How Do You Make Bread?

Yeast breads look and smell differently from quick breads.

Most breads break down into two categories: yeast and quick breads. Simple yeast breads contain just four ingredients: flour, water, salt and yeast. Richer yeast bread doughs may also contain eggs, butter and other flavor enhancers. Quick breads use baking soda or baking powder to make the bread rise, instead of yeast. Unlike yeast breads, quick breads do not require proofing and shaping; just mixing and pouring.

Things You'll Need

• 3 cup flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 1/4 tsp. yeast
• 1.5 cup lukewarm water
• Mixing bowls
• Stand mixer with dough hook and mixing paddle (optional)
• Plastic wrap
• Half-sheet pan
• Parchment paper
• Wire cooling rack
• 3 overripe bananas
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• Loaf pan

Instructions

French or Italian Bread

1. Mix together 3 cups flour, 1 tsp. salt, 2 1/4 tsp. yeast, and 1.5 cups lukewarm water, either in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment or by hand. If dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour until dough starts to come together into a ball. If dough is too dry, sprinkle in a little more water until dough ball begins forming.

2. Knead dough ball until it is smooth and elastic. Note that this will take longer by hand than in a mixer.

3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap so that it does not get dry. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place, such as your kitchen counter, for at least an hour. Check the dough at that point to see if it has doubled in size; if it has, you are ready to proceed.

4. Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Press the air bubbles out of the dough, then roll it into a long snake with tapered ends to make French bread, or a shorter snake to make Italian bread.

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place shaped bread dough on a piece of parchment paper on a half-sheet pan.

6. Sprinkle French bread dough lightly with flour; spritz Italian bread lightly with a mister bottle filled with water and sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Make five diagonal slashes across the top of the bread to let steam escape and help the bread keep its shape while baking. Cover shaped dough with plastic wrap and let rise again on top of the oven while it preheats, until doubled in size.

7. Bake bread for 20 minutes in preheated oven, or until it sounds hollow when you flip the loaf over and rap it with your knuckles. Loaf should be golden brown. Cool on a rack before serving so the bottom does not get soggy.

Quick Banana Bread

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mash 3 overripe bananas, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup brown sugar together in a bowl, either with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or by hand. Now mash in 1 softened stick of butter, cut into small pieces. Mix until completely combined; then mix 2 eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla extract into this batter.

2. Mix 2 cups flour, 2 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. of salt together in a separate bowl. Pour dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ones a little at a time, stirring each amount into the wet until it disappears completely. Continue mixing until all ingredients are combined and mix is uniformly smooth.

3. Grease and flour your standard loaf pan. Then pour the banana bread batter into the pan.

4. Bake the banana bread in your preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in several places toward the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before cutting and serving.

Tips & Warnings

• Banana bread tastes best when it is made with bananas with skins that have turned very brown. They should look like you wouldn't want to eat them before you peel them. When you peel them, they should be soft and mushy, but not oozing. They should also smell very sweet. Don't try to make banana bread with green, or underripe, bananas -- it won't taste very good.

References

• "The Bread Bible"; Rose Levy Beranbaum; 2006
• "The Professional Chef (Eighth Edition)"; The Culinary Institute of America; 2006

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish