Making bread

you need to apply a thin coating of cooking oil to the inside of the bowl before you place the kneaded dough in it to rise. the dough will dump right out when you're ready.

If the recipe wants it to rise in a bowl, I usually oil or spray the bowl, or else it WILL stick. Sometimes, you can put it on a floured board or sheet and leave it covered with a clean towel to rise.

What did the recipe way and what type of bread was this exactly?

Usually you take a paper towel, dampen it with a tablespoon or two of olive oil and wipe the inside of the boal with it to coat it. Make sure your dough is formed into a ball, drop the ball into the bowl, then turn it over so that the bottom side is up (now it has oil on it) make sure the sides of the dough have a light coating of oil as well. This keeps the surface of the dough elastic and moist, allowing it to rise. Cover the bowl with a towel or if the bowl is over twice the size of the dough ball, then cover the bowl with Saran wrap.

When converting your recipe to a larger quantity, as long as your ratio is consistant, the end result should be the same with out too much of a difference (hey nothing is perfect!).

As for the lack of holes, I'm wondering if you did a second proofing. After you've formed your dough and did a light egg wash, bread is put into a proofer and allowed ferment in a moist, warm enviornment for like 15-20mins prior to baking. This causes the yeast to produce more CO2 and is where the bubbles form inside. I usually achieve this at home with my oven set to 150F with a pot of boiling water sitting on the bottom.

If you want a crusty exterior but nothing too tough, let your bread rest before baking for say 5-10mins and occasionally spray the oven with a mist of water while baking.

Rocio,


There are many, many factors involved in making bread. If you're wanting to change the recipe... size, shape, quantity.... since you're a beginner, I suggest you find recipes that are written to suit your needs. For instance, if you're wanting rolls or smaller portions, find recipes that are written for those results, etc.

The type of yeast you use, the temperature and humidity during rising can affect the number of holes and texture of the bread, etc. Dividing the dough may result in the oven temp and time being too much. Try making different recipes by following them precisely to gain experience and then you'll get a feel for how things should work. Only when you have more experience would I advise altering recipes.

If you're truly interested in trying other bread recipes, look for The Complete Book of Bread by Bernard Clayton, Jr. and Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery : Recipes for the Connoisseur by Nancy Silverton.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...l/-/0679409076
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...l/-/068481174X

Welcome to my world :)

Someone who used to post here (are you still out here TheBigHat?) gave me the best advice when I started baking bread. Go deep before you go wide. Stick with the Basic Bread recipe and bake it over and over again. You will, or you hands more specifically, will come to know what a well made dough should feel like. You'll learn when your dough needs a touch more water or flour because it's a humid or dry day. You'll learn what the dough shuold feel like when it is completely kneaded (your spelling is fine BTW). The smarter your hands are the better your bread will be :)

As to your first efforts, welcome to the door stop club! Most of us began our bread baking with many dense door stop like breads with nearly fossilized crusts. As others have pointed out you need to lubricate the container in which your dough rises for the first time, this is also known as fermentation. The knocking or punching down is a way to release some of the gases that have built up during the first rise. You don't need to beat the dough into submission to do this. I find that just turning the dough out onto the board and dividing it can be enough to degas the dough.

The 10 minute rest allows the dough to relax from the degassing/dividing experience. It also allows the gluten to relax which makes the loaves easier to shape. Once you have shaped your loaves they need to rise again, this second rise is also known as proofing. The loaves need to double in size during this stage. In general, a Basic Bread will need about an hour to double during the first rise and another hour to double during the second. DUring the second rise the dough continues to ferment. The gases that are produced get trapped by the gluten strands that you developed when you kneaded the dough. The expansion of these trapped gases is what causes the bread to tise. If you bake the bread before the loaves have doubled there won;t be any of those nice holes you, and the rest of us, are looking for.

Welcome to bread and keep at it. Please come here as often as you need to with what ever question pops into your head :)