Home Baking: Bread Making For Dummies

Recently I made a commitment to try and improve my baking skills. As that bread is something I eat on most days, it seemed like the most logical product to try and attempt making at home. Here is how it went.

I am not a baker. In fact, I have a very bad track record at trying to bake anything. I can make simple oatmeal cookies or a banana loaf but that is as far as it goes. Or used to go anyway. Because I decided to try make bread and make it good!

Normally my biggest issue while cooking, baking or preparing food is the fact that I do not seem to be able to stick to a recipe. For me recipe is more like a general guideline that gives you an idea which ingredients should be included but depending on the availability and taste preferences I tend to mix and match things as I go along. With salads, stews or dishes that do not require too much integration of the various components, this normally works well but baking is something where recipes really come in handy. So this time I decided that I will stick to the recipe, no matter what! That was a nice plan but my free spirit took over eventually.

So the original recipe that I was supposed to use was the following (I found it on Pinterest which I find a really useful network for various blogs and advice):

-       3 cups of all-purpose flour (I used Organic but I am sure regular variety would work just as well)

-       1 tsp of dry active yeast (I am sure that other variety would work as well but the order of mixing the ingredients would probably be different – I mixed my yeast with the other dry ingredients as outlined in the instructions below)

-       1.5 tsp of table salt

-       1.5 cups of lukewarm water (my tap is not too hot so I just used the water from hot water tap – do not use boiling water or water that is too hot because it will kill the yeast and the dough won’t raise)

1.     The recipe suggested that all of the dry ingredients should be mixed well together in a bowl. Water should be added last so that if you need a little bit extra (I ended up using a total of 2 cups) to make the dough sticky then you can add it depending on the need. The dough is supposed to look sticky (although not really liquid) and not dry. It will get bubbly on surface once the yeast starts activating.

2.     Once you have mixed everything well together (I used a wooden spoon), you are supposed to cover the bowl with saran wrap (or cling film as they call it outside North America) and leave it for 12-16 hours for the yeast to ‘raise’ the dough. It should double in size. Make sure to use a bowl that the wrap actually ‘clings’ to because the idea is that you are creating a vacuum environment.

3.     Once you are ready to make the bread, turn the oven on at 400 degrees and place your baking dish inside for pre-heating – leave 20-30 minutes for the oven to get hot. While this is happening, create a surface covered with flour and flip your dough on it (cover your hands with flour before touching the dough). Form a ‘ball’ and let it sit on the surface until the oven is ready to be used. The dough should further raise a little more.

4.     Once ready to go in, flip the dough into a baking dish and make a cross or a couple of stripes on it. Ideally it should then be covered with a solid lid but I did not have one in handy so I just covered it with aluminium foil (you will have to cover it with something because otherwise the top will burn before the bread is ready). Place the dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

5.     After 30 minutes has passed, remove the cover and bake for an additional 15-30 minutes – this will let the bread get nice and golden brown (mine took 20 minutes further).

6.     Once the bread is ready, leave it to cool for an hour or so. If you need to cut it earlier, try to cut it with a sharp knife because otherwise you might break it.

So there were a couple of things that I was not quite sure about when following the procedure so I googled for some advice from more experienced bakers. 

My first issue was the fact that the dry yeast came in little sealed sachets and although I could tell that one sachet was by far more that a teaspoon, I decided to pour the whole thing in. After having done so, I consulted with some websites that using too much yeast is not considered good because although it will make the dough ‘raise’ faster, for it to form a nice fluffy texture slow raising is highly preferential. Also, some people apparently find the smell of yeast very unpleasant so there were some comments about ‘over-yeasting’ and the smell of it. I do not really understand it because in bakeries I have always almost liked the mild smell of yeast but maybe I am a bit weird. 

I do have to admit that adding all that yeast made my dough raise really fast. Of course, I did not know this was going to happen so I was actually more concerned about the opposite possibility. I remember when one of my friends in Canada was trying to make bread and her house was very cold so she had some issues getting the dough raise. She was joking about ‘cuddling’ the dough and having the bowl in the middle of the bed while sleeping because it seemed to be the warmest place. Although my house is quite warm (and it is summer in Melbourne!), I decided that the sunniest place indeed is my bed next to a big window. I was thinking of just keeping an eye on it for a while and potentially moving it for the night but little did I know that my dough was ready to be baked well before that. Let’s say, due to all the yeast I added, I could have probably left it in a cold cellar because – my bowl was full of dough in less than an hour from the time I put it aside! Although I read some comments on the internet that should this happen, it would be better to half the dough and put half of it into a freezer for next time and then use the other half by mixing it with more flour and waiting for it to raise again. It sounded pretty messy and the odds of something going wrong with it seemed bigger so I decided to take my chances and make the bread with the super-fast bread dough that I had already created. 

When I flipped the dough over on a big plate covered with flour, it kind of collapsed a little because there was a lot of air in the dough. So first of all the dough ‘ball’ looked quite small but after I had left it for a while, it started raising again and took a promising shape. I read some comments about other people’s experiences of how dough that had too much yeast in it had collapsed in the oven. Beginner’s luck or something else – luckily nothing of that kind happened to my bread. I do have to admit that the texture was a tiny bit thicker and tenser than of that of an ideal fluffy loaf but in general the end result was a nice filling sandwich bread that looked and tasted really good. 

All in all, I am really proud of myself for trying to bake bread. Next time I will try to avoid the mistakes I encountered at my first attempt. I am also thinking of trying the same recipe with whole wheat flour to create a healthier variety. Adding some seeds might be interesting as well. It is amazing how easy making bread at home is and it is really cheap as well.

Happy baking!  

My Week with Home Cooking

Last week I blogged about being really inspired by my friend who seems to be a far healthier vegetarian than I am. At the beginning of last week, I moved into my new flat in Camberwell and decided to take on the challenge of eating only home cooked healthy vegetarian food (with the exception of coffee because there is no way on earth I would survive a whole week without visiting coffee roasters and trying out different brews – but strictly coffee, just pure joy of caffeine). I have to say that I am very proud of myself because I did not give into temptations. For the whole week, I managed to prepare and cook all my meals at home and only used fresh and healthy ingredients.

This might sound like a rubbish challenge, however, I am definitely a person who enjoys eating out and also quite easily gives into temptations and laziness. When I see a nice café or restaurant, I have to eat there! Or when I am too tired after a busy day, I normally tend to either grab a take-out or buy something ready made from the supermarket. Luckily (although not really luckily) as I have only been in Melbourne for a short period of time, I do not know that many people yet who I could potentially tempt to join me for brunch or dinner. Also, last week I did not have any commitments so I was flexible in terms of cooking my meals whenever I felt the need.

I have to admit that I did not attempt to cook anything too complicated and mainly just tried to use more vegetables, legumes and prepare dishes that would include proteins and fibres rather than carbohydrates (especially sugars). I ended up making some interesting observations about my body’s reactions to different foods. Most of the time I felt really good and full of energy but I have to admit that reducing sugars in my diet did affect me quite a bit. There were a couple of mornings when I felt really dizzy and almost nauseous. On those occasions, I decided to include some sugars into my breakfast and in general mornings were the main times of the day when I felt that my body was trying to challenge my experiment.

Lunchtimes were the easiest meals because I had already broken the natural fast. It also happened to be that I did my jogging between breakfast and lunch last week (I am normally an afternoon jogger but the weather was so hot all week that it was more tolerable to be outside before noon). My dinners were plentiful and nutritious. Whenever I felt after finishing my meal that I could eat more, I tried to figure out if I was actually still hungry or just craving for something sweet. I realised every single time that it was just my cravings and after drinking some water and waiting for 20 minutes, I no longer felt the need to eat any more.

What I ate for breakfast

As a vegetarian, my absolute favourite breakfast is toast with peanut butter. I especially love adding some sliced bananas and I could literally have that for every single breakfast for the rest of my life. Peanut butter and jam is also great and I had that when I felt like I needed a little bit more sugar first thing in the morning. 

My other favourite breakfast item is fruits and berries with a choice of carbs. I usually have oatmeal because I tend not to trust supermarket granola but because I had a lot of time in my hands, I decided to make some maple cinnamon granola with nuts and cranberries. Camberwell has a great selection of health food shops and I discovered The Source Bulk Food store that sells nuts, seeds, tea, coffee and other organic varieties of grains. The quality is superb and the prices are reasonable. 

On Sunday, I decided to make some pancakes so that was the only day that my carb intake really went up significantly. 

What I ate for lunch

Lunch as a vegetarian always frustrates me the most when relying on cafes or take-away places. I love bread so sandwich would be naturally my favourite lunch item but it seems that people who are not vegetarians do not seem to understand that we do not want to have sandwiches that only have a slice of tomato and lettuce in it (it is almost like taking out the meat and giving us the left overs). Even some of the grilled vegetable sandwiches seem boring and do not keep me full for very long.

For me the perfect lunch item is egg. There is no particular way I like it the most although normally a fried egg sandwich with different sides keeps it interesting. My friend who I stayed with told me about her favourite – fried egg and beetroot. I have to admit that it is quite a good combination. When I lived in Vancouver, my housemate could not tolerate the smell of hot oil on a frying plan for health reasons so I got used to making hardboiled eggs. Egg and avocado is still my personal favourite. Avocado on its own or avocado mash with squeezed lemon, chopped red onion and some seasoning is also good. 

Quite a few times at lunchtime, I ended up eating leftovers of my dinner from the night before which is a good option and saves some money as well. 

What I ate for dinner

Dinnertime was when I really tried working my vegetarian magic and cook some fulfilling dishes. I tried vegetarian chilli with kidney beans, spaghetti Bolognese with lentils, egg fried rice with black beans and spinach quinoa salad with black beans. I have also started liking corn on the cob as a side dish or snack. It is perfectly sweet and helps making the meal nice and colourful. As of vegetables, I tried adding at least one green vegetable into each dinner dish or as a side dish - these happened to be broccoli, asparagus, spinach and green bell pepper. Spinach is still my favourite because it tastes really nice either raw or cooked. In the future, I am also planning to try eat some kale which has been rated even more of a superfood than spinach but I just sometimes find its texture a bit too crunchy.

My homemade week was a very productive one and I did a lot of healthy cooking. However, it will not be my goal to try eat every single meal at home for the rest of my life. I think it was just good to try different foods and decide what works best for me. As I have started working in a restaurant in Camberwell, I will be eating some of their food during my breaks but luckily the menu has a variety of vegetarian dishes and lots of the items are reasonably healthy. I will definitely also try discover some interesting new recipes that can make my dinners more exciting.