Cooking with Muriel - Bread

Hello there!

How have you been doing? I hope the cold weather is not making you freeze to your bones! I’m having one of the most cold winters I’ve ever experienced and that’s actually so weird coming from Germany where I’ve been at -20 one time in Leipzig! Anyway, I’ll just put yet another layer to my current home wear before I continue writing.

Today I’ll tell you about a hobby I’ve been enjoying quite a lot lately: making bread.

I’ve always enjoyed bread. Carbs are my one true love and especially if shaped in a lovely ball with a crispy outside and a fluffy, full of wholes and layers interior: the basic yet delicious bread. 

I don’t know why even as a child I was so obsessed with bread. I guess that it’s part of my traditional way of conceiving a meal. I must clear one thing though: in European cultures it’s a staple for any meal to have bread on the table. It’s meant to be there in order to help you push some elements of the dish into your fork/spoon or to just dip it into decadent sauces and soups. I don’t know if it’s an etiquette manner, but I’ve been taught that and it just makes sense, don’t you think?

Bread has been in decay the past years. I mean, good bread is actually hard to find now a days. And it’s one of the most basic preparations humans can make! 

21st Century is filled with “comfort” that makes our society believe that “easy” is good enough. Well, in my opinion, it’s even easier to know what you are throwing into your mouth by making it yourself or buying it in places where they are ethic with their preparations.

Did you know that commercial breads that you find in supermarkets contain palm oil? Or several emulsifiers? Or food coloring agents? It’s not fun knowing that something that should be done with four ingredients is suddenly done with twenty four.

So, here I am. Concerned about my bread addiction not becoming toxic. I started thinking about making it myself and I took a couple of classes to know more and get into the habit of making bread.

First class: it all seemed so easy! Just four ingredients: flour. salt, yeast and water. Inexpensive, staples in all pantries. How hard it could be to make a good bread? 

Well, my very first attempt was a disaster. But it’s okay! I wrote down my procedure to tell the teacher my doubts and clear them out for the next time. Even though this firsts little gummy bread balls came out so bad, toasting them and spreading some margarine to them made them edible, so, not a complete fail!

My second attempt, after clearing all doubts, was the beginning of a beautiful journey. It came out like one of those village bakeries were they have fresh home made bread every day, big and fluffy. Not so crunchy on the outside though! So I wrote it down on my notebook and into other bread preparations!

Little by little, I started mixing flours to make semi- whole grain breads, whole grain breads, oat flour breads, classic white, focaccia’s… And I came out with my own proportions to have a good bread that my family and friends could enjoy as well!

Actually, this past Christmas I’ve been making bread for every festive meal we were having and it made such a big difference. Compared to other festive times where we’ve bought bread from a bakery (not a local, small business and home made kind of) where it wasn’t as special and flavorful. 

I’m of course not saying that I’m now the best bread maker in town, because I still need to learn A LOT. Actually, not all of my breads have been good nor totally edible. But I’m kind of proud of my start into baking bread! I have my own relaxation time when making it and it’s so easy. You just need to have patience and not rush any procedure. “Calmness is your best friend when making bread” as my teacher said.

Now, into the good stuff. A lot of friends and my family members have asked me to share the classic bread recipe. I’m using the recipe my teacher taught me but of course, there will be many other different methods out there. It’s a matter of trying until you find the one that works best for you!

To begin with, there’s some percentages you must have in mind to have the correct proportions  for making bread. At least in the regulations for bakers in Spain, this is what they use:

100% flour

70% hydration

2% salt

2%yeast 

Once you have this in mind, you can make any bread more or less. Sourdough with starter is a different story though, but if you want to know how to make your own starter for a real sourdough, check out this Bon Appetit video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oidnwPIeqsI

Going back to our not so fancy, yet really delicious bread recipe. Procedure is not too hard, you just need to take time for everything. Slow is always better when cooking.

Ingredients:

• Fresh yeast. You can also do it with active dry yeast, but the quantity changes and if you over due dry yeast, it can taste really yeast-y your bread after baked, and we don’t want that.
• Bread flour
  I recommend starting with a simple white bread because trying to make a whole grain or a gluten free straight away can be messy, scary and make you want to quit immediately.
  
   If for whatever reason, there’s no flour labeled as “bread flour” in your local grocery store, then check out a white flour that contains at least 13 grams of protein. This is important for the rising of the dough afterwards.
  
• Salt.
  Stick with normal kosher salt to make a cohesive dough. Sea salt is great but can be chunky afterwards. I like that, but most people don’t enjoy extremely salty breads.

• Water. 
  Always cold! 

Procedure:

1.- In a large bowl mesure all ingredients with the help of a scale. I’ll explain all my measurements in grams.

2.- To make a bread that can last you for at least three days, I would say use 500 grams of flour, 12 grams of yeast, 12 grams of salt and 350 grams of water.

3.- Mix all ingredients by hand, making sure all flour is fully incorporated and the edges of your bowl have no flour residues. Once you have a sticky kind of dough, scrape the residues of dough of your hands with the help of a spatula, make a couple more folds to incorporate these lasts scrapes into the dough ball and cover with a cloth to let it rest for 15 minutes at room temperature.

4.- After the time has passed, in a clean counter spread some cold water into the surface and take the dough out of the bowl. Stretch the dough to make a rectangle by pulling the edges of the dough only from the bottom out. Don’t squish the top as you will lose all air created by the rising agent of yeast.

5.- Once in a rectangle take the bottom edge of the dough, stretch it a little more and fold it over to the top. Make the same with the top to the bottom and the two sides and it should look like a square after the folding. Now, wet the bowl a little and take the square dough and put in the bowl again with folds facing bottom. Repeat this procedure until the bowl drops from the bowl in one piece.

6.- Once the dough has dropped, it’s time to shape it! Now, spread some flour into a clean counter and take the dough there. Sprinkle some more flour on your hands and top of the dough and tap slightly into the top of the dough to release the excess of air bubbles. Once that’s done, start taking corners into the center in order to create a round ball. You should take one hand into the center to hold all folds and the other hand works to take all corners into the center. 

7.- When all corners are done, pinch them to secure them and flip the ball to finish shaping it with your hands. My teacher told me that you should feel the dough tight when it’s well shaped, but to be honest, when you work with a big piece of dough it’s kind of hard to really notice it. Once shaped, move the ball into a baking tray layered with parchment paper and cover it with a cloth again and let it rest until it’s been doubled in size.

8.- It’s time to preheat your oven. Start by taking the temperature to its maximum and only heating from the bottom with no fan. My oven reaches 270 which is the most common highest temperature on electric ovens. When preheating, you must have a second baking tray in that has a bit of depth in it touching the floor of your oven.

9.- When your oven is fully preheated, take the tray with the dough in it and take it into the lowest position available in your oven, the closest to the second tray that has been preheating inside. Before closing the door, take water or ice cubes and put them into that preheated baking tray and close as fast as possible the oven door. This will create steam into the oven which will make your dough rise better and have a better fluff and crunchy outside.

10.- After baking for about 20 minutes in the highest temperature, take the temperature down to 200 and let it bake for another 15 to 20 minutes or until your desired preference. Bread is done! Let it rest for at least half an hour before cutting. Believe me, it makes it so much better.


Here you have a short video a friend recorded for a university project that came out pretty artistic and dramatic at the same time. In this recipe I add a starter called poolish (which is much easier than an actual starter) and some olive oil as it helps with having a more soft flavor and texture. Anyway, the recipe I just explained is just as good as the one from this video. I hope you enjoy it!: https://youtu.be/1DO8fhERaZg

And that’s it! It might seem complicated at first but really, it’s not. It’s a matter of getting the hang of it and sooner than you think you’ll be having awesome home made bread at your table.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments and I’ll be more than glad to answer them. I’m of course not a professional, but I can try to help you when possible and if not, refer you to good articles, videos and websites that I’m sure will help you out as well.

I hope you have a lovely week ahead and I expect to see you soon.

Love,

Muriel