••••
INGREDIENTS
3
The most important part of the bread making process is the wise selection
of ingredients. You and your
Prima Home Bakery
will produce outstanding
results with the right ingredients. Just apply this simple rule: Best
ingredients - best results, poor ingredients - poor results. For example; if
good yeast, good flour and water were thrown together and mixed in an old
bucket the mixture would still rise! Nothing the bread maker does will
prevent the dough from rising so if your loaf does not rise it is most unlikely
that the bread maker is to blame. It is probably due to the ingredients. In
order to save you time we have included information on each major
element used in the making of bread which will enable you to obtain
perfect results first time every time. See the appendix at the end of this
book for a list of suppliers of quality ingredients.
••••
FLOUR
4
In bread making the most important element in the flour is the protein
called gluten, which is the natural agent that gives the dough the ability to
hold its shape and retain the carbon dioxide produced by the yeast. The
term ‘
strong flour’
means that it has a high gluten content. It has probably
been milled from hard wheat and is particularly suitable for bread making.
In the UK the taste and gluten content of flour varies with each brand. At
Prima
we use Allinsons Strong White, Strong Brown or Wholemeal flour
for product testing because it gives consistently good results. Other good
brands are Sainsbury’s own brand, Hovis bread machine flour or
McDougals strong white flour. Safeway’s own brand of bread flour is also
quite good. You may wish to approach your local mill for flour. If you do, be
sure to specify that you require a fine ground flour with a high protein
content if you want light well-risen loaves. See the appendix at the end of
this book for suppliers of good quality flour.
