Bread Baking Course Chapter 3

Baking

Home-made breads which are thoroughly baked right through but not allowed to over bake and become dry, will have an excellent keeping quality. There are several ways to determine whether your loaves are baked to the right degree of being done.

Firstly, use the appearance as a guide. The loaves should look well risen and browned to the degree expected of the specific product. After taking a loaf from the oven, it should sound hollow when tapped with the knuckles on the top crust.

Loosen the sides carefully with a knife, bump the pan on a hard surface and shake it sideways to ensure that the bread leaves the pan. (Sesame seeds or crushed wheat sprinkled into greased pans facilitate easy removal of the loaves). Carefully turn out onto a cooling rack and turn over.

Gently press the sides of cooked products with the fingertips. A loaf should feel firm to the touch but slightly springy. If the sides dent markedly and feel soft, return to the pan and bake another 10 to 20 minutes, depending on your own discretion.

At this stage it may be necessary to cover the top crust loosely with foil to prevent further browning. It will not harm but in fact improve the texture as well as the keeping quality of your bread if you return it to the oven and bake it until completely firm and done.

Insufficient baking will cause breads to be doughy and moist in the center During cooling the doughy part will collapse and form a hollow which will spoil the texture of the entire product. The taste will also be affected, and a strong yeasty flavor will soon develop during storing.

Cooling and storing

After baking has been completed, the loaves should be removed from the pans immediately, unless otherwise stated in a specific recipe. Allow baked products to cool completely on a wire rack, away from draughts which will cause shrinkage. Do not wrap or store until quite cold and all the moisture has evaporated, for mold can only grow in the presence of moisture on the surface of breads.

For freezing, products should be wrapped airtight in plastic or aluminum foil. For storing, breads should be allowed to “breathe” and kept in loose plastic bags, large semi-airtight containers such as bread-tins with pin-holes for ventilation, or wrapped in a cloth. Be sure to keep bread-tins quite clean. They may be sterilized with any mild hydrochloride solution.

These are the golden rules to preserve freshness and prolong the keeping quality of your products. Brown-paper packages absorb moisture and will dry out breads, rolls or buns.

Although old-fashioned, a very practical way of storing breads, especially moist whole-wheat loaves, is to wrap them in cotton material or to place them in clean flour bags or pillow-slips. In Spain, where the climate is very hot, bread is kept in special cotton bread-bags which hang in an airy place, for instance at the back of the kitchen door. In this way the breads remain fresh tasting and moist instead of becoming sour and yeasty due to storing in small airtight containers or plastic bags.

Home-baked breads will become stale fairly quickly if baked and stored incorrectly, for no preservatives are added. A small amount of vinegar added to the liquid will act as a mild preservative, but moisture on the outside of loaves will still cause molding and staling. If cooled and stored correctly, your produce will remain fresh for 3 to 6 days, depending on the type of product and the climate.

Freezing

Freezing is the perfect answer for preserving freshness in cakes and breads but, unless it is done correctly, results will be poor. All products should be frozen while still quite fresh but completely cold to prevent moisture forming on the crust after wrapping.

Plastic wrap, plastic bags and light-weight foil make convenient wrappers as they can be sealed airtight. If products are not well sealed they will dry out and become hard and tasteless.

Yeast products may be kept frozen for up to 2 months, or only a day or two. Large breads should be given time to thaw before reheating. An average bread will require approximately 1 hour, and may be used as is or reheated as explained for individual products.

Your bread will taste marvelously fresh, but bear in mind that, after freezing, all breads and cakes become stale rapidly.

When baking for the freezer, plan your portions roughly according to requirements for one meal. Frozen small rolls or croissants may be popped into a preheated oven without defrosting, especially if they were baked until only half or three-quarters done.

Defrosting in a microwave oven is possible yet tricky, and personal experimenting is necessary for this procedure. Follow the instructions given for the specific oven.

Traditional South African “mosbolletjies” – must-rusks

Crushed ripe grapes have been called “mos” in the Cape wine lands for many years. “Moskonfyt” is a jam made of ripe grapes. For “mosbolletjies” the yeast is prepared from seeded raisins, covered with water and left to ferment. The fermented raisin liquid acts as the rising agent and at the same time imparts a characteristic flavor.

The addition of a small quantity of fresh compressed yeast or dry granular yeast will speed up the process of fermentation considerably, although it will also take place if only raisins are used.

Although a little more complicated to prepare, these favorite old-time Cape rusks are undoubtedly worth the effort. If you intend to dry out your rusks, you will have to guard your loaves well, because freshly – baked “mosbolletjies” are irresistible!

The preparation of “mosbolletjies” requires three basic steps. Firstly, the raisin yeast or must is prepared. The mixture is strained and the liquid used to make the sponge which is left to rise. Lastly the sponge is turned into the dough. The superfine texture is achieved by kneading the dough thoroughly twice.

Raisin yeast may replace the yeast and water in any recipe, but rising will be considerably slower. Very good for raising fruit loaves.

Raisin Yeast (must)

150 g seedless raisins

625 ml boiling water

6 g compressed yeast

Or

2.5 ml dry granules

1. Prepare the dough at least a day in advance. Cut raisins in half with a pair of scissors. Place in a large screw top jar. Add boiling water, and cool to room temperature. Add crumbled fresh yeast or granules, stir and cover tightly.
2. Leave 1 t o3 days until mixture becomes frothy and all the raisins have risen to the top. If the mixture stands in a warm spot it will ferment within 12 to 24 hours. A low temperature, however, will retard fermentation. The best time to prepare the sponge is early in the morning. If the fermentation is frothy before you are ready to use it, stir down and place in a cool spot.
3. Strain through a sieve and use the liquid to make the sponge. Press the liquid out of the raisins as well. (Raisins may be re-used in the same way for a second time or discarded.)

Sponge mixture

±280 g (500 ml) cake flour

±500 ml strained liquid from raisin yeast

6 g Compressed yeast

Or

2.5 ml dry yeast granules

(Yeast optional)

1. Prepare the mixture early in the morning. If strained liquid is less than 500 ml, make up with water. If liquid is slightly more, all of it may be used. Combine the liquid with the flour, and beat to form a smooth batter.
2. Cover, and allow to stand in a warm spot until spongy. This may take from 2 to 6 hours depending on the temperature, weather and the strength of the fermentation. If after 2 hours the mixture does not yet show signs of activity, another 6 g of compressed yeast may be crumbled and beaten into the mixture, or 2.5 ml dry yeast granules may be activated in 50 ml lukewarm water and then added in the same way.

Dough

625 ml lukewarm milk

250 g (280 ml) soft butter or margarine

3 eggs

25 ml salt

400 g (500 ml) sugar

15 ml aniseed (optional)

±2.5 kg cake flour (4 Lt)

1. Prepare the dough in the late morning or early afternoon. Beat down sponge and add milk, shortening (cut into portions), eggs, salt, sugar, aniseed and sufficient flour to form soft dough.
2. Knead down thoroughly on a well floured surface (10 to 15minutes). Dividing dough into portions simplifies kneading and ensures thorough kneading. (Kneading half of the dough at a time will give better results than kneading the larger piece of dough all at once, unless you are a very strong kneader!)
3. Cover and allow to rise in a slightly warm spot until doubled (2 to 3 hours).Knead thoroughly for a second time, cover and allow to rise until doubled (1 to 2 hours).
4. Do not punch down, but pinch off egg-sized balls of well risen dough and pack very tightly together in well-greased loaf pans to make the pans approximately half full.
5. Allow to rise until rusks have almost doubled in size and bake 40 to 50 minutes at 160º C until golden and firm. Turn out one loaf to test whether it is done. If not, return to the pan and bake a while longer. As soon as the top crust is a good golden color, you may cover the pans loosely with a large sheet of foil to prevent further browning.
6. Loosen around the sides, bump on a hard surface and shake pans from side to side to release loaves. Turn out and cool completely. Break apart and dry out.