Learn how to make bread at home step by step without burning, sinking, sour or dry. We show you how easy it is. 100 grams of bread provide about 280 of the over 1500 calories you need as a daily energy fuel for your brain to function and your muscles to walk. If you consume the right amount of carbohydrates through bread, your body will reserve protein to stay healthy.
How to make bread at home?
To learn how to make homemade bread you do not need over four basic ingredients, other economic, that make up the pantry of any home: flour, water, salt, and yeast, more adapt to your style of cooking this simple recipe that you can improve into practice. If you do not get perfect at first, do not despair, patience, and rehearsal make mastery.
Ingredients for making bread at home:
- 500 g of force flour *
- 10 g of dry or fresh yeast **
- 300 g warm water
- 10 g of salt
* There are two kinds of wheat flour, strength, rich in gluten and therefore ideal for bread dough, and loose, low gluten and ideal for baking.
** Dry yeast also called baker’s yeast, comes in a granulated presentation, while fresh yeast will recognize it as small refrigerated cubes.
Preparation steps
Shelling with the help of your fingers, pour the yeast over the water and let it stand for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, put the flour in a bowl and spread the salt on it.
Open a hole in the center of the flour and gradually pour over it the preparation of water and yeast. Mix everything in a circular direction with the help of your hands, until the ingredients are unified and the mixture is detached from the walls of the bowl. Graduate the consistency that the dough acquires, adding only a little flour if it is very wet or only a little water if it is very dry. The ideal point will be that you will get when the dough has a soft texture that does not stick to your hands.
Knead
Prepare a flat and smooth surface with sprinkled flour. Spread your dough here using one hand that holds it firmly, while the other widens it to the side. Stretch it that way and then fold it over itself, so that it looks like a lump over which you can repeat the same operation. Stretch, bend, stretch, bend … liven up the task by humming your favorite song because you should do this systematically for about 15 minutes. The result should be a homogeneous and smooth mass.
Fermentation
Take your dough and make it a uniform ball that you will introduce again over the bowl, this time washed, very dry, and smeared with olive oil. Cover with transparent and oiled film, wrapping it over the mouth of the pot. Let stand in a warm place for an hour and wait for the magic of the yeast to act by making the dough grow twice its size. Check that the process is sufficient, pressing the surface of the ball with your index finger. The dough will sink and should return to its original state slowly.
Once this is done, the second round of kneading and fermentation begins. On this occasion, knead by subtly pressing the ball with the palm in a circular direction and folding the edges towards the center. Turn and repeat. Now turn your dough into a ball and put it to ferment for 50 more minutes, this time already on the baking sheet placed in a warm place. Cover with a clean cloth.
Bake
Place a new tray with the contents of a cup of water on the base of the oven and preheat the oven to 250 ° C. Before inserting the tray where the dough rests, draw one or several shallow incisions on its surface. Enter the oven and immediately atomize its interior with a little water. After the first 20 minutes of cooking, remove the tray with water from the base of the oven, lower the temperature to 200 ° C and let cook for 15 more minutes. After this time, hit the surface of the bread with the knuckles and check that it sounds hollow. You are ready to leave the oven!
Let cool on a rack for hours or even until the next day.
Common mistakes:
“My dough never lifted”
Check that the yeast is not expired and take into account that fresh yeast decomposes very quickly. If the problem is not the expiration of the yeast, you may have killed it if you used very hot water to activate it. It is also important that during resting-lifting times the dough does not remain in a very cold place.
“My bread is a sponge”
Maybe you got excited watching it grow in fermentation and let it rise too much.
“My bread was watery”
Maybe you amassed excessively. Half of the secret of mass stimulation is in our rubbing and the other half in the covert action she does on her own. Another important factor is that you have created the right steam atmosphere inside the oven so that the bread forms crust. And pay attention to this: never cut and consume the bread fresh from the oven. It smells beautiful but eats it when it has wholly released its moisture, at the hours or the next day.
“My bread is a stone crust”
In this case, you have likely passed your hand with the moisture you gave it to the oven.
“I was dry and rough”
Be careful to abuse the amounts of flour, as with the high temperature or the fantastic cooking time.
“It was raw”
Classic mistake when you are learning how to make bread. Check the temperature of your oven and feel if the trays allow enough heat to pass to the bread. Only in case, you feel it raw can you bake a few more minutes, taking care not to burn. But the best thing is that I know your oven very well.
