Rising to the Occasion

Hello everyone and welcome back! It is nice to finally be writing a blog post again after being on fall break. Todays post is going to talk about how to make bread!!

So first of all, what is bread? "Bread is food made of flour, water, and yeast or another leavening agent, mixed together and baked.

Now that we know the definition of what bread actually is, it's now time to talk about the 6 stages of making any yeast dough bread recipe!

Stage 1: Mixing and Kneading

This stage is pretty simple it just requires you to put all your ingredients in a bowl and mix until it creates a dough. Once you have your dough, you are going to knead it.

Kneading is basically "pushing the dough away from you with the heel of your palm, folding it over itself with your fingers, and pulling it back." You will want to knead your dough for about 10 minutes (you do not want to under knead your dough as this can lead your bread to not rise in the oven!)

Here is a video on how to properly knead the dough!

You can also knead your dough in a bread machine or with a stand mixer-these are more common ways to do it because kneading by hand can become tiring!!

By Hand

Bread Maker

Stand Mixer

Once you are done your dough should look like this:

Stage 2: The First Rise

In this step, the dough is going to rise "in bulk" meaning that it is not shaped yet and will rise into a ball. The bulk rises usually take about 45 min to an hour.

If you kneaded the dough by hand or in a stand mixer, put the dough into a big greased bowl and cover it with a towel. If you kneaded the dough in a bread machine, do not worry about this step because the machine will switch to "Rise" in the cycle.

Temperature also matters when the dough needs to rise. The ideal temperature should be between 90-100 degrees. Usually, bread machines will get up to around 120 degrees.

Stage 3: Shaping

Once your bread has risen, it is time to shape it! There are two important things about this step, one is to not touch the dough too much (this includes punching and squashing it) and the second is to not add too much flour. When shaping the dough, it is ok to add some flour to your hands or on the surface.

Depending on what kind of bread you are making, shape the dough accordingly and then put it into a bread pan.

Stage 4: The Second Rise (also known as Proofing)

Proofing is "a step in the preparation of yeast bread and other baked goods in which the dough is allowed to rest and rise a final time before baking."

This is the step where you can score the dough and add any topping you want to it.

Once you have done this, the dough needs to rise for a second time- it is basically the same process as "the first rise."

Stage 5: Baking

When the dough is done rising, place it on the center rack in the oven. It can be hard to tell if the bread is done, but you will want it around 190-200 degrees. If you are unsure whether it is done or not, leave it in the oven for a bit longer.

Stage 6: Cooling

Once your bread is done, wait about 20 minutes to let it cool. Then take it out of the pan, slice it, and enjoy!

That's it for this week's blog post! I hope you all enjoyed it and stay tuned for next week where we will be talking about different types of flavors and spices that are found in common baked goods!!