Friday, May 30, 2008

COOKING 101

I sure regret not taking a cooking class while in college! But any rate I am slowly learning. I have a few questions for you.

1. Are there different types of wheat flour? Light and hard wheat flour?

2. What is the deal with oiling the bowl to rise dough in? Sometimes it will say to grease the bowl, grease the bowl and flip the dough in it, grease the top of the dough, or nothing,

3. How do you keep your floured surface floured without adding a lot of more flour? It tends to get sticky

4. I read that the deeper bread pans are better for wheat bread. I am attempting soon to make homemade wheat bread for our sandwiches. I have a recipe that makes 6-7 loaves.

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

Hi! I've been reading your blog for awhile--we are homeschoolers and I'm so interested in seeing what other hsers are up to! :o)

I'm an amateur bread maker myself, but I might be able to help with your questions. I would suggest that you check out the King Arthur Flour website, this page in particular: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/tips/bread-machine-ingredients.html for information on the different types of wheat.

I think the reason sometimes they have you flip the dough or oil the top is to make sure that whatever you cover it with while rising doesn't stick to the dough. My recipe doesn't call for that, and I've never had a problem.

I lightly flour the kneading surface, and add a sprinkle (maybe a teaspoon or so at a time) if it gets sticky. If it is sticky, that's an indication that you need more flour/the dough is too wet. I'm in Florida, where it is overly humid, so I find myself having to add a bit more flour than called for. I will also flour my hands lightly before handling the dough. You want the dough to be smooth and elastic, not sticking to your hands or the counter.

I've not heard that about the deeper pan--maybe that's suggested b/c wheat bread sometimes doesn't rise as high? I use regular pans, with no problems.

Here's another tip for you--place an empty loaf pan (or other type of metal pan--I use a T-fal casserole dish) in the oven beside or underneath your bread. Fill the empty pan about half full with boiling water (full enough that it won't evaporate totally during baking). The moisture in the oven from this will give your bread a nice crust.

Rachel said...

Thanks for your comment on my blog. I don't know alot about baking bread. I tried last summer and it was all terrible. But check out some of this women's posts and feel free to ask her your questions: http://agardenofblessings.
blogspot.com/

Good luck. I can't wait to see and hear about your bread.