LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

href="#litres_trial_promo">². What a shame. They could make serious inroads into the eight million large loaves sold each day. And, believe it or not, apart from producing delicious bread with no additives, this might be better for the environment. A well-known miller has calculated that, taking into account the whole process from bakery to shop to consumer, factory bread uses more energy than bread made in a domestic machine. If this is so, it throws interesting light on the whole notion of industrial ‘efficiency’.

      After some initial scepticism, I have realised that automatic breadmakers have introduced millions of people to the pleasure of home-made bread. And if at first all the control seems to be in the hands of the machine, users soon discover how to adjust the settings to achieve the results they want. I know one pillar of the wholefood establishment (he also owns a small bakery) who produces wonderful sourdough bread in his domestic breadmaker.

      Many a bread journey has begun with one of these machines, a journey to discover how fermentation works and how time, taste and texture are connected. It is often a journey of liberation: as you understand more about the ingredients, you leave behind the programmed settings and risk the ‘sensuous pleasure’ of the process. In my experience, it is a journey that never really ends.

      So let’s begin. You don’t need to acquire an expensive array of equipment before you start. But there are some essential tools – both mental and physical – that will be needed along the way. First and foremost, it helps to approach the task in the right frame of mind:

       Be patientIf nothing seems to be happening to your dough, it doesn’t mean that something won’t eventually happen.

       Watch and learnNotice what happens and when; don’t change more than one variable at a time.

       EmpathiseYou are working with living organisms (yeasts and bacteria); do as you would be done by – keep them warm and nourished.

       Take it easyYou are making bread to eat, not taking part in a competition, so don’t judge or be judged solely on appearances.

      Tools and equipment

      Bowls

      I prefer stainless-steel or polypropylene bowls because they are lighter and won’t break. However, earthenware and glass are better insulators. Wood, too, keeps dough warm and is making a comeback as a food contact material after it was found to harbour fewer microbes than some of the synthetic alternatives.

      Polythene bags

      These have many uses, e.g. covering bowls of dough and rising loaves, because they retain moisture and prevent a skin forming on the surface of the dough. They can be washed and re-used, unlike the ghastly ‘oiled cling film’.

      Scales

      The best kind to get are electronic ones with a ‘tare’ facility (which resets the display to zero) and ideally with 1 gram or 2 gram steps. Otherwise, balance scales are fine, but you will have to rely on teaspoons and fractions thereof for small quantities of spice, dried yeast or salt, which is bound to be a bit risky until you are confident enough to judge these things by eye.

      Measuring jugs

      I use jugs (either glass or polypropylene) more for pouring than for measuring because they are never very accurate. Since one millilitre of water conveniently weighs one gram, it is easier to weigh liquids than to measure them, particularly for small amounts. This is where the electronic scales come into their own. Just zero the display and weigh your liquid on top of the other ingredients.

      Thermometer

      A thermometer is useful for checking liquid and dough temperatures until you can judge them by hand. The best is a digital probe – a stainless-steel rod that you can poke into dough or dip into liquids. It should have a read-out with a temperature range of -20°C to +150°C or thereabouts.

      Worktop

      Wood is the warmest surface and therefore kindest to typical bread doughs, but it can take more effort to clean if the dough gets into the grain. Laminated worktops are fine, though possibly less able to resist scratching from scrapers. Marble and stone, being naturally cold, are best for pastry and croissants.

      Scraper

      A plastic scraper is one of the most useful tools to have around. It can be used for dividing dough, folding and stretching wet Italian doughs, getting dough off your hands, cleaning the worktop and so on. Bakers also use the ‘Scotch’ scraper, which is a stainless-steel rectangle with a wooden or plastic handle. If you use only one, get a flexible plastic scraper with two slightly rounded corners, which make cleaning bowls out much easier.

      Knife

      A sharp knife or razor blade is useful for marking or ‘slashing’ dough before baking. The blade needs to be very sharp and not serrated, otherwise it will drag on the dough and make an unsightly cut. A 10cm scalloped blade is best.

      Baking tins

      A good baking tin is a lasting friend. They come in various shapes, sizes and finishes. Although ‘small’

      tins are supposed to hold llb (454g) of dough and ‘large’ tins 21b (900g), they vary in size considerably - and in any case, not all types of dough expand to the same extent. I find many domestic tins rather shallow and wide and the resulting loaves can be unflattering to look at. Unless you have particular requirements such as a desired size of slice, try to find tins that are tall, narrow and deep.

      I would avoid older-type non-stick finishes because they eventually break up and can leave pieces embedded in the loaf crust. There are some new non-stick finishes based on silicone rubber that are effective. Best of all is a glass-like finish, which is baked on to the tin like stove enamel. This is very durable so long as you do not dig loaves out of the tin with a knife – but you shouldn’t need to because this finish is reliably non-stick. In general, the heavier the metal, the more evenly the heat will be conducted to the loaf inside and the less chance of the tin distorting in the heat of the oven.

      Try to avoid washing baking tins, especially plain metal ones, because repeated greasing and baking can build up a natural sheen, which makes it less likely that dough will stick. If you do need to clean tins, wipe them with a soft, wet cloth and no detergent.

      Baking trays

      Try to get trays that exactly fit (either alone or two side by side) your oven shelf dimensions. Go for the thickest-gauge metal available. Thin steel or aluminium trays may be cheap but they have an annoying habit of buckling as they heat up, and the sudden movement can cause the collapse of rolls or loaves whose structure has not yet ‘set’.

      Proving baskets and cloths

      Proving dough in a basket or cloth is the traditional Continental way of handling dough destined to be baked on the sole (or bottom) of a brick oven, or that is too sloppy to prove as a freestanding loaf without flowing into a puddle. It is an example of adaptation to the quality of the gluten in local wheats, which tended to be soft and extensible rather than strong and elastic. Great lightness and a very open structure are possible with such dough, but only if it can be held in a reasonably coherent shape before being fixed by the heat of baking.

      Proving baskets

      Known as pannetons in French and Brotformen in German, these are commercially available but rather expensive. The French type consists of a wicker basket with a linen liner stitched inside. The German ones, most often associated with rye bread, are round or oblong and made from bent willow cane or wood pulp; they are not lined with fabric, so the dough takes

Скачать книгу