Bread 101

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Bread 101

Bread 101

By Suzanne Pépin

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Suzanne Pépin

http://labelleaurore.wordpress.com/

Bread 101

Suzanne Pépin

Bread 101 This book was made following the publication of one post entitle ‘Bread 101’, published September 2011, on La Belle Aurore blog

Copyright 2011 © by Manuel Passion design Publish in China

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Bread 101

Suzanne PĂŠpin

Table of Contents Ah, this is going to be a longggggggggggggg post! .................................................................................... 4 I use instant dry yeast. ............................................................................................................................. 5 Wait until the yeast comes back to life, ................................................................................................... 6 Add the salt. ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Now, I am working the dough outside the bowl, ...................................................................................... 8 So far so good, you are still with me here? .............................................................................................. 9 Gather the dough outside the bowl, ...................................................................................................... 10 You see, the dough is ready now to be divided or else, .......................................................................... 11 A kitchen scale is very important in making bread. ................................................................................ 12 Here we go, my two unbaked dough, .................................................................................................... 13 Put the timer on here, do not second guest. .......................................................................................... 14 Here we go, plain and simple, nice bread............................................................................................... 15 The ingredients: .................................................................................................................................... 15 Using the same recipe, here are other breads I have already made:............................................... 16 About the author ................................................................................................................................. 17

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Bread 101

Suzanne Pépin

Ah, this is going to be a longggggggggggggg post!

‘Bread 101’; because I would just love everybody to try their beautiful hands at making breads… Pretty Please???

I mean, since we all love eating bread (people that I know anyway, excluding myself), and that we cannot, for the life of ourselves, stay away from this motherly food, why not to learn how to make our own, one healthy bread, that we can control the ingredients to our likes here, and not to end up with a tons of chemicals in each slice.

If bread is our enemy on our hips but we cannot live without it, may as well become friends with it, right?

So I came up with tons of photos, taken by little me, to ‘plug and play’ the concept of making bread!

I am starting with photos, step by step on how to make bread, and then, the main recipe is at the end of this blog.

For now, have a nice glass of wine, sit back and roll down the page…, and when you are done, and teased enough, try it.

Get white flour. I got a regular one, here in Shenyang, China, at Isetan food store.

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Bread 101

Suzanne PĂŠpin

I use instant dry yeast.

Any kind will do as long as the expiration date on the package is not overdue, ok? Very important.

Spray the yeast over lukewarm water (heat the water on the stove, your tea kettle, etc...). I use bottle water and not tap water, understandably considering my location on this planet.

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Bread 101

Suzanne PĂŠpin

Wait until the yeast comes back to life, with this lovely warm water it sits on. If there is no sign of living soul, do not continue with this process, start all over again, maybe using a new yeast?

Once the yeast has double in size in the mixing bowl, add the white flour to it, just like that, no fuss please!

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Bread 101

Suzanne Pépin

Add the salt.

Do not cut back on the salt as it is a question of chemistry here with the rest of the others ingredients, and do not ask me for explanation because I do not know.

Mix all the ingredients together, by hands, of course, because making bread is all about feeling and passion. You need to feel it. As the years go by, I make bread with my ‘kitchen mixer’ but that is another story…

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Bread 101

Suzanne Pépin

Now, I am working the dough outside the bowl, listening and waiting for the dough to tell me when it is ready to go to ‘bed’. Add a bit of flour to the surface if the dough keeps on sticky to it.

Drop the dough in a well greased bowl, cover with a plastic sheet, and let it rise until double in size from the original size.

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Bread 101

Suzanne Pépin

So far so good, you are still with me here?

Ok, look now, the dough has double in size and is saying to me: ‘Come to play with me’. Ok as much it would be very tempting to leave this dough by itself and let it rise and rise to the sky, you have to stop it from going over the board so the yeast still keeps some muscle for the final product.

Using your fist, punch the dough down, and it will remove the air inside the dough, bringing the dough down.

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Bread 101

Suzanne PĂŠpin

Gather the dough outside the bowl, and work it out, back and forth, with your bare hands, until it is no longer sticky and has a very nice glow to the surface of the dough. Add a bit of flour here, now and then, but not too much please.

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Bread 101

Suzanne PĂŠpin

You see, the dough is ready now to be divided or else, depending what final product you want to obtain (pizza, little breads, etc‌). Here I am dividing the dough into two equal portions to have two breads.

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Bread 101

A kitchen scale is very important in making bread.

I got mine at ‘Metro’, here in Shenyang, but they are almost everywhere.

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Suzanne Pépin

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Bread 101

Suzanne Pépin

Here we go, my two unbaked dough, sitting nicely side by side, on a parchment piece of paper. Cover them with a piece of plastic sheet, just barely covering, and nothing too tight here. They are about to double in size. Once they have reached the ‘double in size’ phase, remove the plastic sheet very gently, brush each top of each bread with a egg yolk, being very careful not to disturb the rising of each one of them. Turn your oven on, let it reach the desire temperature and put the bread pan in the oven, using the middle shelf, not the top one, as the breads will rise again.

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Bread 101

Suzanne PĂŠpin

Put the timer on here, do not second guest.

If the recipe is asking for 20 minutes so it is 20 minutes. Pay attention to your nose‌, and as soon as the smell of sweet bread is disturbing whatever you are doing, your bread is getting closer to the finish line.

The top and the bottom of your bread should be baked nicely, with a very nice brown golden color to it.

Remove the breads from the pan, and let it cool completely before to dare to cut it.

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Bread 101

Suzanne Pépin

Here we go, plain and simple, nice bread.

Now this is the basic recipe. To this one, it becomes endless…, depending of each taste and so on… I wish you happy bread making.

The ingredients: 550g flour 355ml water 30ml olive oil 3 tablespoons of instant yeast 1 teaspoon of salt 2 tablespoons of sugar Oven 375F, 30 minutes

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Bread 101

Suzanne PĂŠpin

Using the same recipe, here are other breads I have already made: Little salad bread Everything but the kitchen sink kind of bread Chocolate breakfast bread

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Bread 101

Suzanne Pépin

About the author Suzanne Pépin moved from Québec, Canada to China at the beginning of 2011 with 4 suitcases and her Canon EOS Rebel T1i.

Prior to China, she was living the intrepid life of an expatriate spouse in Mexico for four years.

Soon after the move to Mexico, her passion for photography and food developed into publishing her first book in 2007: La Belle Aurore, from Mothers to Daughters, a collection of family recipes.

There was never a day off without cooking something in her kitchen. With that love for creativity, she developed a love affair with photography, which she incorporated in her second book: Notebook of a soapmaker on a budget, produced in 2009.

That collection of 35 handmade soaps was done with the project of SoFoBoMo* 2009, her first one.

In 2010, Suzanne produced her second SoFoBoMo* book entitled: Spain sings to me, a collection of photos taken during her month vacationing in Spain in the summer of 2010.

During that time in 2010, a second book of photography was produced for SoFoBoMo* : Postcards to me, because she was on a roll and decided to make a book on postcards that she has sent to herself during her trip to Spain.

That book is more a collection for her than anything else, just a fun way to produce and to keep memories at bay. Sweet for the heart was her third book Suzanne did for SoFoBoMo* in 2010. She had time on her hand and she was enjoying her new camera so much that anything that would touch her heart, a photo would be taken.

Since 2007, Suzanne maintains her blog at labelleaurore.wordpress.com. Her books can be view and download here, at http://issuu.com/suzannepepin.

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Bread 101

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