Some general notes on our bread recipes

Appears in

Published 2014

We always use strong white flour.
We use fine table salt.
All your ingredients should be at room temperature.
The water can be lukewarm.
I prefer to use fresh yeast. My friend and colleague Bridget says it’s easy to obtain in the real world by walking up to the bakery counter in any large supermarket or bakery and asking to buy some. However I have given dried yeast measurements and methods as well, just in case.
I always preheat the oven to a high setting when I am preparing the dough. It brings the kitchen temperature up closer to Middle Eastern levels and helps the dough to rise nicely. Considering the price of electricity, though, you may just want to prove the dough in a nice warm place until it’s ready to bake.
It’s hard to give exact timings for proving dough as there are so many variables, from the temperature of the ingredients and the room, to the moisture in the air to the freshness of the yeast. As a general rule, however, the dough in each of the following recipes should take between one and a half to three hours at each proving stage.
There are a few ways to judge if your dough is proved:
- - It will have more or less doubled in size.
- - It should be soft but firm and bounce back when you touch it.
- - It should retain its shape, but just be bigger and more taut.
Make sure the oven is heated to the correct temperature before you put your bread in to bake.
Once baked, bread is best cooled on a rack, to allow steam to escape from underneath.