Bread baking course

was quite fun. From 1 to 6pm, fairly fast paced. Did 3 kinds of bread. Black Pepper cheese loaves, cranberry walnut bread, and rosemary foccacia.

Too fast for me to take coherent notes. Let's see what I recall... (hope I remember it right)

1. internet recipes call for "warm water" for yeast. In fact, in Singapore climate, tap water is just fine. In some cases, if you are strongly kneading the dough, or by hand, you might even want cold water because the kneading adds heat.
2. Kneading is to create a strong dough so that when the gas from yeast expands, it creates softer bread.
3. Breads with preferment tend to be tastier, but more chewy - the "Ang Mo" breads.
4. You can knead a bread intensively to make it in a shorter time, or you can just leave it for a few days to develop (less or minimal kneading). The end result is to get a bread that when you slowly pull it apart, it stretches till you see a thin membrane, rather than breaking.
5. For our local situation, a half bread flor and half AP flour (all local) seems ideal.
6. Sugar tends to make bread soft. Western breads have little sugar, so are more chewy.
7. Salt tends to control the growth of yeast, so bear that in mind.
8. Typical mixture : flour, 60-70% water, 1-2% salt, 0.5 to 2% yeast (depending on how long you are going to develop the dough).

Typical sequence

1. measure all ingredients accurately.
2. knead with or without preferment till developed.
3. shape (at this stage add in additional ingredients).
4. proof
5. Bake