Basic Bread, A Library Lecture

Jack Deatherage

(9/2019) Occasionally I get to thinking someone might want a snippet of knowledge I've accumulated over the last sixty some years. Rarely does anyone seem interested in anything I think I know. Much of my knowledge is based in books the library discarded because patrons were no longer reading them. Why I think reshelving these books in my house serves any purpose other than irritating the DW is a puzzlement. Like, who am I going to meet who needs to know how to hand spin wool, or twist, bend and hammer wire into jewelry?

One of the voices in my head mutters, "It could happen." Then it reminds me I still have to compose a lecture on basic bread building I agreed, or someone in my head agreed, to present at the library sometime in October. I also have to rehearse the lecture- complete with actually building a bread dough so those in attendance can see and feel how it's done each step of the way- and I'll need to keep babbling for around 30 minutes. (Gods help me if there are questions afterward! Which reminds me- I also need to put together a list of resource books the library's Marina computer card catalog might be able to supply. I also need to gather the bread books I have that the public libraries don't have because I bought them as they were discarded- "due to lack of use".

Given the amount of time and effort I'm putting into preparing for this lecture (I expect maybe two, or five people to attend) I'm wondering if what I'll get out of it is worth it?

"Duh." Mutters another voice in my head. "Who cares if no one shows up to hear you bumble along about grams and cheap flour? Aren't you learning techniques and processes that have improved your breads?"

Snarling, I admit I'm learning more'n I thought I would. After all the builds and bakes, after all the books and online videos I've rushed through seeking the perfect bread, I find myself suddenly knowing enough to know I don't know what I'm doing.

"Ha!" The voice sneers. "The perfect time to present a lecture to wannabe bread builders. You're at their level of knowledge, or considerably lower, depending on who shows up!"

After seriously questioning my sanity for the third, or twelfth time today, I allow that stripping my bread building methods to the bone- so a beginner could slide decent bread from an oven- after building it with easily acquired ingredients, minimal knowledge and technique- may be a good way to cement the method in my increasingly forgetful brain.

100% flour, 65% liquid, 2% salt, yeast (generally by a fraction of a teaspoon) is my basic formula. (Recipes are formulas, but formulas aren't recipes.) I use formulas rather then recipes for three reasons.

First, formulas are easy to remember and are written in bakers shorthand- 100, 65, 2- or the percentages of flour, hydration and salt. Yeast is measured by spoonfuls in a home kitchen, but in a bakery it is a percentage of the flour's weight and would be recorded that way in a formula.

Second, percentages are easiest to calculate if the ingredients are weighed in grams, as bakeries tend to do. (If I only have 400 grams of flour on hand I can figure on needing 260 grams of some liquid- 65% of the flour's weight, and 8 grams of salt- 2% of the flour's weight.) Weighing ingredients is a more precise measure than cups and spoonfuls, and generally turns out breads of consistent character and quality regardless of uncontrollable factors such as humidity, or who measures the ingredients.

Third, if I'm building burger buns for the DW, dogs and myself I'd probably plug 500 grams of flour into the basic formula and calculate the other ingredient percentages in my head. If the DW's sister asked for fresh bread for a party she was throwing for ten people I'd probably begin with 1,500 grams of flour and work it out from there.

So why isn't the basic formula my basic recipe?

Flours vary- greatly! Wheat flours off the local supermarket shelves tend to be labeled: All-purpose, Bread, Unbleached, Whole Wheat (usually stone ground), and depending on the store, come in these brands: Gold Medal, Pillsbury, White Lily, Robin Hood, Store Brands and King Arthur- each slightly or more so different from the other. The options only begin there! I have two imported Italian flours in a freezer alongside three Russian flours! I also have several heirlooms- ancestors of modern wheat- as well as "sprouted" flours for the next level of the bread experiments.

Beyond wheat flour lies rye, corn, rice, potato, millet, buckwheat, quinoa, bean and probably dozens of other grains and seeds I haven't stumbled over yet as I dig ever deeper into bread building. Each grain or seed, or combinations of any or all of them change the flavor, fragrance, texture, appearance and the shelf-life of a bread.

Hydration is just as exciting. Water- bottled: tap, spring, purified or mineral; well- limestone or not, rain- acid or not. Milk- whole to skimmed, buttermilk and cream- Cow, goat, horse, sheep, almond, soy. Eggs, fruit juices, beer, wine, whiskey can all be used to hydrate and flavor a dough.

Salt is simple, right? (Please be right!) Ha! Table salt, sea salts (dozens of them!), mined mineral salts (dozens more), Kosher salt- each brand and type varies little or greatly in how much a spoonful weighs which is why they are weighed rather than scooped and leveled.

Sorting through the possibilities and plugging them into the formula still doesn't give me a recipe! Do I begin with an autolyse- mixing water with flour to fully hydrate the flour and allow the gluten bonds to begin forming which reduces kneading time, or do I mix everything at once and basically build what I call a "quick" bread?

Finally ready for the oven? Nope. Two more ingredients still need dealt with. Time and temperature.

How many hours should the autolyse take? How many hours should the poolish work at room temperature? What is the room temperature? (The French artisan bakers I've read about say 75 Fahrenheit.) The longer the dough ferments the more flavorful the bread will be. Do I retard a dough in the fridge, use tiny amounts of yeast and let the dough ferment for days on the counter? Do I use flour from the freezer to slow the process down?

I haven't touched on adding nuts, fruits, cheeses, meats, herbs or chocolates to a dough! The offspring, now a professional cook, and the Mad One, now an American Bulgarian I once bullied into building a bread (she now builds better breads than I do), tell me to "keep the lecture simple. All-purpose flour, tap water, table salt and a teaspoon of active dry yeast. 450F oven. A baking sheet and a timer.

"And keep the lecture short and simple! You do tend to be a motormouth and stray off topic more than most people can handle or follow."

Ha! I resemble that remark!