9
Bread making basics
Flour
An understanding of ingredients and their interaction is essential to good bread
making. This short guide will help you understand some of the processes and the
materials used.
Liquid quantities
•
Use only fresh, bread making flour.
•
Use the whole wheat settings with wholemeal wheat flour for best results.
•
Flours such as oatmeal are often added to bread flours to make speciality
loaves. Many of these flours contain no gluten so they cannot be used entirely
on their own.
•
Speciality flours such as oatmeal can be added to make speciality loaves, many
of these flours contain no gluten so they cannot be used entirely on their own.
•
If required to, you may adjust dough (the only time you can do so is during the
kneading cycle)
After a few minutes of kneading, open the bread maker lid and gently touch
the dough, it should feel very slightly sticky.
If sloppy, add gradual amounts of flour until the correct consistency is
reached.
If too dry, add gradual amounts of lukewarm water.
Allow this to work in and re
-
check, follow the same steps if necessary.
Milk
•
Whole, semi
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skimmed or skimmed milk can be used but it should always be
added lukewarm.
•
Refrigerated milk must be heated to around 27ºC.
•
Never heat milk above 37ºC as this can cause problems with yeast.
•
Milk can usually be substituted for water in most recipes, but the quantity may
need to be adjusted. If dried milk is featured in the recipe, leave it out when
substituting milk for water.
•
It is always advised to monitor the dough whilst it is kneading to check if the
mixture is too wet or dry, adjust if necessary using the notes under the “Flour”
section.