Tag: bread

  • Slashing

    Slashing is a bakery term which refers to slashing the top of the dough with a very sharp knife or razor blade. This is crucial – a blunt knife simply won’t do the job properly. As well as giving the bread an attractive appearance, historically – in the days of communal ovens – it was…

  • Knead

    Kneading is the process of working dough, especially bread dough, to speed up the development of gluten to turn the dough into a firm and more workable mass. Kneading isn’t necessary – there are plenty of no-knead recipes.  Given enough time and water, the proteins in wheat flour will do this for themselves. Kneading is…

  • Burst

    When bread loaves are first put in the oven to bake, they swell rapidly. This is known as oven spring. If this has been planned for, eg by slashing the top with a lame or sharp knife, it can give the loaf an attractive design. However, a rupture, or random burst, could look unattractive so…

  • Autolyse

    Autolyse is a term for bread baking technique of mixing the flour and water together and leaving it to rest before adding the other ingredients, such as yeast and salt. This simple technique is said to improve the structure of the bread as well as to make mixing and kneading easier. Professor Raymond Calvel, a…

  • Panettone

    Panettone is a type of sweet bread loaf which originated in Milan, Italy. It’s often found at Christmas, New Year and other celebrations in Southern Europe and Latin America. It’s pictured on the left above, with stollen on the right. Panettone takes a long time to make as the dough is cured, in a process…

  • Baguette

    A baguette is a long, thin loaf of bread. It’s commonly known in English as a French stick. It’s made from a lean type of dough which is defined by French law. The dough traditionally contains wheat flour, water, yeast and salt. Some baguettes are made by using a ‘poolish’ – a starter dough to…

  • Bagel

    The bagel, also spelt beigel, is a bread product which originated in the Jewish communities of Poland.  Traditionally, it’s made of a yeasted wheat dough shaped into a ring, which is first boiled and then baked. These days some bagels are steamed before baking, thus eliminating the boiling stage. This process results in a dense,…

  • Ciabatta

    Ciabatta is a type of Italian white bread which includes olive oil as one of its ingredients.  It was first created in Verona in response to the popularity of the French baguette. Literally, the name means ‘slipper’ as it was named by Francesco Favaron, the original baker, who thought its shape looked like his wife’s…

  • Soda bread

    Soda bread is a variety of quick bread traditionally made in a variety of cuisines in which sodium bicarbonate is used as a leavening agent instead of yeast.  Irish soda bread in particular is very popular in Britain as well as Ireland. It also uses very few ingredients, ie flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, and…