Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients (6 page)

Dough scraper:
The dough scraper (also called a bench scraper) makes it much easier to work with wet dough. Without one, there’ll be the temptation to use too much flour to prevent dough from sticking to the work surface. Keep our doughs wet by dusting lightly and scraping them off the work surface when they stick, rather than by working in flour.
Once you start making pizza and other rolled-out flatbreads, you really need to have one of these, because rolling them thin leads to sticking.
The scraper is also the easiest way to scrape excess cornmeal or flour off a hot baking stone.

Measuring cups:
We have only one word of advice, and that is to avoid 2-cup measuring cups, because they overestimate the flour quantity when using the scoop-and-sweep method that we describe in our recipes, due to excessive packing-down into the cup.

Measuring spoons:
Seek out a set that includes a half-tablespoon measure in addition to the usual suspects. Many of our recipes call for 1½ tablespoons of certain ingredients. If you can’t find a half-tablespoon measure, you can approximate a half tablespoon by using a rounded teaspoon, or, to be more exact, measure out 1½ teaspoons.

Pastry brush:
These look like small paintbrushes, and are used to paint egg wash or water onto the surface of loaves just before baking. We both prefer the bristle ones over the silicone, but that’s a matter of taste.

Scale:
We specify loaf size in pounds, but weighing is by no means necessary. We give both a weight and a visual cue for loaf size. A pound of dough is about the size of a grapefruit. But there’s an even better use for the new digital scales, which are getting cheaper all the time—you may prefer weighing ingredients, rather than using measuring cups.
Chapter 4, Tips and Techniques
, has tables of weight and volume equivalents (including metric units), and you can use them to convert any recipe in this book.

Microplane zester:
Microplane zesters or micro zesters are used for removing the zest from citrus fruit without getting the bitter pith. In
Chocolate Tangerine Bars
, we use the coarse holes on an ordinary box grater to get a more assertive tangerine flavor.

Whisk:
Whisks, either wire or plastic, are the best way to mix vital wheat gluten into the other dry ingredients (before adding liquids), a crucial step for the doughs in this book. Whisking distributes the vital wheat gluten and keeps it from clumping into lumps when the liquids are added.

Food processors and mixers:
As mentioned in all the recipes, you can use a 14-cup food processor (with dough attachment) or a heavy-duty stand mixer (with paddle) rather than a spoon to mix the dough.

Immersion blenders:
These are great for breaking up a lump of old dough, known in French as
pâte fermentée
(páht fair-mon-táy).
Pâte fermentée
can be used to jump-start the sourdough process in stored dough. These blenders are also nice for breaking up pieces of whole tomatoes for pizza toppings. Be sure that the immersion blender is fully submerged in the liquid mixture before turning it on, otherwise you’ll be spattered with ingredients.

Safety note:
Remember that immersion blenders don’t have a protective safety interlock, so it’s possible to touch the sharp spinning blades while the unit is on. Be careful, and don’t let children use an immersion blender.

Convection ovens:
They produce a terrific browned crispy crust and speed the baking by circulating hot air around bread in the oven. This has the effect of transferring heat more quickly. Baking tends to be completed about 15 percent faster. You need to turn the oven temperature down by 25°F if you choose the convection mode in your oven, and in some ovens, it will be beneficial to turn the loaf around at the halfway point, so that each side is exposed directly to the fan. Ignore oven instructions that claim you can skip the preheat—that won’t give a happy result, especially if you’re using a baking stone. As always, use an oven thermometer to check temperature; air circulation in convection ovens can “fool” thermostats in some ovens.

These instructions apply only to range-based convection ovens, not microwaves with convection modes, which we have not tested.

This chapter will
help you perfect your whole grain breads made from stored high-moisture dough. In the discussion that follows, we provide tips and techniques to achieve breads with professional-quality crust (exterior) and crumb (interior).

Measuring Ingredients by Weight

Many readers of our first book asked us for weight equivalents, especially readers outside the United States, who commonly bake this way. We have to admit, this is the quickest way to mix up a batch of dough. Below are some useful U.S. and metric equivalents so that you can convert recipes in the book to a weighed version (the Master Recipe’s already converted). Be aware that this table reflects minor rounding errors that won’t affect your recipes.
All cup measurements were performed using the scoop-and-sweep method described in
chapter 5
):

Conversion Tables for Common Measures

Volumes

U.S. and Metric Weight Conversion

Oven Temperature: Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion

WEIGHING SMALL-QUANTITY INGREDIENTS

Our recipes only require a fraction of an ounce of some ingredients (like salt and yeast). Since many scales for home use are accurate only to within the nearest eighth of an ounce (3 or 4 grams), measuring small amounts this way introduces inaccuracy, but that becomes less important with measuring larger quantities for the doubled recipes.

Storing Dough to Develop Flavor

All of our recipes are based on dough that can be stored for up to 14 days in the refrigerator. That makes our method incredibly convenient, but there’s another benefit to storing the dough. Sourdough flavor progressively develops over the lifespan of the batch. That means that your first loaves won’t be the same as your last ones. Some of our readers have taken to mixing staggered batches, so that they’re never baking with brand-new dough.

How much to make:
In order to have artisan fresh-baked bread in only 5 minutes a day, you’ll want to make enough dough to last a week or more. Your initial time investment (mixing the dough) is the most significant one, though it generally takes no more than 15 minutes. By mixing larger batches, you can spread that investment over more days of bread making. So we really recommend mixing enough dough to last 7 to 10 days. For larger households, that might mean doubling or even tripling the recipes. If you make larger batches, be sure you’re using a larger container as well.

Dough Moisture Content: How Wet Is Wet Enough?

Our recipes were carefully tested, and we arrived at the ratio of wet to dry ingredients with an eye toward creating a relatively slack and wet dough. But flours can vary in their protein content, the degree to which they’re compacted into their containers, and in the amount of water they’ve absorbed from the environment. All of this means that our recipes’ specified dry ingredients may produce slightly variable results depending on humidity, compaction, and the flour brand you’re using.

If you find that your doughs are too stiff (especially if they don’t show much rising capacity after a few days in the refrigerator), decrease the flour by ¼ cup at a time in subsequent batches (or increase the water by the same amount). And if they’re too loose and wet, and don’t hold a shape well for free-form loaves, increase the flour (or decrease the water) in subsequent batches again by ¼ cup at a time. If you don’t want to wait till your next batch to correct a problem with moisture content, you can work extra flour into a too-wet batch (give it some time to ferment after doing this), but it’s difficult to work additional water into a too-dry batch unless you use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment.

You’ll find that overly wet dough still works well as flatbreads or in loaf pans. The same is true for long-saved dough (more than 10 days or so).

Vary moisture content in our recipes based on your taste. To summarize:

If you modify a recipe, using…

“Custard” Crumb

Perfectly baked high-moisture dough can produce a delightful “custard” crumb (interior). When mixed with water and then baked, wheat flour’s protein, mostly gluten, traps the water and creates a chewy and moist texture. A shiny surface is seen in the larger air holes; that’s the “custard” effect. As you adjust flour amounts for your favorite recipes, you’ll find that this is an effect you can manipulate. Too much flour, and you will lose the custard crumb character. Too little, and the dough will be difficult to shape and the breads gummy. If your batch is too wet, you can work in more flour at the shaping step, or in its storage container. If the batch is too dry, add more water, using wet hands at the shaping step. If you work flour or water into dough that’s already risen, you need to allow the dough to rest longer before baking to develop hole structure again.

Resting and Baking Times Are Approximate

Our first book concentrated on bread recipes that were mostly based on white flour, which is high in gluten and is forgiving of short resting/rising times. We opted for the shortest possible rest time so that our method would fit into people’s busy schedules. But when using whole grains, it’s important to let the loaves sit for a longer rest, otherwise the bread may be too dense. So readers of our first book will notice that the resting times are longer in this book; remember that this is still passive time. Have a glass of red wine (see
sidebar
) while your whole wheat loaf is resting.

All of our resting and baking times are approximate. Since artisan loaves are formed by hand, their size can vary from loaf to loaf (though you can weigh out the dough if you like). There can be significant changes in resting and baking time requirements with changes in loaf size. Although large flat loaves will rise and bake rapidly, large high-domed loaves will require dramatically longer resting and baking times. So unless you’re weighing out exact 1-pound loaves and forming the same shapes each time, your resting and baking times will vary and our listed time should be seen only as a starting point for 1-pound free-form loaves (or 2-pound loaf-pan loaves). Here are some basic guidelines for varying resting and baking times based on what you’re baking.
Increase resting and/or baking time if any of the following apply:

• The temperature of your kitchen is low: This only affects rising and resting times, not baking.
  
• Larger loaf: A 3-pound loaf will take nearly twice as long to bake, compared with a 1-pound loaf, though resting time won’t change that much.
  
• You use more whole grain.
  

A good rule of thumb, if you want the loaves to develop maximum rise and air holes, is to wait until the dough no longer feels dense and cold.

Underbaking Problems

The crust is crispy when it comes out of the oven, but it softens as it comes to room temperature:
This is most often a problem with very large breads, but it can happen with any loaf that’s been slightly underbaked. Internal moisture, so high in wet dough, can soften the crust as it cools. You need to drive off that moisture with heat. As you gain experience, you will come to understand just how brown the loaf must be to prevent this problem for any given loaf size. We use brownness and crust firmness as our measure of doneness (there might be a few blackened bits on the loaf in non-egg-enriched breads).
If you have a crust that is initially crisp but softens as it cools, it can be returned to the oven until you have the desired result.

The loaf has a soggy or gummy crumb (interior):

• Check your oven temperature with a thermometer.
  
• Make sure you are allowing the dough to
  rest for the full time period we’ve recommended
  .
  
• Your dough may benefit from being a little drier. Increase the flour by ¼ cup (or decrease the liquids a little) and check the result.
  
• If you’re baking a large loaf (more than 1 pound), let it rest and bake longer.
  
• Be sure not to overwork dough when shaping, or you will compress the gas bubbles.
  

One final word of advice if you’re finding the breads just a little gummy:
Don’t slice or eat your loaves when they’re still warm
. We know, hot bread has a certain romance, so it’s hard to wait for them to cool. But waiting will improve the texture—breads are at their peak two hours after they come out of the oven. Hot or warm bread cuts poorly and dries out quickly. When cool, loaves don’t compress so easily when cut. Once the bread has cooled, use a sharp serrated bread knife, which will go right through the crisp crust and soft crumb.