Author Topic: Homemade Bread: Temperature Is Key  (Read 1497 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Elderberry

  • TBR Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,284
Homemade Bread: Temperature Is Key
« on: March 24, 2018, 03:18:19 pm »
ThermoBlog by Martin 3/23/2018

Bread—the staff of life, the very metaphor for food and companionship—is a subject shrouded in tradition, lore, and even legend. Baking bread is one of the most ancient practices of civilized society, and has, therefore, had plenty of time to allow some muddled facts to be folded into its production.

Instructions like “place on warm countertop” or, even worse, “thump bottom of bread to see if it is done” are commonplace in recipes for bread. But how can we cook bread differently now that we live in a technologically advanced civilization, rather than an Iron-age village? Thermometry, of course. And the thermometer you need for bread is a ChefAlarm® leave-in probe thermometer.

To discuss the finer points of thermometry in bread making, we’re going to take a look at lean-dough breads as our example. Lean-dough bread is the most basic kind, often composed only of flour, water, salt, and yeast. While the processes may vary from bread type to bread type within the class, they all share the commonality that they contain no fats (hence the name). Those with butter, oil, or other fats are called ‘rich-dough’ breads.

The thermal principles involved in bread making are essentially the same for rich- and lean-dough breads, with but one notable exception, and as the lean dough is ‘simpler,’ we will use one as the template for our discussion.
Bread Baking Basics

No matter the bread you’re making, there are three major stages: preparation and mixing, bulk fermentation and proofing, and baking. In each phase, there is a critical temperature element that can be accomplished more exactly with modern thermometry than with pre-industrial techniques. Our ancestors did a great job with what they had, but, as the Nathan Myhrvold and the Modernist Bread team have shown, we can be more precise, and get more repeatable, exact results by discarding some of the lore and leaning on data. So with that in mind, let’s look at how temperature affects bread baking

More: https://blog.thermoworks.com/2018/03/homemade-bread-temperature-is-key/?utm_source=Nl-2018Mar24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=LeanDoughBreadPost&utm_campaign=Mar2018-Lean-Bread-Dough-cs