Bread Thread - Page 3

Most of what I learned came from working with family when I was young and just learning to make dough in general, so unfortunately I don't know of any good books on the subject.

Some people overthink things like bread and start mail ordering ingredients and stuff. Books on the subject will probably be a nice complement, but perfect practice makes perfect. Ingredients matter, but practice and skill matter a lot more. It took a lot of mistakes (including adding water from the laundry side of the fountain -- oops) before I could make a decent loaf. And even expert bakers make mistakes and their bread becomes a glutinous monstrosity or a hocket puck from time to time.


Your bread likely doesn't have enough gluten. It probably needs more kneading and a higher protein flour (bread flour works, but semolina and durum flours will be better). I use different brands of flour, but right now I have King Arthur flour because I like their whole wheat and it was on sale. Hogsdon Mill should be easy to find (I've seen it in Cleveland and Charlotte, so I assume it's a national brand) and they have all kinds of flours. You can always add some wheat gluten directly to your flour to increase the amount of protein (most supermarkets should have it, if they don't then health food stores probably will). Don't add to much wheat gluten or the yeast won't have the strength to leaven the bread.

With pancakes, yes. With bread, not really. Small changes like ambient humidity greatly affect ingredient amounts, so it's almost impossible to measure anywhere near precisely. Bench flour is always a requirement for this reason.

Even in places like Hong Kong and Vietnam? I'd figure they have British and French breads, respectively. Vietnam supposedly has really good baguettes and boule.