There is nothing like a warm slice of fresh homemade bread served with a thick pat of butter on top, right? Well, then here is a quick and simple step-by step guide to bake a perfect bread at home.
Gather all the ingredients
Assemble all the basic ingredients required for simple bread such as granulated sugar, flour, instant or active dry yeast, warm water, salt, and vegetable or canola oil. You can buy organics online for best quality nutritional yeast.
Activate yeast and add other ingredients
Activating yeast is a simple process that takes only 5 minutes. Use lukewarm water for the process or you may kill yeast if you use too hot of water. Combine this water with yeast and little granulated sugar, stir it, and let it sit for 5 minutes. Your yeast is activated when it puffs up and covers the entire surface of the water. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until they are well combined for about 2 minutes.
Knead the bread
Take care while kneading bread dough, as its crucial to ensure its great texture, which enables the dough to become lighter and fluffier. You can knead using a mixer or by hand for round 7-11 minutes.
First rise
Place your bread dough in an oiled bowl and cover it with a plastic wrap or a clean towel to trap hot air inside. If you live in cooler areas, your bread will take longer to rise. So, you can turn the oven on for 2-3 minutes, and let the dough rise in there.
Punch and shape dough
You should quickly punch down the dough to release any air pockets that have developed and make your bread fluffier with a better texture. Now shape your dough by rolling it gently into a ball and rolling it several times to give the ball your desired shape.
Second rise
You can do your second rise in a warm oven that’s not turned on. This takes about 30 minutes and helps shape your loaf of bread.
Bake your homemade bread
Baking bread takes about 30-40 minutes and reaching this step means you’re nearly there. To further ensure that your bread is perfectly cooked, you can also use a digital cooking thermometer to maintain the temperature at 190-200 degrees Fahrenheit for a fully cooked bread.
If your bread recipe includes milk, you will need to cook it until 200 degrees, else 190 degrees is perfect bread at home. You can also make sure that the bread is completely cooked when its top layer turns golden brown.
Cool the bread
After baking, cool the baked bread for around 10-15 minutes in a pan, and then overturn the pan to get the bread loaf out onto a cooling rack or folded towel to accelerate cooling. However, don’t leave the bread in the pan for much longer than that as it may lead to some parts of your loaf become soggy.
Conclusion
So, now that you have read about a quick and simple recipe for homemade bread, try it today! You can also add your favourite flavours to make it more delicious.
