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Bread
Baking Made Easy
by Beth Scott
Don’t you
just hate
it when
you follow a recipe to the letter
and when the bread baking is finished the bread not only looks nothing
like the recipe book’s picture, but tastes terrible as well?
There is
no
denying that bread baking is a delicate process. Just
as with baking anything, you have to follow specific instructions from
boring cookbooks that leave your head spinning.
You're
never
quite sure that you're doing things correctly, because no one is there
to show you how to do it. This is especially true with bread
baking.
Bread
baking
involves so many things that first time bakers are often
discouraged after a few failed
attempts to turn out
professional looking and tasting loaves.
Little do
they realize that if they only possessed the professional
Baker’s secrets, bread baking would be so easy that the bread would
practically bake itself!
For
instance: How many
amateur bakers know the secret to keeping
bread from sticking to the pan every time?
None!
So when they try their hand at bread baking for the first time their
bread sticks to the bread pan, and ends up a crumbled mess if they try
to force it out.
Then they
cry
and give up thinking that the problem lies with them.
The
shocking
truth
is that it doesn’t!
The
problem
lies with their lack of knowledge of THE baker’s bread baking secret.
The secret
professional chefs and bakers won’t tell you, the secret
they guard so jealously.
My father
happened to learn this bread baking secret in his younger
baking days (which is no great surprise since his great great
grandfather was a chef for the White House and owned his own bakery in
Kansas City, Missouri) and has passed it on to his children ever since.
Okay,
okay, I
know you’re probably screaming at me by now “Beth, get on with it! Tell us the bread
baking secret already!”
The Baker's Secret
So here it
is; You will need only one tool besides for the oil and
bread pan you already have, and that is quite simply CORNMEAL (you
shouldn’t need more than 1/4 to 1/2 cup for two loaves of bread).
“Cornmeal?”
you ask doubtfully. “YES,
cornmeal!”
No, you do not add the
cornmeal to the bread ingredients! That is not the bread
baking secret.
What you
do
is you oil your pan as usual, and you lightly sprinkle
cornmeal on all of the sides and bottom of the bread pan.
Now you
can
safely place your bread dough into the pans without fear of
it sticking to them.
While your
bread is baking instead of sticking to the pan, your bread
will stick to the cornmeal and slide easily out of the pan when done
baking.
You may
need
to use a butter knife and slide it in between the pan and
the bread before turning the pan over and allowing your bread to pop
out.
A lot of
the
time this will be unnecessary however and your bread will
pop out just by your turning the bread pan upside down.
You will
probably also want to use the butter knife to scrape the
excess cornmeal off the bottom and sides of the bread as you may not
care for the taste of cornmeal.
This bread
baking secret will work whether you’re baking a batter bread
or a rising bread (also called yeast bread). I personally use it
for both.
Don't Burn That Bread
Yet another
treasured bread baking secret, this for batter
breads:
On the
last
ten minutes of its baking time cover the bread pan
containing the batter bread with another bread pan (a steel bread pan
works best), and leave it on until the bread is finished baking.
This will
keep the batter bread from burning or becoming too hard on
top. You may vary the time you leave the steel bread pan on
according to how your batter bread usually looks when it is finished.
If it is a
very dark brown on top and difficult to slice because the
top is so hard, then 20 minutes will work best. But if it is just
a little too hard on top and a little too brown the 10 minutes should
suffice.
Do
not cover the bread at all if
it
usually comes out golden and soft
on top after the baking is completed.
You may
also
glaze a batter bread on top with a tablespoon of melted
butter mixed with a tablespoon of honey, and sprinkle some flaked
coconut or sliced nuts on top of that.
To glaze
you
start by taking the bread out of the oven five minutes
before the required baking time is finished, then spread the
butter/honey mixture on top of the bread, sprinkle on your coconut or
chopped nuts and bake for the remaining 5 minutes.
Over Rising Bread?
Here is another
useful bread baking tip for rising breads:
If your
bread
loaves over rise (say because you were busy and forgot
about them), then you can use a pair of scissors to cut off the excess
sides, being careful not to cut any dough from off of the top.
You may
then
use this excess dough to make rolls. You simply oil
a pizza or cookie sheet and form the dough into several small balls.
Rise them
for
another half hour and then bake on 350 degrees Fahrenheit
for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Do
yourself a
favor and put these tried and tested bread baking secrets
immediately to use in your kitchen, and your family will rave over the
results.
About the Author:
Beth teaches bread
baking how-to's so simply that with her new eBook (which includes
excellent photo illustrations) ANYONE can bake their
own bread. Visit her Bread
Baking website
now!
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