What I tell them is that it’s actually pretty easy to fit baking bread into a busy schedule and that no special abilities are needed. It requires a bit of forethought (which admittedly can be challenging), but the actual work involved is minimal. Once the dough comes together, you spend most of the time sitting back and letting your dough do the work while you do something else. Even so, from start to finish can be several hours, and often enough, you don’t want to be stuck at home waiting to see if it’s time to punch down your dough, or if it’s doubled in size yet, or finally just baking it. Spring is here after all, and weekend time is precious! Fortunately, with a few tricks (none of which require any new equipment) you can easily work baking bread into your schedule.
Making your own bread only seems like some sort of alchemy: bread, water, salt, and yeast somehow transformed into one of the most essential of foods. But it’s not magic. It just comes down to understanding one basic principle about how yeast, your essential partner in this process, behaves. And the good news is that yeast is not a complicated, high-maintenance creature: it’s simply more active when it’s warm, and less active when it’s cold. The more active it is, the faster your dough rises. What’s more, only a slight increase in temperature can have an exponential effect on yeast’s activity: raising the dough’s temperature by a few degrees can have a dramatic effect.
So: if your dough is rising too slowly, just warm it up. If your dough threatens to grow all over your countertop before you can even pre-heat the oven, Strega Nona style, cool it down.
Once you understand this principle, you can use it offensively as well as defensively to speed along what is called the “fermentation” process.
If you know your house runs cool, for instance, you can plan to use one of the methods above to make sure you aren’t waiting around forever for your dough to rise. Baking books often assume you are in a warm kitchen (because, after all, that’s the environment bakers operate in), and their rising times can therefore be much faster than you’d get at home. In other words, if your dough isn’t rising, it’s probably needs more time or more warmth.
Or, say you’d like to make some bread, but you are going to be gone all afternoon, way too long to leave your dough out–hit the pause button by popping it in the refrigerator while you’re away. You don’t have to be trapped at home for six hours to tend to it. Or maybe you’d like to have fresh baked bread or rolls for a brunch, but getting up at 4am to start the dough doesn’t exactly sound like the ideal way to kick off a lazy Sunday with friends? Mix up your dough the night before (or even two days before), park it in the fridge overnight, then continue in the morning. As a bonus, that slow fermentation will actually bring out more flavor in your dough–in fact, it’s a classic technique used by artisan-style bakeries.
And you’ll find that homemade bread is far better than than anything you can buy in the grocery store–and notably different in what it’s missing: just honest, straightforward ingredients, no additives, stabilizers, and who knows what else. Understanding how to manage the process and work it into that thing called life means there’s no reason not to fill your home with the inviting, comforting aroma of fresh baked bread.
I always do my bread baking on the weekend. It’s just easier. Great tips. I like the one on the jar of water. My whole kitchen feels like that in the summer.
I mostly bake on the weekend too; because I use sourdough it keeps nearly the whole week!
Haha. Strega Nona brings back my childhood- I totally got the reference.
Great article! I like how you explain that the key is how yeast works.
People sometimes ask me how I have time for bread, and I tell them I bake with sourdough, which is even slower than commercial yeast for rising. I’ve even been able to develop a schedule for making bread late at night, letting it rise six hours overnight, while I sleep, and then baking it after a quick shape and oven-pre-heat.
We love Tomie de Paola, and those illustrations. I can’t wait till my boys are old enough to sit through those stories!
Great article! I’m glad the microwave proofing box tip has proven helpful.
People always ask me how I find time to bake bread. I tell them it’s a matter of making the bread fit into your schedule. Your article explains this beautifully.
Excellent article Sis! I’m so proud and impressed!
Aw shucks. I remember explaining it to you and Marie when we were on the breadbaking chapter in the modern baker!
Great write-up! I usually bake bread on the weekends. I haven’t had the guts to try leaving it in the fridge overnight- the process I have is working and I’m scared to change it- ha! But, I think I’ll give it a try. Thanks for the inspiration.
I recently made baguettes, which I’m posting tomorrow. As you’ll see in my post, I realize that I always get intimidated by the idea of baking bread, but it’s always fine once I just do it! Your bread looks absolutely gorgeous!
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i’m a huge fan of the no-knead recipes which is even less work, though longer time.
My current favorite is a modified version of that–no kneading, but periodic folding–which I discovered when our kitchenaid broke–I blogged about it here: http://threecleversisters.com/2011/02/25/tartine-country-bread-with-recipe/ Since you have to fold it ever half hour or so during the first rise, and then shape and rise it a second time, I often find myself stuffing it in the fridge so I can get other things done!
What a wonderful introduction to the bread-making process! The art of baking can be foreign and uncomfortable for many and you did a terrific job breaking it down to simple bits and pieces.
I am myself still on the journey to making good bread and you’ve definitely cajoled me to delve further. Thanks, Sara!
I’ve just started baking my own bread recently and I love it. My first loaf that rivaled store-bought bread made me so proud! Today I made delicious hot dog buns. Thanks for the tips about slowing and speeding up the rising process. I didn’t know you could leave it in the fridge and start over.
Hi Claire, thanks for visiting our blog and I’m glad you found this post helpful! It is really fun to realize you can make bread that is as good as, and often much better than, storebought. I haven’t made hot dog buns but I have made hamburger buns, and really, there’s no going back is there?
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