that you open the oven to check on the condition of the banana bread, since heat can escape every time you open the oven door, thereby making baking periods longer.

Use bananas that are overripe or past, characterized by a lot of brown spots on the peel. These are generally sweeter compared to ripe bananas. If the bread is browning quickly, but the center is still raw, you can cover the bread using aluminum foil. The bread will continue baking, although the browning process is slowed down. If you have extra bananas and want to make 2 or more loaves in a single session, freeze the extra loaves to prevent these from spoiling. Always use oven mitts when taking the banana bread out of the oven to keep your hand from getting burning.

Making Chocolate Banana Bread

To make chocolate banana bread, you can add 1 cup of dark chocolate chips, icing sugar (to dust) and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. When sifting the baking powder and flour inside the bowl, add the caster sugar. Melt the chocolate chips and butter in a double boiler. Dust the final loaf with caster sugar. You will need about 1 hour to bake the chocolate banana bread. Allow the bread to cool for 40 to 50 minutes.

Bread has been a staple food of human beings for hundreds of years. However, almost majority of people still do not know how bread is made. The process is actually very simple, although more advanced techniques are also used to make special kinds of bread. Overall, the principles are very much the same. It is important that you practice safety at all times and watch how the experts do it to get the most benefits. Here are some tips and tricks.

The Ingredients

To begin, you will need 16 ounces of bread flour and a bit more for shaping. Get 1 teaspoon of instant rapid rise yeast, 2 teaspoons of salt and 10 ounces of filtered water. You will need more of these ingredients if preparing for more people.

Other optional ingredients you may need include 1/3 cup of water, 2 teaspoons of honey or sugar and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Functional ingredients include 2 quarts of hot water, 2 tablespoons of cornmeal and vegetable oil to grease the rising container.

The Process

Mix 5 ounces of flour together with 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, the bottled water and all of the honey inside a straight-sided container. Cover everything loosely then refrigerate for a period of 8 to 12 hours. Leaving everything overnight is recommended. Yeast does a couple of things for bread. First, it leavens the bread and second, it adds texture and flavor to the bread. To properly leaven the bread, the yeast has to be reproduced immediately to create the gasses found inside. Reproduction has to be slow to give the right texture and flavor.

Make the sponge or pre-ferment. Put the yeasty mixture into the refrigerator and slow down the whole fermentation procedure. The dough will absorb some of the gasses left by the yeast, leading to softer dough later on. The bread will also have an aged flavor. The added hydration and time will form gluten strands which are essential for bread dough.

More Steps

Next, put the 11 ounces of flour, the rest of the yeast and all the salt into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the pre-ferment you made from the refrigerator. Use the dough hook attachment to knead the mixture on low for 2 to 3 minutes until everything mixes. Cover the dough in the bowl using a kitchen towel and let everything rest for 20 minutes. Knead the dough on medium speed for 5 to 10 minutes after 20 minutes or until you can slowly pull the dough into a sheet, wherein light passes through. The dough will be sticky, but not so much that you cannot manage well.

Final Process

Flatten the dough using your knuckles, and then fold it into itself. Put the dough back on the counter and roll slowly between your hands. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Slash the top surface of the dough balls about 1/2 inch deep. Add more hot water if the pan tends to be dry. Once the bread reaches an internal temperature of about 210 degrees F, remove it and place on a cooling rack. Let it sit for 30 minutes then slice.

A lot of individuals do not realize that breadcrumbs serve a variety of functions. You can use these for cooking and adding texture and flavor to different foods like pizza, fried chicken and many more. It is actually cheap and easy to start, considering that you have the right remains with you. Here are some tried and proven tips from the experts to help you.

About Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are used in several food recipes like casseroles and fried foods. You can buy breadcrumbs, but you will find that making your own leads to less waste and more savings. You also get the advantage of added flavor, since you get to pick the contents to work with. You get rid of unwanted chemicals and preservatives the store-bought types offer. Homemade fresh breadcrumbs are on the top of every baker's preferences.

Starting Steps

Gather all your ingredients and tools to start making breadcrumbs. You can make breadcrumbs from virtually any type of bread. You can also mix different kinds of bread. It is an excellent way to use up leftovers, stale bread and the ends of a bread loaf. Remember that you can still taste the flavor and seasonings of the original bread if you consume the crumbs. You need 4 regular slices of bread or a cup of crumbs. Other tools you need include a food processor to turn the bread into crumbs, a knife and a blender. Blenders will save you time and energy to make uniform crumbs, but you can also do well with a basic knife.

Making the Crumbs

Using slices of white bread and trimming the crusts off it will result to uniform breadcrumbs. If you have soft bread, you can leave it on the counter for 2 hours to make it easier to cut. This is useful if you have a food processor or a blender, since soft bread can get gummy inside the machine. You can also place the bread inside a warm oven, until it becomes mildly toasted. Do not overdo the process, however. There is a fine line between the perfect toast and badly burnt bread. Always observe the heating process.

Cutting and Preparation

Cut the bread into small crumbs. Make the smallest pieces possible, especially if you are working with a knife. When using a food processor or blender, tear the bread into small pieces then feed these to the machine one piece at a time. Do not over fill the blender or processor to keep the blades from getting stuck. Pulse the machine until you get the ideal size of breadcrumbs. Add the needed seasonings for flavor such as cheese, herbs and spices. The seasonings should complement the recipe you are trying to follow.

Final Tips

Making a large batch of breadcrumbs will help you save time and energy. Store the extra in a zip-top bag then store inside the freezer. You can easily thaw these in the future if you need to use them. Compare the different flavors and experiment to make your own personalized recipe.