Comments on: White Bread http://www.bauerconfidential.com The life and times of Matthew and April Bauer Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:03:47 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Grandma Miller http://www.bauerconfidential.com/recipes/white-bread/comment-page-1/#comment-24773 Grandma Miller Wed, 27 May 2009 21:05:13 +0000 http://www.bauerconfidential.com/?page_id=192#comment-24773 One time I decided to experiment till I had a blue-ribbon, perfect loaf of bread, and learned that it's not the recipe, it's the way you handle the dough. I think it took me 7 batches to get it perfect. Here's a few tips: Always use bread flour. It has more gluten and makes a smoother, finer textured product. If you do this a lot, get a christmas popcorn tin to store it in, and buy 25 lbs of bread flour and a big package of baker's yeast at Sams or Costco. Keep the yeast in the freezer and it will last a long time. This saves a lot of money, and brings the price down to a fraction of purchased bread. The sugar is food for the yeast and to make the crust browner, not to make the bread sweeter. Don't try to cut it out. Also, don't cut out the salt, it tempers the dough somehow. All the ingredients have a purpose. Don't have the place it's set to rise in too warm, or it will quickly form big gas bubbles and be coarse. Don't let it rise too high on the first rising before you punch it down. If you let big bubbles form then, you won't be able to get rid of them and your bread will have a coarse texture. Same on the second rising. You should keep an eye on it and not let it get big and puffy. In other words, stop when it's doubled, because tripled isn't better. Be careful when you're forming the loaves and don't fold bubbles into the shaped loaf. They don't heal and they come out as big gaps in the finished bread. Try to fold it up in a way that doesn't stretch the outside of the dough too much or it will tear as it rises and not be as pretty. If you bake bread regularly, people will think your husband is married to a domestic goddess. One time I decided to experiment till I had a blue-ribbon, perfect loaf of bread, and learned that it’s not the recipe, it’s the way you handle the dough. I think it took me 7 batches to get it perfect. Here’s a few tips:
Always use bread flour. It has more gluten and makes a smoother, finer textured product. If you do this a lot, get a christmas popcorn tin to store it in, and buy 25 lbs of bread flour and a big package of baker’s yeast at Sams or Costco. Keep the yeast in the freezer and it will last a long time. This saves a lot of money, and brings the price down to a fraction of purchased bread.
The sugar is food for the yeast and to make the crust browner, not to make the bread sweeter. Don’t try to cut it out. Also, don’t cut out the salt, it tempers the dough somehow. All the ingredients have a purpose.

Don’t have the place it’s set to rise in too warm, or it will quickly form big gas bubbles and be coarse. Don’t let it rise too high on the first rising before you punch it down. If you let big bubbles form then, you won’t be able to get rid of them and your bread will have a coarse texture. Same on the second rising. You should keep an eye on it and not let it get big and puffy. In other words, stop when it’s doubled, because tripled isn’t better.
Be careful when you’re forming the loaves and don’t fold bubbles into the shaped loaf. They don’t heal and they come out as big gaps in the finished bread. Try to fold it up in a way that doesn’t stretch the outside of the dough too much or it will tear as it rises and not be as pretty.
If you bake bread regularly, people will think your husband is married to a domestic goddess.

]]>