Seven Tips for a Home Baker

Seeded sourdough loaf with white, whole wheat and rye

Baker Dan Lepard writes a rare baking column in the Guardian newspaper in the UK, has an active web presence, and has written an engaging baking book, but here he visits with a serious home baker, Jack Lang, who lays out seven principles of baking. This quote caught my eye, because it's really true. Everyone thinks baking with sourdough is hard but it's actually more forgiving than instant yeast.

"...naturally leavened breads are very easy to manage, especially for the home baker, as the dough matures more slowly and the point when the loaf finally gets to the oven is less critical. I am convinced that naturally leavened breads, like sourdough, are great for the home baker and less problematic that other quicker yeasted breads."

Now onto the seven principles (with my comments in italics). 

1. Use a naturally-leavened starter. “Using a sourdough starter is easy,” says Jack. “You keep it in the fridge from one month until the next, and simply refresh a small amount when you need to use it.” (If you refrigerate it, refresh it at least two times before using it).

2. Keep practicing your ‘baking routine’ until you find a method that suits you. “It was the constant baking that improved my breads”, says Jack. (Really true, it's like music. The more you practice the better you get, especially because the craft is tactile).

3. “For many of the breads I bake”, says Jack, “I make the dough the night before and leave it overnight in the refrigerator”. This is a great help in managing your time when baking at home, when there are always other things to do. (I do this too. It improves the flavor of the bread and works with your schedule, so if you mix a dough Friday evening you can bake 8-24 hours later -- whatever works by your schedule). 

 4. Do keep a record of the temperatures of your flour, water, dough and room when you bake. “Temperature control is very important when you bake”, says Jack, “but don’t go overboard with it”. (Yes, and use a bit more sourdough in the winter and less in the summer, as higher temperatures speed fermentation -- the ideal though is 76-78 F). 

5. “Food processors are great for mixing bread, just remember to use the steel blade”, says Jack. My co-author on “Baking with Passion”, Richard Whittington, swears by the food processor and finds it much easier to use than the upright mixer. (I've used a food processor quite successfully to make dough, but I don't use it regularly.)

6. Remember that when you bake brown, mixed wheat, rye or wholemeal loaves, you will not get the same volume in the finished loaf as you will achieve with white flour, nor as open a texture to the crumb. Just remember this and be content. (True to a point, see picture above. If you make a very moist dough with whole grains you can achieve a less dense crumb but moist doughs are hard to work with -- go back to point 2). 

7. And finally, “Bake the dough from cold”, says Jack, who lets his dough prove overnight in the refrigerator at 4ºC (39F). This, he feels, gives a better result. (Sugars develop in a long slow rise, so the bread flavor will improve. The sour acidity in a dough also increases with lower temperature, so if you want higher sour notes by all means refrigerate for 12-24 hours. Depending on the degree of fermentation, though, you may need to let the rise continue at room temperature).

Addendum: I just got Lepard's book, The Art of Handmade Bread: Contemporary European Recipes for the Home Baker, and am happily reading through it. Many of the recipes are unusual, from Scandinavia, Scotland, Russia, Germany and the Ukraine, incorporating age-old methods (such as soaking grains in wine, using ale, making your own malt). It reminds me a bit of Elizabeth David's approach in her classic, English Bread and Yeast Cookery , since she too paid serious attention to traditional home made breads. I'm excited to try these methods soon.

Comments

[Melissa]

When you're baking, do you spritz the oven and the doors with water or leave a tray of water on a rack in the early part of baking?

[Sam Fromartz]

I leave a rimmed sheet pan on the bottom of oven. When I put the bread in, I pour 2/3 cup of boiling water into the pan, shut the door and KEEP IT CLOSED. Depending on the bread, I let the steam escape after 15 minutes, or just keep the door closes as the steam diminishes through the oven vent.

Others put a pan on a shelf below their baking stone.

Spritzing is dangerous (you can explode an oven light bulb -- I have). Also pouring cold water is dangerous, if it gets on the glass door, the glass can crack (done that too).

Ice cubes in a tray at the bottom of the oven is another trick, less steam, but steady.

[sanjeeta kk]

Very informative read. Hope it will improve my baking.

[Vegan Thyme]

I just found your blog and enjoy it very much!I am new to The Fresh Loaf and came across your post on Jim Lahey's pizza, which lead me here. The Alice Waters story killed me! Really helpful to learn about your method of setting up the steam for bread baking--I spritzed for the first time yesterday and it scared me--so I'll give your method a try. Such a great story about Alice--really!

[Zeb]

Dan Lepard has written more than a column in The Guardian. He is the author and photographer of one of the most beautiful and inspiring bread books I have ever read or worked from, and is a great teacher. It's called The HandMade Loaf in case you haven't read it.

[Drinks special]

Thanks for good tips... i like it..

[Ed Schenk]

Great Post! Very nice read. I learned a couple of good tips here.
Years ago I did a sourdough starter from scratch and kept using it for a year. As the good yeast grew and the undesirable yeast was overtaken the taste of the bread got better and better.

[Marc]

Thanks for the tips and your commentary. I've been baking with natural leavening on and off for a few years but always get a heavy, dense bread with only tiny air pockets (in a dough made using good bread flour and almost 100% white flour). I've tried recipes from Nancy Silverton's La Brea Baking book and Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking. I always give my starters a few days of room temperature refreshing before starting a recipe.

I think my problem might be temperature. I live in the S.F. Bay Area, where interior temperatures are usually in the 60s, far below the optimal upper 70s. Should I look into building a heated proofing box (using a low-watt light bulb as the heat source, for example)? Or significantly extend my initial fermentation and final proofing time (possibly by several hours)?

[Sam Fromartz]

If your temperatures are in the 60s, yes, you do need to significantly extend rising times. Ive used tricks like putting a heating pad under the bowl to warm it up, but watch out, it can easily get too hot. Even putting it in a high cabinet could help, as it will be warmer in there. Others put dough in the room with their hot water heater. But if you do rise it at a lower temperature you can still get marvelous results. You just need to be more patient, but time always rewards the baker. 

[Zeb]

Hi again, glad to see you got Dan's book, I hope you thought it was worth it.. you should come and post on his forum too. He will have a new book out one of these days - a british baking book this time. I just baked cottage loaves following E David's method and formula, it was quite interesting to start in a cold oven and meant that the loaves didn't spring so much but the tops didn't topple over. All the best, Zeb

[Sam Fromartz]

I just made Dan's sourdough barley rye. Came out good, nice flavor but I plan on tweaking a bit before I post on it. Looking forward to his next book .