Not sure about a "jar bead", but would really love to learn and become proficient in bread making. Would you care to start a thread about breads you make, technique you use. Basically a "master class thread" on bread making. The books I have I have I think are just too smart for me, or am too stupid for them. Need somebody explain to me in a simple, simple language.
Thank you in advance.
Don't put yourself down, CharleyD - many bread books out there were written for advanced bakers, and with all of the references to gluten %, extraction %, starch damage, enzymes, pH, and other bread science, it can be intimidating starting out, for sure. Simply put, bread is one of those things that's easy to make, but difficult to master.
Something that sounds strange, but makes sense, after you think about it, is that the simpler breads - the white breads - are the ones that are the hardest to perfect. Getting the best flavor takes longer, multiple risings, as a rule. When I first started baking (in the 70s), most books had recipes to speed up the bread (with heat, and/or more yeast) which I found out early on, did not improve flavor. That no-knead method uses a long rise, with a small amount of yeast, and produces a good bread, but my favorites are still the ones with the
pre-ferments, which are small portions of dough or batter, allowed to develop flavor, before using it to make the rest of the dough.
Things like rye bread are actually easier to make, in that you have a lot of other flavors in them -
A sour, or well fermented rye is good (sourdough, that's another thing!), and it's hard to get too sour, but even if it doesn't have much sour flavor, the other flavors will be there. You won't get a bland tasting homemade rye, unless you leave the salt out! This is something I learned by accident, early on - never leave the salt out of bread! It's like leaving the salt out of pasta water - we've all done it, and know it immediately upon tasting it!
The gluten is one aspect of the science of bread baking you need to know, and probably already do. This is what gives bread its elasticity, and high gluten (14%) bread flour is needed in pizza dough, as well as when you want to make rye bread, or other breads with low or no gluten flours. This is also good for those no-knead recipes - the higher gluten will be better activated, with the less movement of the dough.
All purpose flour has between 8 and 11% gluten, usually from 9-10%.
So what kinds of bread are you interested in making, CharleyD? And do you have a KA mixer, or some other brand with a dough hook? One thing that a mixer is best for is sticky dough. It's hard to knead a dough with high hydration by hand - it can be done, but it's messy!
Warning: it's easy to get addicted to homemade bread! Early on, I was making it to save money, when I was in school, but quickly learned how much better it was. I still haven't bought a loaf of bread since 1976! Well, I did buy some on the way over to my mother's a few times, but I told her I had to put a brown bag over my head, so nobody would recognize me. She didn't appreciate the humor in that.
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