Bread at home: recipes and cooking secrets

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Homemade bread, which can be prepared according to a variety of recipes, is considered one of the most delicious dishes. Its composition allows you to diversify the menu, including unusual and he althy ingredients during cooking. Delicious, home-baked bread will become a signature dish, fill your home with its aroma and create a unique atmosphere of coziness and comfort.

Flour for cooking

For those who are just starting to practice this interesting and enjoyable business, there are a lot of quick and easy options. For those who already have experience of this type of cooking and can afford to diversify the usual composition, we offer components that are amazing in terms of taste and degree of usefulness.

However, the original composition of homemade bread dough includes a number of products that are almost always used, among them flour. It is the main component of any test.

Any flour can be used for baking: wheat, corn, rye, buckwheat, barley, oat or a mixture of types and grindings. Different types of this ingredient allow you to get different flavors, increase the degree of value in terms of the final product.

Yeast and sourdough

Yeast is an essential ingredient in most bread recipes. At home, baking this product is most often done with them, since it is with their help that the dough rises, the final product acquires the necessary splendor and porosity. Yeast can be dry or fresh, the choice depends on the preferences of the hostess and the expected result.

Sourdough options are very diverse. There can be more than a hundred of them, they differ in the type of main product, the combination of additional ingredients.

For example, such ingredients for the preparation of this product as kefir, barley, m alt, raisins, hops, and wheat have found the greatest use in baking. Home-baked sourdough bread acquires an exquisite aroma, the vital activity of yeast is activated, vitamins and nutrients are preserved.

Homemade bread is very different from store-bought bread as it tastes great, is he althy and has a tantalizing aroma that lasts.

Cooking secrets

The process of making fragrant pastries, sourdough and bread dough at home has a number of features, so recipes andcooking methods depending on the option chosen.

Sometimes professional chefs share a number of secrets that allow you to make bread at home faster. There are relatively few of them, but following them will save time, correctly approach the process of choosing the type of sourdough, baking technique and preserving the finished product.

Next, we will share a few secrets on how to make bread at home, which we managed to get from the masters of baking.

Secret 1: Cooking dough

Any kind of dough must be prepared strictly according to the chosen recipe. What is suitable for one cooking option may not be relevant for another, therefore it is recommended to choose the practical subtleties individually.

The main task when baking bread at home is to get a lush, attractive and appetizing product. This can be achieved by following the rules while preparing the dough:

• the consistency should be dense;
• dough should not stick to hands during final kneading;
• if, following the step-by-step instructions, the dough continues to be inelastic, sticky to your hands, you need to add as much flour as the dough requires.

The above rules will improve the appearance of the finished product and its taste.

Secret 2: test preparation

To improve the palatability of home-baked bread in the oven, as well as to increasethe duration of its storage, professionals advise to let the dough stand for some time before starting baking.

Laid out in a mold, covered with a towel, the finished dough will "rest", saturate with oxygen, which will make the product more magnificent, appetizing. The standing time for the finished dough may vary - on average it is fifteen minutes, after which the form is set in a preheated oven.

Secret 3: Bake and stay fresh

Since the finished dough is quite dense in its consistency, for its more uniform baking, it is recommended to pre-heat the oven thoroughly and even the form in which the bread will be cooked. This will help to avoid undercooked areas and raw lumps of dough in the finished loaf.

One of the attractive qualities of freshly made bread should be considered a ruddy crispy crust. And in order to get it when making bread at home in the oven, you need to hold the finished loaf in the switched off, but still hot appliance for some time (about 15 minutes).

In order to keep the finished bread fresh for a long time, to prevent it from drying out prematurely, professionals advise after removing the loaf from the oven, lightly sprinkle it with water and cover with a clean towel.

Classic dough ingredients

Beginning cooks can be recommended a method of how to make bread at home, which is the easiest to do, notrequires special kneading skills and at the same time gives an excellent result - fluffy bread with a golden crust, much tastier than store-bought.

To make it you will need the following products:

• loose sugar - four tsp;
• flour - 4 full glasses of 250 ml;
• yeast (preferably dry) - 2 tsp;
• filtered water - two glasses;
• table s alt - two tsp

Easy bread making

In general, the process of baking bread for all recipes is similar and may differ only in the duration of some stages. Baking bread at home according to this recipe is the easiest method and will allow novice cooks to test their strength and gain experience.

The sequence of actions is as follows:

1. Water is heated first, then sugar and yeast are dissolved in it.
2. After infusing the finished solution for fifteen minutes, it is thoroughly mixed, filtered, s alt and flour, previously sifted, are added. A thick, viscous dough is kneaded from the listed components, which is left to proof at room temperature for 10 minutes.
3. The oven is heated to 30 ° C, a container with dough, covered with a lid, is put into it. The residence time of the finished dough in the oven is determined until it triples in size (about 2 hours).
4. Now the form is placed in the oven with a temperature of 220 ° C, baked for 10-17 minutes, then the temperature is reducedup to 180 °C, and the process continues for another 30 minutes.

The finished loaf after turning off is left in the oven for some time, then the bread is taken out, covered with a clean towel and allowed to cool.

Rye bread with garlic

Professionals suggest using original techniques for baking at home. The recipe for rye bread can be diversified by adding garlic to it, which will give a special flavor and turn ordinary bread into a real table decoration and an original snack.

The components of the test should be taken as follows:

• rye flour - 300 grams;
• vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.;
• water and wheat flour - 400 g each;
• s alt - 2 tsp;
• brown or white sugar - 3 tsp;
• garlic depending on preference - 5-8 cloves;
• yeast (preferably dry) - 2 tsp

If you want to make bread at home without sourdough, baking according to this recipe is the best.

The manufacturing process of this product is also simple and can be made using the simple baking technique described earlier, but with some adjustments: the garlic is crushed and added to the sifted flour, and the baking time is increased to 35-45 minutes.

Yeast-free bread on kefir

The absence of yeast in the recipe makes the finished bread more useful, while the degree of porosity of the crumb does not decrease, the taste remains tender. To improve the baking of such bread, it is recommended in the processits cooking make a few cuts on the crust.

The recipe includes the following ingredients:

• wheat flour of the first or highest grade - 500 g;
• sugar and s alt - 2 tsp each;
• medium fat kefir - 150 ml;
• filtered water - 210 ml.

The process of making bread at home looks like this:

1. Add 85 g of flour and sugar to kefir, mix everything thoroughly.
2. The composition is left under cling film for a day.
3. After that, add the resulting sourdough and s alt to the pre-sifted remaining flour, mixing thoroughly with your hands.
4. Grease the mold with butter, sprinkle with flour and lay out the resulting dough.
5. Place a baking sheet on top, also oiled.
6. The dough is formed into a loaf, covered with a cloth and put in a cold oven.
7. After 3.5 hours, the dough is thoroughly kneaded again, then reshaped into a loaf and left in a cold oven for another 25 minutes.
8. Now the oven is heated to 220 ° C, the bread is baked for 17-20 minutes, then the temperature is reduced to 180 ° C, and baking continues for another 30 minutes.
9. Next, the top parchment is removed, the finished product remains in the oven off for another 11 minutes.

White bread with sourdough

Cooking homemade sourdough white bread follows a similar technique, but the recipe may vary slightly depending on the wishes of the chef: there may beadded components that improve the taste of the final dish, increasing its biological value.

This is:

• raisins;
• dates;
• prune;
• nuts (peanuts, walnuts - crushed and added to the dough);
• seeds (linen, sesame, sunflower, pumpkin).

Sourdough has long been considered the he althiest bread option as it does not use yeast that can disrupt gut microflora.

A feature of this homemade bread recipe is the ease of preparation of sourdough: it requires only wheat flour and water.

Ingredients for cooking:

• water - 300 g;
• wheat flour - 500g;
• whole grain flour of any kind - 150g;
• s alt and sugar - 1 teaspoon each;
• 1 tbsp l. refined sunflower oil.

Sequence of actions:

1. Water (50 ml) should be warmed up, poured into a deep bowl. Add flour (150 g), knead the dough. The resulting sourdough is poured into a plastic container, covered with cling film and placed in heat for 3 days.
2. After the elapsed time, remove the film, discard the top layer of the leaven: only its middle part is used. The same volume of flour and water is added to the dough again. After kneading, the mass is left warm for 12 hours.
3. Next, the upper part of the dough is removed, the same ingredients are added to it again in the same amount, the dough is kneaded and left warm for an hour.
4. Nowthe remaining components are added. The dough is divided into 2 equal parts, from which oblong loaves are formed like a baguette, cuts are made on their surface for better baking.

Bread is baked on oiled paper for 15 minutes at 220°C, then 35-45 minutes at 160°C.

Borodino bread

It is considered quite difficult to prepare such a product at home, so beginners need some practical preparation.

To start, prepare rye sourdough:

1. Four tbsp. l. heat water to 50 ° C and add the same amount of rye flour, mix thoroughly. Leave the mixture warm for 24 hours.
2. Then add two tbsp. l. warm water, stir and leave warm for 3-4 days, covered with gauze. Stir morning and evening.
3. After the appearance of a pleasant smell, the sourdough is ready.

To make Borodino bread at home, you need to take:

• fermented m alt – 25g;
• sifted rye flour - 75 g;
• ground coriander - 1 tsp;
• filtered water - 250 ml.

Ingredients for the test:

• coriander for sprinkling - 10g;
• wheat flour - 75g;
• molasses - 20 g;
• s alt - 1 tsp;
• purified water - 55 ml;
• rye flour - 250g;
• sugar - 3 tbsp. l.;
• previously made sourdough - 155g

The sequence of actions for making Borodino bread at home is almost the same as that described for whiteof bread. The only addition is getting tea leaves: flour is mixed with coriander and m alt, poured with boiling water and left, wrapped, for two hours in warmth.

Further from tea leaves, water, sugar, s alt and molasses, knead the dough and leave it covered for three and a half hours. Then it is placed in a greased mold for another couple of hours.

Before baking, sprinkle the top of the mold with coriander and send it to the oven preheated to 220 ° C for 20 minutes. Then the temperature is reduced by 20 ° C and the product continues to bake for another hour.

The finished bread is taken out and covered with a cloth until cool. Delicious product is ready!