by Andrea Reasoner

Created on: June 03, 2010

Bread making can seem like magic at first.  All you need is flour, water, yeast, and salt to make a loaf of white bread  - that’s it!  Just four ingredients and you have a food that has been a staple on kitchen tables for centuries.  Amazing, isn’t it?

The first, and quite possibly the most important, ingredient is the yeast.  Yeast is a living organism that grows and expands with the proper food and that is what makes the bread rise.  In the old days, people used to set out a small bowl of water with some flour or a small amount of the last dough and let it sit somewhere warm for a few days.  That is all you have to do to attract yeast.  Today we usually buy our yeast at the store and put it in warm water with possibly a spoonful of sugar to feed it.  Either way, once the water looks foamy, it is ready to use!      

Next we add the flour.  In bread making, you need a high gluten flour to get a really good texture.  It is the gluten that stretches and holds the bread together.  This is why most gluten-free breads tend to fall apart and are very crumbly.  Without gluten it just isn’t going to stay together.  Bread flour has a high amount of gluten in it already, but if you want to make whole wheat bread or some other grain then you can add one tablespoon of vital wheat gluten for every cup of flour you use in order to get that nice texture.

Salt is added last of all.  This is necessary to stop the yeast from growing.  The salt kills some of the yeast and keeps your loaf of bread from growing too fast or too large.  Once you add the salt, it time to start mixing!

There are other ingredients that are commonly used in bread making to make it more palatable or to lengthen its shelf life.  At the store they will use artificial preservatives and colors to make bread more appealing, but if you are making it at home you have better options.  Many people add  a spoonful of oil to their bread to help keep it fresher longer and to get a better texture in their loaf.  Sugar and honey are also common ingredients.  These are usually added to the water with the yeast to help it grow faster.  It also gives the bread a nice taste!    

Now that you know how bread making actually works, why don’t you try it out at home?  Once you bake that first loaf of freshly baked bread in your own oven, you will wonder how you ever ate store-bought bread for so long.  It’s cheaper, better for you, and tastes amazing!

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