Baking bread: Tips and trade secrets from Edmonton bakeries
CBC News | Posted: June 20, 2020 3:00 PM | Last Updated: June 20, 2020
Bakers dish on loaves from simple no-knead dough to a super-slow sourdough
The smell of warm, freshly-baked loaves has wafted through many households during the pandemic as people around the country learned the craft of making bread.
Once the isolation craze took off, flour flew off grocery-store shelves and sourdough starters were shared among friends.
Over the past couple weeks, CBC Edmonton's Radio Active spoke to some of the city's top bakeries to get their tips and inside secrets on baking everything from pizza dough to gluten-free bread.
The classic white loaf
Laura Rogerson of Breadlove teaches baking classes, and posted a video online during the pandemic of how to make a super simple loaf of white bread.
She recommends using a scale instead of cups and spoons to measure out ingredients.
"It takes into account any variables with different ways of scooping out your flour, and weights of flour. It's a very low cost way to elevate the level of your bread making," Rogerson told CBC's Radio Active.
It's a no-knead recipe, and Rogerson said it's more about time-management than complicated steps.
While she encourages people to give making bread a shot, Rogerson is looking forward to selling her loaves again.
"I feel like when somebody buys a loaf of my bread, that I'm joining them at their dinner table," she said.
"It's a way of connecting; there's nothing more evocative than the smell of bread making."
Sourdough
Yvan Chartrand of Bonjour Bakery in Strathcona said when it comes to making sourdough, you need to be "a little bit passionate, or a little bit crazy to do all that work."
While the ingredients may be a simple mix of flour, water and salt, the process takes time.
"It takes three days, basically, to make one loaf of bread," Chartrand said. It takes a full 24 hours to make the sourdough, another day to mix the dough and allow it to slowly proof, or rest and rise, and then, on the third day, it's baked.
There are three secrets to baking the perfect loaf of bread according to Chartrand. "The first secret is temperature, the second is temperature and the third, I'm going to let you guess."
From the water, to the room, to the oven, temperature is key in making sure your sourdough comes out exactly the way you want it.
"Baking is an art and a science. Where the science comes in is when you want to reproduce it," Chartrand said.
"Google baker's math, or baker's percentage. It's simple mathematics, but it's quite important to have consistent results."
Ezekiel bread
Barb Lockert from Barb's Kitchen Centre is a big fan of Ezekiel bread, which usually contains whole millet, wheat, barley, pinto beans, green lentils, even soybeans and rye kernels.
"It tastes just delicious, a little bit of a nutty flavour," Lockert said. "And the texture, if you knead it well enough, it will look like 100-per-cent whole wheat."
Lockert said it's simple to make and also freezes nicely. She typically puts the dough into a regular loaf pan, but it can also be done in a souffle dish for a round shape or free formed onto a baking sheet.
Honey or molasses also adds a nice sweet flavour to Ezekiel bread, Lockert said.
Nut and seed bread
Todd Barraclough of Brio Bakery is a pro at adding nuts, seeds and even fruit to bread for a tasty twist.
Barraclough recommends using a traditional yeast bread as a base when you're starting to experiment. White bread flour in particular has stronger gluten to support the additions.
"If you're going to add seeds and nuts … add it in small increments and as you go along you'll start feeling if that looks good," he said. "A lot of people will add the whole kitchen all at once and you'll get a disappointing end result."
Bakers should wait until the mixture becomes a stronger dough before adding nuts, seeds or fruit in. Don't include more than 15 per cent of your dough weight in other ingredients.
"You just want to gradually add it in and make sure you get it evenly distributed," Barraclough said. "You want to be gentle … and then you'll have great results."
Gluten-free bread
Teresa Anderson from Gluten Free Kob is a gluten-free bread specialist.
She got into gluten-free baking when she and her son were diagnosed with Celiac disease.
"It took me a couple years of trial and error ... when you don't have gluten that holds it all together, you can have a crumbly product," she told Radio Active. "Probably 20 or more different recipes before I got it right."
For gluten-free bread, there has to be something to bind all the ingredients together. Anderson said chia or flax concoctions can help to make the bread moist and not crumbly, but it's important to follow the recipe.
"Whether you're Celiac or not, you would enjoy the texture and taste," she said.
If you want a guide to learn more about gluten-free bread baking, Anderson has been teaching online classes during the pandemic.
Pizza dough
Breadlove's Laura Rogerson joined Radio Active for the final segment of the bread column with a crowd favourite: pizza dough.
"Even if people aren't eating a lot of sweets and other breads, you can always get a reaction when you put homemade pizza in front of somebody," she said.
Rogerson's go-to recipe is: 500 grams of flour, 1 gram of yeast, 16 grams sea salt and 350 grams of cold water. Mix it up and then let it sit for 12 hours until it has doubled in size, then you shape the dough into balls.
"This recipe makes a beautiful, thin, crispy crust, similar to a Neopolitan pizza. The beauty of it is that it is super simple," Rogerson said.
It can also be kept in the fridge for a week.