How to Make Bread

Prepare the necessary ingredients. With this basic French toast, all you need is:

• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 cups of warm water
• 3 tea spoons or 1 bag of live dry yeast

Activate yeast. Mix yeast with about ¼ cup of slightly warm water (38-40˚C) in a cup or small bowl. The temperature of the water should be so warm to the touch, but not hot. If the water is too hot, the yeast can die, and if it’s too cold, the yeast isn’t activated enough and the bread won’t rise as expected. The water should be warm enough that you can comfortably dip your fingers in.

• After one to two minutes, the mixture becomes thicker, bubbly, and smells like beer. If the surface of the mixture is bubbly and viscous, the yeast has been successfully activated. You are now ready for the next step.
• If you use Rapid Rise yeast, there is no need to activate the yeast before mixing it into the dough. Skip this step and move on to the next step.

Place flour and salt in a large bowl and mix well. The mixing bowl should be large enough to hold all of the flour and water at once and for you to mix easily. It is best to mix with a hardwood spoon. Once you’ve mixed the dry ingredients, you can still add yeast, whether it’s a quick release yeast or an activated wet yeast mix. Pour yeast into the dough and mix well.

• Alternatively, you can mix the dough with a mixer or a KitchenAid – as long as you have a kneading stick attached. However, kneading the dough is only a small part of the French bread making process, so it’s usually easier to knead the dough by hand, especially since your hands will get dirty anyway!

Add water, knead the dough until smooth. Slowly add the water with one hand, while the other hand uses a wooden spoon to mix the dough. You’re going to need to shape the dough and mix the starting ingredients into a homogeneous mixture, so it’s important to use a spatula to mix continuously. It’s best to have someone help add more water while you mix the dough, or vice versa.

• The amount of water to make the dough may not be fixed (if it is humid, less water will be needed) but just practice a few times and you will be able to quantify. Add water slowly and mix well then watch the mixture stick. You should stop adding water when the dough starts to stick in the bowl.
• Using your hands (rubbing some dry powder on your hands first) pull the dough in the bowl. Scrape off all the sticky dough and give the basic shape to the dough before letting it out.

Spread the dough out onto a flat surface. Let the dough rest for at least 5 minutes. At this stage, gluten fibers are beginning to form, giving the bread the wonderful chewy texture. The fibers are formed whether you knead or not, so if you can let gluten do its thing for a few minutes, your kneading will become easier.

• In the meantime, you can take advantage of washing the dough bowl thoroughly before using it to store the dough.

Dough. The initial kneading is the most important step in preparing the dough. You need to knead the dough vigorously and continuously for at least 5-10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. The surface of the dough should be smooth and uniform, not sticky or lumpy. If the dough still looks like the jagged surface of the moon, you should continue kneading and add more dry flour as needed.

• Everything takes time to pay off, like Miyagi’s advice in Karate Kid: forward, back down (Wax on, wax off). You need to beat the flour mixture vigorously, roll it out and then roll it up. Use as much force as you can, as if you were squeezing hard on the table, pushing forward and rounding.
• Rub the dough evenly on your hands, and also cover a thin layer of dough on the kneading surface and the whole dough to avoid sticking. If the dough seems wet, sprinkle more flour on top and continue kneading. ^[1]

Incubate the dough for about 3 hours. Once it’s rested, place the dough back into the washed (or at least rinsed) bowl and cover the bowl with cling film or a towel. Let the dough rest in a place with a moderately warm temperature. The ideal temperature for baking powder is around 21-22 degrees Celsius.

• If the indoor temperature is low, or if you’re baking in the middle of winter, the ideal place for baking powder is on or on a gas stove that’s turned off, let the warmth from the priming light regulate the baking powder.

Beat the dough down, flip and knead again. You don’t have to knead the dough for as long as it did when it first rose. Roll the dough a few times on the table and then put it back in the bowl for a second incubation. At this point you will need to knead the dough again in its original shape. If done correctly, the dough will be soft and smooth and you can work quickly and easily. ^[2]

Let the dough rise again for about 90 minutes. Opinions differ as to whether a second incubation is necessary: some people skip this incubation and proceed to shape the cake and cover it with a towel just before baking, while others prefer the baking method. dough 3 times for good consistency. A delicious French bread is due to the hard and crispy outside, but the inside is soft and spongy – something you can only get from the small air holes created by the yeast during the dough incubation. So if you have time and want to make “authentic” French breads, you should incubate the dough 2-3 times. And if you want the delicious, hot, crispy cake to fill your kitchen like 10 minutes ago, you can continue making the cake and skip this incubation step. Your cake will still be great.

Shape the dough into any shape you like. Remove the dough from the bowl and cut to the size of loaf, batard or baguette you want, then roll.

• To shape a boules , cut the dough in half and shape into two oblongs the same way you just kneaded the dough. Place on a piece of parchment paper, sprinkle some cornstarch on top and cover.
• To make baguettes , cut the dough into 4 equal parts and roll on a floured surface to create long, thin sticks. Roll a few times until the dough is long enough, continue rolling the dough from the center to the sides, try to roll the dough evenly.
• To shape the batard , cut the dough into 4 or 6 pieces and roll the dough to create a shorter baguette shape. There’s no way to create a perfect batard, but either way, these buns taste great.

Let the dough rest for at least 45 minutes. After placing your molded cakes on the baking sheet, cover with a damp cloth for at least 45 minutes to allow the dough to rise before placing in the oven.

• It is customary to make notches on the surface of the cake, an X, or any other of your own, before putting the cake in the oven. Make small grooves of about 1cm, each cut about 2.5cm apart to leave space for the dough to rise when baking.

Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes, or until crust turns golden brown. The cakes will be ready to go when the crust has a nice golden color and the bottom is firm, tapping or snapping your fingers sounds like a “pop”.

Crispy crust with steam. The secret to getting the perfect pie crust? It is steam. Use a spray bottle to spray directly on the cake or spray the inside of the oven a few times while baking will give you French breads with a perfectly crispy crust.

• In addition, people often put a bowl of water in the lower baking tray. This will create steam slowly during the baking process. Experiment to see what works best for your oven.