How to make bread of any size, in any form

I’ve blogged before about my nascent bakery business and the process for putting ingredients in a bread machine. Now I’m going to share the secret formula for bread.

Really.

It’s 3 parts water, 5 parts flour, a little yeast, and a little salt.

That’s it.

What about the punching down and the rising and all that? That’s easy: 2–400. Mix it, let it rise, then “punch it down” (push it into itself). Do this a total of 2 times. Then put it into a 400° F oven until it’s golden brown and delicious.

You now know the Secret Formula. Use small amounts of water and flour for a small loaf, or a lot of water and flour for a large loaf. How much yeast is “a little”? Oh, maybe 2 teaspoons for a large-sized loaf. But it doesn’t really matter that much.

That’s part of the secret: Bread really isn’t as finicky as most people suggest. Keep to that formula, and you’ll have great bread.

What about variations? Fine; just add them to that formula, or replace if it’s similar to an existing item. So, if you want whole wheat bread, just replace some of the flour with whole wheat flour. If you’re adding lemon juice or syrup, count that as part of the water. But if you’re adding seeds or raisins or whatever…just add ’em.

Hey! You can now bake all kinds of bread. Congratulations!

I’m always here to answer any questions you may have, too.

Leave a Reply

I work for Amazon. The content on this site is my own and doesn’t necessarily represent Amazon’s position.