Add a fat pinch of sugar to feed the yeast. Mix in the yeast. Set it aside. In minutes, you should see lots of small bubbles. Proceed with the recipe. Time to start with new yeast! Let it stand until you see plentiful foaming, about 5 — 10 minutes. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Don't use anything fuzzy unless you plan to eat that fuzz—it will stick to the bread.
Using rice flour although plain old AP flour will work fine, just go a little heavier , brush the towels with a light-to-medium coating of flour. We don't want to go too light or the loaves will stick; too heavy and we'll be eating clumps of burnt flour off our crusts.
Place the towels in the proofing baskets or bowls and go about your business. We're making what's called a boule: a big, round loaf. That means that our final shape will be the same as our pre-shape.
We know our loaves are ready for final shaping when giving a gentle tug on the rounds shows some stretch and does not immediately pull back. Take a look:. Once our dough has shown us that it's ready to be shaped, flip the rounds so the seam side is now facing up again, and once again perform the folds listed above, gently developing tension along the rounds' surface.
Use flour to keep the dough from sticking to you and the bench, but not so much that the dough won't stick to itself. Too much flour will keep our seams from holding, or will show up as clumps of unincorporated flour after baking. It's best to just flour your hands and scrape underneath the loaves with your bench knife to prevent sticking. Once you've folded your dough appropriately, cup your hands together and pull the dough towards you to generate tension along the boule's exterior, rotating the boule a quarter turn between pulls.
Like with the pre-shape, we want to use as few motions as possible. If the dough surface begins to rip, you're pulling a little too hard. It's not a disaster. Just stop. Remember: We're proofing our boules in round containers. All the little imperfections will smooth out there. Even more to the point, shaping bread isn't fine art.
We're going to eat it. Shaping is about tension and structure, not aesthetic perfectionism. Let the rounds rest seam-side-down for just a minute or so to make sure the seam holds together. Then, using your bench scraper with a quick, firm motion, flip the boules carefully into the baskets, making sure the seam side is facing up.
What's facing up in the basket will become the bottom of our loaves once they're baked. Cover the boules in the baskets with towels and place them in the fridge, where they will undergo their final fermentation, or final proof.
During this time, the loaves should nearly double in size. Proofing our loaves in the fridge also called retarding will slow down their final rise, giving our loaves more flavor. Also, retarding loaves during their final proof makes them easier to handle and score before baking, which will improve the crumb, crust, and appearance of our baked loaves.
And with that, it's time to begin preheating our ovens and talk about how to bake all of this hard work into something beautiful. But that conversation will have to wait until our next installment, which will be all about baking and scoring. Happy proofing everyone!
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Pin Share Email. Simple Crusty White Bread Recipe. Featured Video. Read More. Yeast is a leavener that you add to dough to make it rise as it bakes. No matter what form your yeast comes in — active dry yeast, instant or rapid-rise , or fresh yeast — it needs to multiply and grow in a sympathetic environment.
The correct environment includes moisture, food in the form of sugar or starch , and a warm, nurturing temperature. Before you bake with active dry yeast or fresh yeast , you must test it first to make sure the yeast is alive. The act of testing to see if yeast is alive is called proofing.
Proofing rapid rise or instant yeast is not recommended. How to Proof Yeast. You don't need to dissolve active dry yeast in lukewarm water before using it. Even though it still says you should dissolve it on the back of the yeast packet, if you buy your yeast in packets.
Proofing yeast — or as it used to be called, "proving" yeast — serves as proof that your yeast is alive and active. And how, exactly, do you do this?
After 10 minutes, the mixture should be bubbly. I actually never proof yeast. Yeast dissolved in warm water with sugar on the left; same yeast, 20 minutes later. It only had a few small bubbles after 10 minutes, but 20 minutes did the trick.
So, bottom line: dissolve yeast in warm water with a bit of sugar to prove that it's alive. This shouldn't really be necessary if the yeast isn't close to its expiration date; and if you purchased it from a store with decent turnover.
However, if you have any doubts about your yeast being good, go ahead and proof it. But dissolve active dry yeast before using it — just because? No need. Add ADY to the bowl right along with the rest of the dry ingredients; your bread will rise just fine. My fellow blogger, MaryJane, said I should let you know that if you want to dissolve your active dry yeast before using it, go right ahead. She's right: no problem with dissolving it, if that's the way you've always done it and want to continue.
PJ bakes and writes from her home on Cape Cod, where she enjoys beach-walking, her husband, three dogs, and really good food! I am making a large batch of dough for pizza crusts. The recipe calls for 1kg of flour and g of water. I am using active dry yeast. Should I activate the yeast in a smaller amount of water or should I activate in the full amount of water? If I activate in a smaller amount first, would I add this to the flour and then the remaining water? And should that water also be degrees?
Hi Mike, these days active dry yeast and instant yeast are formulated very similarly and we say that you can add the active dry yeast right in with the flour without activating it first, but it certainly won't hurt to activate or proof your yeast in a small amount of lukewarm water before adding it into the mix, which will get it off to a quicker start.
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