ESSENTIALS OF ARTISAN BREAD BAKING

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

ARTISAN

An artisan is one employed in the manual arts who creates with both skill and dexterity.

AUTOLYZE

Many artisan breads require a rest, or autolyze, during the mixing process, usually before the addition of salt or yeast. This rest, from 20 minutes to 1 hour in duration, helps to develop gluten without mechanical means, and improves the overall quality of many breads, from flavor and texture to their overall appearance.

CALCULATION OF DOUGH TEMPERATURE

The importance of proper dough temperatures cannot be overemphasized. Different doughs have different temperature requirements, and the following simple mathematical calculation will determine how to achieve a proper dough temperature. Proper dough temps help ensure consistency and allow us to follow production schedules by removing guesswork from fermentation times.

Dough temperature is calculated by averaging the temperatures of the main ingredients in a dough with the room air temperature, plus an additional one to two degrees of friction heat, depending on your mixer,  for each minute of actual mixing. ( Friction heat is heat added to the dough by the action of mixing. ) For this exercise we will assume 1 degree of heat for each minute of mixing.

Since water temperature is the only variable that can be controlled, we calculate it's temperature in order to achieve a proper dough temperature.

EXAMPLE: A batch of sourdough requires a dough temp of 73º. It will be mixed a total of 13 minutes. What is the necessary water temperature if the flour is 68º, the air is 75º, and the sour starter is 41º?

73º ( Desired dough temp )

- 13º (Degrees friction heat )

60º (Averaged temp of variables: air, flour, water, and sour starter )

60 ( The average temp of our variables )

x 4 (The total number of variables )

240 ( Static Number )

240 (Static Number) minus:

-68º ( flour temp )

-75º ( air temp )

-41º (sour starter temp )

56º = Desired Water Temperature

To recapitulate: We take the desired final dough temperature and subtract the friction heat ( one degree per minute of mixing ). We multiply the result by the number of variables in the formula. ( The variables can be as few as three and as many as five. ) This result is the Static Number. From the Static Number we subtract the temperatures of all variables except water (or other formula liquids). The result is the water temperature necessary to achieve the desired dough temp.

Once a static number has been calculated it should be included in the formula for the dough; water temperature calculation is then simply a matter of subtracting the temperatures of the variables other than water from the static number, resulting in the desired water temp.

COUCHE

Made from sturdy French linen, couches are long pieces of fabric used to cradle delicate breads while proofing, wicking excess moisture from the crusts while helping to retain their shapes. The banneton is a basket used to hold breads while they proof; they may be lined or unlined.

CRUMB

The inside of a bread loaf is referred to as the crumb.

DIASTATIC

Yeast metabolizes only the simplest of sugars through the use of it's own enzymes and the enzymes present in wheat flour. Diastatic action, through the use of malt products, furthers this process by supplying very strong enzymes capable of breaking starches down to sugars that may then be shortened by wheat and yeast enzymes.

Great caution must be exercised in the use of diastatic malt, as even a slight miscalculation can result in a weak dough so slack it cannot support it's own weight.

DOCK

The primary reason for docking, that is, slashing the skins of proofed loaves with a lamme immediately prior to baking, is to allow for even expansion of the bread as it bakes. Failure to dock properly usually results in loaves that either burst or collapse in the oven.

A secondary reason for docking is to impart aesthetics to the finished product.

DOCKER

A docker is a small hand-held tool used for imprinting the tops of rolls.

DOUGH CONDITIONER

Dough conditioners are essentially powdered acids added to bread dough in order to mimick secondary fermentation. ( See: FERMENTATION ) By adding these chemicals much time can be saved: the dough is mixed, given a half hour rest instead of a proper ferment, then divided, proofed and baked. The result is insipid. There is no place for dough conditioners in artisan baking.

FERMENT or BULK FERMENT

When dough is mixed, it is "bulk fermented", that is, given enough time for the yeast to work. The term "rise" is generally not used by professionals.

FERMENTATION

PRIMARY FERMENTATION:

When dough is mixed it is allowed to ferment in order for the yeast to leaven it. Yeast cells first scavenge all of the available oxygen in the dough, and then begin to metabolize damaged starches inherant in the flour into water, alcohol, and carbon dioxide. It is owtward pressure from the buildup of carbon dioxide gas that causes dough to expand.

SECONDARY FERMENTATION:

Acid-forming bacteria are ubiquitous, and are responsible for much of the finer characteristics of a superb loaf. The acetobacter present in dough metabolize some of the alcohol created by the yeast into acids, strengthening gluten molecules for better oven spring, and imparting deeper flavor and aroma to the finished loaves. Secondary fermentation does not necessarily impart a sour taste to bread.

OVER-FERMENTATION:

When dough overferments a buildup of alcohol begins to kill the yeast. In addition, an overabundance of enzymes begin to break down the gluten structure of the dough, resulting in dense, inedible bread.

FLOUR

The generic term "flour" simply means seeds ground into powder. We can therefore have corn flour, or malt flour, or wheat flour. Several flours are used in the bakeshop; here is a short list:

WHEAT FLOURS:

All Purpose Flour is a moderately strong flour rarely used in a professional setting.

Artisan Flour is sometimes referred to as unbleached all purpose flour, it has moderate gluten strength.

Bread Flour is strong flour capable of withstanding manipulation and long ferment times, resulting in loaves with superior oven spring and excellent crusts.

Cake Flour is soft wheat flour, high in starch but low in proportional damaged starch, sometimes used to weaken stronger flours.

High Gluten Flour is often used for challah bread or breads with a large amount of coarse ingredients added.

Whole Wheat is milled from the entire wheat kernel and can go rancid if not used quickly enough. It adds character, flavor and enhanced nutrition to breads.

RYE FLOURS:

Dark Rye is commonly used for rye bread production, although it can sometimes be difficult to work with. Unlike wheat flours, rye does not improve with age or produce gluten.

Pumpernickle is whole rye flour, coarse in texture. Sometimes called rye meal, it is not dark.

Rye Chops are broken pieces of rye grain and are used to impart character and flavor to a variety of breads.

Rye Flakes are extremely coarse pieces of rye grain.

FOLD

Some artisan breads are given a "fold" halfway through their fermentation times. The dough is turned onto the bench and folded in on itself several times. The purpose of folding is to help strengthen the gluten and equalize the internal and external temperatures of the dough. Folding evolved from the old-time "punching down" of dough.

FORMULA

"Recipes" are known to professionals as formulas.

GLUTEN

Wheat is the only grain that produces a gluten suitable for bread production. When the two protiens found in wheat flour, glutenin and gliadin, combine with water and motion they form gluten molecules. With the remarkable properties of both extensibility and elasticity, gluten allows for the manipulation and shaping of loaves without tearing. Gluten traps the gasses released by yeast during fermentation, thus allowing bread to leaven.

Vital Wheat Gluten is a readily available ingredient that is sometimes added to weak dough or dough with coarse ingredients to give extra support.

GLUTEN DEVELOPMENT

Judging proper gluten development is one of the most important skills a baker must learn. Gluten becomes stronger the longer or faster it is mixed; the more gluten is developed, the larger the resulting loaves will be, but the less flavor they will have. Further mixing after full development will result in an irreversable breakdown of the gluten structure within the dough.

Most artisan breads are given a "modified mix", that is to say, they are mixed slowly at first, then worked on a faster speed toward the end of mixing. This technique results in full-sized, richly flavored breads.

GOURMET INGREDIENTS

Breads may have specialty ingredients added to them, ingredients such as dried fruits, nuts, roasted pumpkin or squash, fennel, herbs, spices, citrus, chocolate, cheeses, potatoes, leeks, shallots, roasted onions, ale, wine, etc. It falls to the artisan to determine which basic bread formulas will best highlight a given set of gourmet ingredients.

HEARTH

The stone floor or deck of an oven is called the hearth.

HYDRATION

The percentage of water relative to the flour in a given formula is referred to as hydration. A biga pre-ferment, for example, has very low hydration, while the hydration of ciabatta dough is quite high.

LAMINATE

Pastries such as croissants and danish are made using a lamination process, wherein yeasted dough is layered with butter, then rolled out and folded, or "turned" multiple times in order to exponentially increase the number of butter and dough layers. The result is a pastry that is rich, buttery, and flaky.

The most important rule to remember during lamination is that the butter must remain cold.

LAMME

The razor used by bakers to slash bread loaves immediately prior to baking is called a lamme.

MAKE-UP

When dough has completed it's fermentation, it is turned out onto the bench where it is cut and weighed for proper size, given a pre-shape, a rest, a final shape, and then either placed on peels or in pans.

MALT

Malting is the process of sprouting seeds. When barley is malted it releases very strong enzymes capable of reducing starch into sugar; this is called "diastatic action". Malt is available in diastatic and non-diastatic varieties, yet discretion must always be exercized as all malt contains some enzymes. Too much malt will slacken any dough.

MIXING

Professionals refer to kneading dough as mixing.

OVEN SPRING

When bread dough is placed in the oven the yeast cells warm and begin to metabolize faster, creating a push of carbon dioxide gas within the loaf. This sudden expansion of the loaves is known as oven spring.

PAR-BAKE

Artisan breads may be "par-baked", that is, baked at a slightly lower temperature for a shorter amount of time than necessary to be finished. The loaves are thoroughly baked through, however the crust is not colored. The loaves are then wrapped and frozen for future use. When needed, the loaves are placed frozed in a very hot oven to finish the crust. This process allows bakers to make many varieties of breads in large batches, ready in a moment's notice for wholesale and retail.

PEEL

The wooden ( or plastic ) boards that hold shaped loaves while proofing are called peels. The wide wooden board used to rotate and remove breads from an oven is also called a peel.

PICKUP STAGE

The very beginning of the mixing process when the dough is still an inchoate mass is known as the pickup.

PRE-FERMENT

This particular aspect of artisan baking is at the heart of many superb breads, pre-ferments often being used to improve the flavor, crumb, crust and aroma of finished loaves.

The pre-ferment is a technique in which a portion of the formula flour is fermented before being blended into the final mix, where it is fermented again. Thus all of the flavors and benefits of extremely long fermentation times are present, while the drawbacks of overfermentation are absent.

The following is a list of the more common pre-ferments:

BIGA:

This Italian pre-ferment has the very stiff consistency of pasta dough, however a tiny amount of yeast leavens the whole into a very soft sponge overnight. It is used when strength is required, such as in semolina bread.

FLYING SPONGE:

Primarily used for pan breads, this American innovation combines half of the flour with all of the liquid and all of the yeast in a given formula. It is generally allowed to work for an hour or two before all the remaining ingredients are added and mixed. This sponge may also be retarded overnight.

PÂTE FERMENTÉE:

Simply a portion of bread dough from one day's batch allowed to ripen overnight, pâte fermentée is primarily used in bâtards and baguettes. It may be mixed from scratch if necessary.

POOLISH:

Originally from Poland, this French technique uses a variable amount of flour, a miniscule amount of yeast, and water to make a batter. It is fermented anywhere from 4 to 24 hours, 12 hours being average. It is often used in breads such as baguettes.

SOUR SPONGE:

Often used in rye breads, sour sponge is much like a flying sponge with the addition of white or rye sour starter.

SOUR STARTER:

Sour starter, also called liquid levain, is a batter-like culture of flour(s), wild yeasts, and acid-producing bacteria. Dilligence must be used in it's care and feeding in order to bring out it's natural tartness without bitterness or excess enzyme buildup. Liquid levaine is often added direcly to the breads it is used in.

Rye starter is a sour starter made with rye flour in place of wheat flour.

PRE-SHAPE

As each loaf is cut from the batch and weighed, it is given a tuck in order to orient it's gluten strands in the direction of the final shape. This makes shaping easier to accomplish without tearing the skin of the dough.

PROOF

After dough has been cut, weighed, shaped and peeled up or panned, it is then proofed, that is, allowed to rise. The term rise, however, is not used by professionals.

REST

Resting doughs and loaves before final shaping is quite important in breadmaking. As the gluten in the dough rests, it looses some of it's elasticity and gains extensibility, allowing for easier handling and better results.

RETARD

Retarding dough requires that it be refrigerated sufficiently to slow the growth of yeast. Retarding shaped loaves enables the baker to produce breads for baking the next day. Many sourdoughs are retarded as part of their overall formulas, as a better crust develops over time under refrigeration. Some pre-ferments are also retarded both as a way to prepare in advance and improve their overall quality.

RISE

The professional does not use the word "rise", as it can be confusing. Bakers say " ferment" when they mean bulk rising, and "proof " to describe rising loaves.

ROTATE

Breads are rotated, that is, turned and repositioned in the oven in order to ensure even baking.

SALT

Salt plays a decisive role in bread baking. Besides bringing out all of the flavors in breads, it also strengthens gluten. Salt's most important function, however, is it's action on yeast. Salt kills yeast, and in so doing controlls it's growth. This indirectly affects crust color by preventing the yeast from metabolizing too much sugar, allowing for caramelization of the crust to occur.

SCALE

When ingredients are weighed and measured prior to mixing it is referred to as scaling.

SHAPE

Bakers mold dough with their hands into some very specific shapes: bâtard, baguette, boule, pan, roll, etc. Good, proper shaping requires practice and experience.

SLACK

This old bakers term refers to dough that either has super-high hydration ( ciabatta ) or one that overfermented into soft, weak dough, or a dough with too many enzymes ( from malt, or sun-dried tomatoes, or underfed sour starter ).

SOURDOUGH

This classification of breads, also known as levain in France, uses a natural yeast and acid-producing bacterial culture. San Francisco is famous for their sourdoughs due to the acetobacter native to the area. Regardless of where a starter begins, it will eventually be colonized by whatever yeasts and bacteria are native to the place where it resides.

Sourdoughs lend themselves to the addition of many gourmet ingredients.

STARCH

Comprising approximately 90% of wheat flour, starch gives bread it's bulk. It is also responsible for crust flakiness. Stronger flours ( flours with higher gluten content ) have a higher proportion of damaged starch than do soft flours. This is important to know, as yeast metabolizes only damaged starch.

STEAM

Steam injected into an oven full of baking bread gives the loaves a crisp, shiny crust. The white vapor commonly called steam is actually mist; steam is invisible and is extremely dangerous. Care must be exercised when using steam injection.

STRAIGHT MIX

A straight mix refers to doughs with no pre-ferments. All the ingredients of a given formula are simply scaled into the bowl and mixed.

VIENNOISERIE

The branch of artisan baking that pertains to yeast-raised patisserie, most notably croissants and other laminated doughs, is viennoiserie.

WHEAT BRAN

Wheat bran is the outside layer of the wheat kernel, and is used to add nutrition and flavor to some breads. It may also be used to garnish the tops of loaves.

WHOLE GRAIN

All grains are seeds. The whole grains used in baking must contain all the essential parts of the naturally occurring nutrients inherant in the entire seed grain. Some common whole grains used in bread making are: Barley, Corn, Millet, Flax, Oats, Quinoa, Brown Rice, Rye, Wheat Berries and Cracked Wheat, Whole Wheat, and Wild Rice.

WILD YEAST

Natural yeast is everywhere. In fact, the whitish coating found on grapes is actually wild yeast, explaining why crushed grapes spontaneously ferment into wine.

Many artisan breads are made using a sour starter colonized with wild yeasts. These indigenous organisms are incredibly adept at surviving the low pH caused by their acetobacter neighbors also flourishing in the same culture.

YEAST

Central to the art of making bread is the lowly single-celled fungus known as yeast. Many strains of yeast exist in nature, and cultivating a local wild yeast for bread production is central to the art of the craft baker. Commercially available yeasts, also used by the artisan, are strains with particular characteristics that have been isolated and grown in mass quantities by manufacturers.

The various types of commercial yeast available to the baker are actually different strains of the organism. For instance, active dry yeast is not simply a dried version of the fresh cake yeast used by bakers, they are different species.

ACTIVE DRY YEAST:

While this yeast stands up to higher sugar content ( raisin bread for example ), it must first be dissolved in 100 degree water in order to activate it. This extra step makes it difficult to control dough temperatures.

FRESH YEAST:

Fresh cake yeast of good quality is sweet smelling, friable, and free of mold spots. Fresh yeast stands up well to high sugar content, freezes well in doughs, and posesses a demonstrably superior flavor to dry yeasts.

INSTANT DRY YEAST:

Added directly to the mix during scaling, instant dry yeast is sufficient for most applications. However, it does not tolerate high sugar levels very well.

Par-Baking Artisan Breads

  Par-baking bread is a great way to increase variety and still produce exceptional quality. The process, as I use it, is very simple.
  First of all, I only par-bake sourdoughs. They are mixed, given full ferment, then made up, and retarded overnight. The next day they're given a final proof and baked. That is the same as always.
  It is the baking that is a little different. The breads are baked at a slightly lower temperature for a little less time than usual. For instance, plain sourdough normally bakes at 450 for fifty minutes. To par-bake, it is given forty minutes at 400 degrees. Most specialty breads are baked for the same amount of time, but at a slightly lower temperature (375). The crust color is light, but the bread is baked through. The loaves are cooled almost completely, then double wrapped in plastic and frozen, and I can then pull the exact number of loaves I need to finish.
  Finishing is simple. In fact I often use a convection oven set very hot (425-450) for this. I just slide the still frozen loaves off of a peel directly onto the oven racks and bake them for about 10 or 15 minutes.
Done.
  Can I tell the difference between a freshly proofed and baked loaf and a par-bake? Well, yes, I can. Are my customers able to tell? No, probably not. In fact, many of them buy the frozen par's to finish in their ovens at home!

At the Farmer's Market

Son, that's beer bread you're eating. I'm going to need to see some identification.

Timer for Hobart 20Qt Mixer

Apparently, even the Hobart repair guy can't change a mixer's on-off switch from a toggle to a timer, which means there has to be a timer in the mixer's power supply.

Enter the darkroom timer, the kind that was in every high school darkroom before digital photography. It works great: no more listening for the ring of a wind-up timer, the mixer shuts off when the mixing is done with a buzzer you can hear in the next county.

Perfect Baguettes

The best way to move a proofed baguette is on a piece of pine house siding  smoothed with fine sandpaper.

Untitled

I needed more bread pans, the kind that are strapped together in gangs of four or five and are easier to rotate in the oven than singles. And I like used bread pans better than new ones because they're seasoned. That is to say, I like used pans better if they don't look as if they've been hit by a forklift.

So we, Brian and I, made the hour-long trek to my friends bakery equipment warehouse.

"Warehouse," said Brian, as we stepped from the office into the storage area, "It's more like a graveyard."

There were no electric lights turned on; the heaps of tools that first greeted us were illuminated by ambient light. The second thing to greet us was the smell. The sickly sweet odor of rancid fat and mildewing flour permeated the clammy dusk.

Not in the market for small tools we turned left and walked down the center aisle, past the nearly colorless forms of gigantic ovens stacked up two stories high, their doors gaping open, silently keening. Large, complicated machines with uses difficult to understand cluttered the way. When we reached the place where one turns left or right, Brian went to the right, into an area lit by skylights. I turned left.

I was familiar with the place, having been in the old building many times before. It had been built as a boiler factory in the late 1800's, and was now a part of the industrial decay of this nation, filled to the girders with the contents of numberless defunct bakeries. The kind of place to find, say, parts for an antique mixer.

The room I was heading for was completely dark, and I could never remember where the light switch was. There were switches all right, and bare wires sticking out of conduit on the wall, too. Fumbling around, I noticed a small alcove I'd never seen before. A trillion specs of dust hung motionless in the waxy light that leaked through a filthy, ancient window, and as my eyes adjusted to the gloom I saw at my feet stacks of cake pans. They were all prepped, each one with a fluted paper liner inside of it.

I began to ponder this. There they were, all of them ready to be filled with cake batter. So why would pans that were to be taken from a closing bakery be readied for use? What happened that day?

Did the boss come in and say,"Sorry fellas, this is it," at the beginning of the day or the end.

Did the guy who put those liners in there know he was about to become unemployed, or was the shop padlocked when he got to work one morning?

A faint voice called me from the office door, and my friend, the owner, came to where I was and turned the light on for me. I searched for about an hour, and found the pans I was looking for. Back at my shop, I filled the pot sink with hot, soapy water and let the pans soak overnight. The next day I scrubbed them with a stiff brush, rinsed them in hot water and dried them in the oven. After all that, they needed to be seasoned, which I did; even so, bread stuck to them at first.

But after years of use, nothing sticks. There are almost never any surprises.

Bakery for Sale

Just the thing for a young couple starting out. Just the thing for two kids who happen to be bakers. The challenge for us was to turn an ugly old building into something beautiful and functional; the work space is pleasant and sunny, the outside is inviting. But really, the challenge for us was in getting it going, and now we're ready to move on to the next adventure, whatever that is.

(I think for me it's to get my masters and teach cooking in a post secondary school.)

Well, the right people will come along and fall in love with it, growing it into the future.