Making basic bread from scratch with Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast and your oven

hi everyone you’re putting up with doc Tand today what we’re going to do iswe’re just going to walk through somecooking bread from scratch with the mostbasic kinds of ingredients and the mostbasic kind of processes that we can doI’ve only got a short while to do thisso I’m going to get right into this sothis is a very basic bread recipe we useunbleached flour in this case salt yeastnow I could have used some wheat flourall-purpose flour bread flour or otherkinds of flour but I’m not doing thattoday a little bit of sugar and a littlebit of olive oil but it doesn’t requiresugar although I just do that to to helpso all bread starts with basically thosefour ingredients flour salt yeast andwater and so one of the things that whatI want to do is let’s get started so thefirst thing that I need I need two cupsof water and so I’m just going to comeover now the water needs to be a prettyspecific range and if you think about ifyou’ve ever fed a baby formula or milkand you need to warm it up before youput into the bottle that’s thetemperature that you want it to be youwant it to be warmer than bodytemperature place you don’t want it tobe hot in fact you don’t want to go overa hundred and ten degrees to do this orit’ll kill the yeast so at no time untilwe actually start cooking the bread wego over 110 so I always like to warm upanything that I’m putting yeast into sothat it doesn’t suddenly fall off I’mjust rubbing the little bit of warmwater into here I check my temperatureand then I’m going to get two cups ofwater and this is approximate but itworks for that so if you’ll switch theother camera so ideally if we are doingthis we’re going to have this at about105 degrees would be theperfect temperature for this water andwith practice you’ll be able to get itto where you’re pretty close to that soas I’m looking at that that’s that’sright at about 105 degrees so that’sperfect anything up to 110 is okay makesure that you wash your utensils beforeand after you use them not every timebut just as a general practice you knowwe’re making bread in the middle ofpandemic here that’s the reason soyou’ve got your water that that perfecttemperature our clothes temperature isactually the one thing that’s sort ofimportant when you’re doing bread and soI’m just going to do a tablespoon ofactive dry yeast that’s what I use I getin these jars because I do a lot ofbread baking and that lasts long timestore that in the refrigerator so thereason for the sugar is to help thatpiece to grow that’s the only thing thatwe’re using this for and I have learnedfrom experience that you should alwaysmake sure that your yeast is growing ifyou’re using this kind of yeast beforeyou put it in because nothing worse thancreating dough setting it derives comingback an hour or two later and findingout that there is nothing happening withyour yeast so I’m just stirring this inthe yeast will feed off the sugar that’sthe reason for the sugars so that we canget that yeast going really quick andthen I like to add a little bit of oilolive oil here just because this makesit really easy for me to see when thatyeast is growing and actually this isalready starting to grow so I don’t knowhow well you can see this I’m going tomove this camera a little bit closer andadjust it this is the first time I’mdoing this on just sort of figuring itout right nowbut I want you to be able to see thisprocess ofhow this yeast starts to grow so I’mjust gonna move that up at the top ofthe oil oil is on top of a mixture likethis is is really easy to manipulate andmove around I use the Oilers like thewindow because what’s gonna happen is asthis yeast starts to grow you’llsuddenly see it blossom and bloom and soit takes a couple minutes to do that sowhile that’s going on what I’m gonna dois I’m going to shift to getting the theflower ready now I’ve got my flower inthis bowl I’m not gonna mix it in a bowltoday normally I would use a stand tomake sure because that’s what I’ve mademy way up to but not today I’m going toshow you how to do this at the mostbasic of levels so what we’re gonna doand I’m going to change my camera anglehere again just a little bit I’ll bringyou back to that yeast when I see thatit’s getting ready to grow I’m justmaking a little pond here in the middleof what I have is five cups of flourhere and I’ve never actually done itthis way but since we’re doing the allthe way back to basics that’s we’regonna look at okay so it just startedblossoming and I may you may have notseen that right off the bat but you cansee all of the UM just a huge chunk ofthese little yeast things have startedgrowing so you actually see it flowerand when you see it start to flower likethat like you can see it floating aroundin there I think but anyway once you’vedone that it’s ready to go so I knowthat that yeast is going and that’s whyI do it this way so I’m going to bemoving my cameras around a little bitjust to make this easier I wouldn’tnormally do it like this but so I’mgoing to pour a little bit of the waterin thereand I’m gonna start with a fork justbecause I’m not really eager to get myfingers real doughy just yetso as you more add the dough the waterto the flour the flours can absorb thatwater and it’s going to slowly let itthicken so again I’ve got five inches or5 inches I’ve got five cups to the flourthat the recipe calls for between fiveand six cups and the reason that itcalls like that is because for instanceif I had some of this as wheat flourwheat flour absorbs more water thanall-purpose flour and your your flourmay have different moisture contentsstuff like that so this is always whenyou’re making dough you have to keep inmind that this is not perfect sciencethis is working with real ingredientsyou see how that’s starting to blend inthere I’m going to add a little bit morewater and if you’re doing it in a bowlor something like that you want to addthe flour to the water not the other wayaround or it’s gonna make a mess nowmake a mess and it just isn’t gonna goas well so getting most of this in heretrying to make sure that I’m capturingall that flour not letting it go soagain if you have a mixer you could justput it in put on a bread hook orsomething like that let it go and it’sthat’s gonna do basically the same thingas this is which is just find a way ofcombining the flour with the moisture inthe east oh and we’re not going to usemuch salt we’re going to use just alittle bit of salt this recipe calledfor a tablespoon but that’s a lot ofsalt so I’m just going to do a teaspoonof salt and one of the things that saltdoes besides giving it flavor is itslows down the speed that it kind ofcounteracts the yeastso put that salt in there so thespread all the way around and now it’sjust going to be time to to get intothis and start mixing it up making itall happen so while that’s happeningwhat we’re going to do can you switchthe other camera what we’re going to dois we are going to preheat the ovenbecause when this gets ready you’regoing to want to have a place that’swarm now I happen to have an oven thathas a proofing so I could just push abutton the other thing that you can doand this is how I used to do it is youjust set the temperature to the lowestpossible setting that it’ll do sonormally that’s about 150 start that andthen set a timer for three or fourminutes I’ll just start a timer forthree minutes[Music]and that will remind me to come and turnthat oven back off because you don’twant to get it up to a cook cookingtemperature what you’re wanting it to dois get up to a temperature where youreally don’t want it above a hundreddegrees so you’re just heating it up alittle bit so that it’s got a nice placefor that flower to or that dough to risein that ideal temperature range of kindof hundred degrees give or take now itwill rise in lower temperatures it willrise in higher temperatures but it’sgood at all of those things are going toaffect how fast it rises so the warmerdays the quicker it’s going to rise upto a point if it gets too hot and whatit’s going to do is it’s going to startto cook and that’s gonna stop the yeastfrom growing so that’s why you don’twant to get that up to a real hightemperature so go ahead and switch tothis and I’m gonna switch now twofingers and this is how your grandmotherprobably did it well maybe she wassmarter than me maybe she used a bowlbut this is people been making bread onevery continent every civilization everhas created recipes and types of breadsand all different but they’re all usingthe same sets of basic ingredients to dothis so what I’m doing right now is I’mjust trying to combine this flour withall the other ingredients and get it towhere it’s a dough and you can seealready it’s starting to turn intosomething that you can handle now thetrick to working with bread is reallylearning how to understand the bread theway that it feels the texture howelastic it is whether or not you’ve gotit set up and ready to go to to startrising so one of the things that allowsthe bread to get the air bubbles in itis gluten that’s the thing in wheat andsome other dreams that it allows theelasticity elasticity of the bread toextend and hold the air bubbles in thereso what’s happening is the yeast as it’sabsorbing the sugar from the flour andthe sugar itself it is ah that’s why Iput on the timer because that reminds meto turn off the oven that way you don’toverheat the oven so I’m just gonna washmy hands here so that I’m not spread anddumped all over the place I’m just goingto turn this there’s nothing in here butone of the things that I can do rightnow is I can put the bowl that I’m goingto be proofing it in in there and youdon’t even have to close it you canleave it a little bit open so that inthe excess heat is out there what you’rereally doing is just trying to get thethe oven heated up so I’m actually to apoint now where my dough is very stickyI have most of my ingredients that arethe table here or already part of thisand honestly you could do it like thisalthough this is a very sticky dough butthat’s one of the points that is givingtwo different kinds of dough are goingto require different amounts of flourtoo so to determine how stiff they arethough so the term that we’re looking atis stiff and so I’m going to go aheadand grab the sixth cup of flour here I’mgoing to spread it around a little biton there and around my baking board thisis kind of an unconventional method I’musing today but what you’re going to dois with this extra flour this is why youleave some of the of it out you’re gonnawork that bread and you’re going to workthat flour into the bread until thetexture changes and so what you’reseeing me do right now is called needyand this is what prevents or used toprevent domestic violence often whenthere were people that made bread athome because this is actually a verycathartic and therapeutic kind of thingto do and what you’re doing if you’reusing the ball of your hand to flattenout and stretch that dough that’s sortof the idea because you have to stretchthat dough and what the stretching doesis it allows the gluten to start to formbecause the gluten doesn’t occurnaturally in the bread it occurs itturns in the gluten after it’s beenmixed with water so that’s what we’redoing is we’re making sure all of theseingredients are combined and ready to tobe used by the yeast and the flour toturn into dough and so listen it’s alittle bit tacky you can see when I takemy fingers off it’s a little bit stickywhich is just about right I could add alittle bit more flour and make itfurther or I could not and let it besticky so if you’re doing something likea a breakfast oror something like that you’re going towant to stick to your dough usually ifyou’re doing this style sourdough you’regoing to want to have a stickier doughso that it’s got that ability to moveand stretch in and rise if you’re doingsomething like a big or pizza then youactually want a pretty firm dough sothat it can stand up to the abuse thatyou’re going to give that dough later onand so if you’ve been watching mytechnique it’s really it’s sort of oneof them fold press down grab and fold sothis is a little bit sticky to my tasteso I’m just gonna add a little bit offlour here cycling a little bit more andthey say that you should do this initialkneading about 10 minutes but what itreally comes down to is you’re going toneed to start kind of figuring outyou’ll feel the dough tainedwhen it’s starting to form the glutennice and well and what we’re going to dois the ball that I put into the oven alittle while ago what we’re going to dois we are going to coat that with alittle bit of oil and we’re going to putthis in there the dough and we’re gonnalet it rise for well it depends what youwant it to do is to basically double insize inside the bowl so if it’s that bigwhen it starts it’ll actually be aboutthat big after it’s proof and then whatwe’ll do at that point we will take thatloaf you can already see bubblesstarting to form those are air bubblesstarting to form inside the dough hereso this is this is that’s just a way oftelling that you know everything’s goingthe way that it’s supposed to be and youwant to put pretty good pressure on thisdough because you want you’re not justputting your hands onyou’re stretching it so every time thatI stretch that dough it’s linked inningthose molecules of gluten and allowingthem to be more flexible more stretchyand that’s what allows the air bubblesto form inside your bread and everybodyknows that the like bread is well it’slike so if your bread ends up after thefirst time you cook it kind of too heavyif it doesn’t rise well enough when youput it in the oven and you think ohthat’s kind of like a brick well thenmaybe you needed to to knead it a littlebit longer okay so if you’ll go aheadand switch to the other camera what I’mgonna do is I’m gonna let this sit forabout two or three minutes and then I’mgoing to knead it again so I’m gonnaactually let the dough rest for a minuteand what I want to do is I want to talkto you about what we’re gonna do furtheron so this is going to go into the bowland that bowl is where it is going toreside in the oven or it can be on yourcounter by the fireplace anywhere thatyou want it to be as long as it isn’ttoo cold and I’m just gonna coat thiswith a little bit of oil and now I’llkeep that dough from sticking to thatI’m not going to do that right nowbecause I’m gonna have to do that oncemore but I went ahead and cut that bowlprep so the dough will go in there afterI’ve needed it one more time I’ll coverthat with either like a plastic foil orwith a damp cloth and I will put it inthere and I’ll come back and check it inan hour or two until it’s ready to workagain when I work it again what I’ll dois you kind of you punch it down is whatit’s called so you give it a good hardsmack and you take it out of the bowland then you cut it in half and then youform each of those halves into a lookI’m not gonna have time to show you howto do that during this livedemonstration because there’s livedemonstrationsbut this is decide how you’re going towant to cook this so this is yourtraditional bread pan so if I was goingto do that I’m going up two of these Iwill take each of those loaves and Iwould shape them into something thatbasically looks like a local bread soagain this is going to be twice the sizeafter it’s risen so you’re going to endup with two that are about this size andyou’ll notice the depth is nicely into acakeso alright our bread pan and then youwould have two of those those will riseand when it rises to over the top that’swhen you would go ahead and cook it thetime is going to it takes to do thatit’s going to depend there’s otherthings that you can do for instance youcould use a pizza stone or a bread stonenow the way that I like to do this ifI’m using a bread stone or the samething if I’m using a Dutch oven is Iwould put this in the oven when I heatit up to cook it what you know whenthere’s about 1/2 hour left to for thedough to rise and then I would put thedough right on to there after they’vedone it second rise and put that in theoven and what that does putting it intoa hot container like that after it’srisen the second time after you’veshaked it is it it gives it a burst ofsteam within the the bread itself andthat causes it to rise better thismethod is perfectly fine those are someof the kind of advanced techniques samething with the Dutch oven if you put itin the Dutch oven you put the lid onthere and you go in there that holds allthe steam in there so you get a crispycrust that’s the way that I like to domy sourdough bread is that way the otherthing that you can do is while you’reheating up your oven went before youcook itput a cast ironinto your oven down at the bottom andthen when you put your bread in you takeand this will be very hot so you put itin there while you’re hitting it up thisgets very hot what you do is you putyour bread in there and then you pour acouple cups of hot water in here to becareful because that’s going to producea lot of steam if you’re makingsomething like a French bread where youwant to really like crispy crust that’sthe way you do it by getting steam inthere but today we’re just going to do abasic simple method we’re going to gointo these pans and a little while afterit’s risen for an hour or two and thenwhat we will do is we’ll cut this inhalf put it into these shape it will letit rise again until it comes just overthe top we’ll put it in and we will bakeit so we’re going to make this reallyyou can make this bread at a range oftemperatures from about 400 to 500degrees what’s going to happen is thehotter that you cook the bread thethicker the crust is going to be and thecrunchy err the crust is going to be sothe more substantial the crust is goingto be so if you like a light crust usethe lighter temper because what you’retrying to do is you’re trying to getthat internal temperature of the breadup to 185 degreesso using this thermometer like I showedyou a little while ago when you’rethinking about taking out the bread youput one of these instant-readthermometer in so that it’s into themiddle of the bread and if it’s above185 then the dough is going to be donethere’s some breads that are going totell you to go up to 205 but those arethe kinds of things that you experimentlearn depending upon the kind of breadthat you like so I’ve let this set upfor a few minutes and what that does goahead and switch please what that doesis it makes it easier to work so it’shad a chance to rest and it’s notresisting me as much as it was it’s notdone being needed but what I can do issee I can take and stretch this now andit’s not quite to the point where I canstretch it so that you cansee through it that’s the ideals if youcan stretch this to the point where youcan see through it without it rippingand see how that’s ripping before youcan see through it so that’s sort of thethe test that bread bakers used for whenit’s been needed enough to be sort ofthat perfect level is is when it’s whenit’s able to resist that pulling to thepoint where it’s so thin that they calla windowpane test so that you kind ofcan kind of see through it I’m notreally good at that part I get it prettyclose but you see I’m back to themeaning and I do kneading I flip andthen I push and I force it all the wayfrom one end to the other and then Iflip turn and push and I just do thisrepeatedly until like right now you canfeel the difference in this dough youdon’t it doesn’t feel flour anymore itfeels kind of elasticy and that’s thegoal that your reach reaching for isthat you want to have that don’t berelatively elastic at least for thistype of bread again turn that over notover but fold it on top press it downand you almost can’t over knead breadI’ve never heard of anybody overkneading breadum I guess if you went at it for a halfhour maybe but it’s better to knead ittoo much been to to not knead it enoughbecause if you pull out a loaf that’skind of like a brick so that means thatit wasn’t able to expand and hold theair molecules in there because what theyeast does is it creates alcohol andcarbon monoxide carbon dioxide I thinkwhoops and that’s what that does but youcan see the difference that in thisdough from when I first started workingit to where itnow this is it’s really smooth and it’ssoft and that’s what you’re going forand it’s not a bad little workout eitheryou’re you’re pressing down from yourshoulders your hands your arms rightinto the base of your palm and you’reyou’re forcing that to stretch so that’sthe process of kneading and not allbreads have to be needed but everybodywants to be needed right that’s a jokeall right so what I’m gonna do is I’mgonna give it one more windowpane testand I can tell already just because I’mused to working with dope this is notgoing to pass the windowpane test butI’m gonna go ahead and put it in and seewhat happensso let’s see yeah no but it could usesome more but it’s not in bad shape andthat’s just come from being able to tellby the feel of the bread and what I’mgoing to do I’m going to put it into mybowl I’m gonna spin it a little bit sothat it gets the some of the oil thatwas in there or I can just take and giveit another shot of oil twist a littlebit and then I can put either the thecloth or the plastic wrap over the topof that put it in there to rise when Icome back I’ll cut it in half put it inshape it into the shapes that I need andthen I will split it and put it into hands and let it rise again andthen I will cook it at let’s just sayfor 54 it’s gonna take about 30 minutesbut you need to start watching it afterabout 20 minutes and just sort of useyour decision about when you want it tocome out you know what kind of red youlike and so these are all experimentsthe first one that you do may not end uplooking like what you want to look likethat it’s still going to be bred andstill gonna be wholesome it’s stillgoing to be healthy and it’s going togive you something to eat and sothat’s all I’ve got for now all right soI went and took a nap and slept a littlebit longer than I thought I was going toI’ve come back and let’s see where mybread is my guess is that it’s a littleover proof but you know what will stillturn it into bread if it is so let’s seewhat we got here so yeah so if youremember this started out about this bigit’s three four times as big as it wasso I let it over prove but that’s okaybecause it’s dough so what we’re gonnado now you’ll see that at this pointthis is very soft very soft and that’syou know that’s just the way it’ssupposed to be so I’m gonna roll thatout you’ll notice it deflated so thatwent from filling this bowl to this andthat’s that’s just the natural order ofthings that’s the way it works and sowhat we’ve got here now is one hunk ofdough that I’m going to break into I’mgoing to be kind of gentle with thisbecause it’s already lost sort of a lotof its fluff and what I’m gonna do isI’m going to reshape it deflate it a lotand that’s that’s the danger of lettingsomething over proof and then I’m goingto go to directions with this becausemaybe you don’t have a cake padI mean a a bread pan sorry I just wokeup and my brains not completely in placeyet so I’ve got these two things andwhat you’re looking at there is justwhat we call shaping I’m taking andchanging the shape of this stretching ita little bit to help that gluten even alittle bit more than we did before andthis is this is probably going to end upbeing kind of a dense loaf because I Ilet it over proof but it’s got a secondproofing stage that it’s good to gothrough so I’m going to use twodifferent pans here I’m going to take inassume you don’t have a bread pan allyou got is a cookie sheet well you knowwhat we’ve got a way to dealand I could bake it right on there butwhat I’m going to do is I’m going to usesome parchment paper I’m going to putthat down underneath it if you don’thave parchment paper you don’t need todo it it’s just one of the techniquesthat I found that sort of company tooand it’s read the way I want it to be soI just put that piece of put tart tip ofit that piece of parchment paper onthere and I take this and again in theshaping process I’m kind of stretchingthat dog being pretty gentle with ithere and you’ll see it still got someair bubbles there I don’t know how wellyou can see that on the camera there’sstill air bubbles there you don’t wantto pierce those but you’ll notice thatthis skin is very elastic that’s that’sexactly what we wanted to do so I’m justgoing to place this on here now I’mgoing to kind of shape it the way that Iwant it to bebasically make it look like the low youcould do round if you wanted you can dopretty much whatever you want and thenin this one what I’m going to do is I’mgoing to grab my spray again and I’mjust going to give it a light mist andI’m gonna work this bread a little bitthis may be alright I think it will beat the very least it’ll be bread so thisis one of those things where you justhave to bake bread each time you makebread you’re getting to learn a littlebit more your your establishing yourknowledge of how bread works or or it’slike anything else practice makesperfect and so what I’m doing here isI’m just reworking that bread a littlebit giving it to shapes and so what I dois I turn it under this is basically thesame thing is kneading only what you’redoing is you’re stretching it over thetop in fact what I’m gonna do I’m gonnaleave this one is a round loaf and I’llput that that one that I’ve shaped morelike the wealth into this pan but if youlook real carefully you can see thatthere’s air bubbles that are stillwithin that skin and that that the skinof that is just holding on to those airbubbles and this is already starting torecruit so we’ve still got some life inhere we’re gonna need to watch thiscarefully and make sure it doesn’t overprove again but if it does you’re stillgoing to have bread is just how like howmuch air is going to be inside becausethere the yeast is what causes those airbubbles and it’s just gonna slowly loseits ability to make more air bubbles andthat’s what you don’tso what I’m gonna do is I’m going tocover these I could cover these andleave them right off my counter or I canput them in the oven to proof and I’mgoing to go ahead and turn mine on breadproof because it’s gonna have to riseagain I’m going to take a little bit ofplastic wrap I’m going to spray the topof these with a little bit of oil sothat it doesn’t stick to that plasticwrap because it’s gonna rise again andwith time you’ll learn when this sort ofhas been the ideal amount and I’m notgoing to cook this tight on there we’rejust gonna set it on top of there likethat and what that does is it’ll expandwith it it’ll keep the moisture in therebut it’ll still allows it to right soI’m going to if you’re just preheatingyour oven or heating your oven turn theheat off before it gets too warm my timeproofing so that it stabilizes at abouta hundred degreesright I’m gonna actually sit this couldtake a half hour it could take an hourdepending upon the temperatures that youhave just watch it and you know whenit’s sort of doubled in size again thenyou turn on the oven let’s say 400degrees that’s the way I’ll test thisrecipe today and cook it for you know 2030 minutes or however long it takes toget it to the level of doneness that youlike so I’m gonna leave this be for nowI’m gonna put this back on pause andI’ll see you guys in a little while okaykevin tharpe here again and there we arelook at that that has doubled againyou’ll notice that this has come upabove the level of the top of the panlike I was talking about and this isspread out now if you wanted that to goup instead of out you could put a towelor something around it to kind ofconfine it but that doesn’t have tohappen so what I’m going to do is I’mgoing to start the oven now I’m going toset it for I decided to go with 400degrees for this particular bread andthat’s what let preheat for sure beforeyou put on put in the bread you don’twant to put it in there and the way thatwe’re doing it there are some recipeswhere you put it in and then heat up theoven but we want the oven hot when thisgoes in that will help it to generatesteam and go up so I’ll give this a fewminutes for it to warm up and then Iwill put it in cook it for or howeverlong the type takes to be the rightcolor and temperature and we will havebread all right now we get to see thefruit of our labor so it’s been cookingfor just about 30 minutes II’ve already probed the temperature andit’s above 185 what I’m going to is I’mgoing to take out this flat one firstbecause it is a little bit because it’sflatter it gets warm in the center morequickly and so what I’m going to do hereis I’m just going to take this slidethat flop that throw that whatever thecream is on to the cooling rack andyou’ll want to let your bread cool foroh they say about 20 minutes but afteryou take the out of the oven just sothat it can settle I’m going to looklike I said I’m going to leave thatother loaf in there for a few moreminutes to get it a little bit morebrown you’ll see this has got a lightcolor if I leave it in there for alittle bit longerthe crust is gonna get just a little bitdarker and a little bit darker butthere’s one thing I don’t necessarilyagree on I think that at least one loafif you’ve taken all the time to make aloaf of bread you should be allowed tobreak the rule look at the steam comingout of that that is just beautifulsomething I forgot to tell you to do atthe beginning is to take your butter output it on your dish on the counter dothat when you first start making it andthen I hear Roxy coming in she knowsthere’s bread oh you look at that whatis the rule really Tina supposed to letthe bread sit depending on the bread 20minutessourdough actually is better the nextday if you let it sit butthe taste of bread that’s still hotenough to melt the butter before you putit your mom pool that’s good thisactually turned out to be a really lightloaf of bread I’ll talk to you guyslateryou’ve been splitting up with dusty andwe put in putting up some basic bread sowe’ve got something to eat Europe andinner peace I know you want a bite go ohis it