An introduction to… Bread
In this third installment of our series on cooking fundamentals, Cat Black moves on to look at bread, a food that is both utterly familiar and yet endlessly diverse.
By Cat Black
Bread, and its creation, is fundamental to food, farming and culture in much of the world. While not the only core staple food – in parts of Asia rice takes that place – it is so synonymous with our ideas around food and being fed, that phrases such as ‘break bread’ and ‘our daily bread’ simply stand for sharing and having food. This symbolism extends even into faith and religion – Orthodox Jewish custom includes the breaking and blessing of bread. In the Christian tradition, bread stands in for the body of Christ, and there are crosses displayed on the top of Easter buns.
The cultivation of wheat to make bread, along with other key grains, is central to the development of agriculture. And therefore, to the settling of humans into communities and place. Cattle can follow if you are nomadic, crops cannot. Bread is woven into communities, cultures and civilisation. It is then no surprise that every culture and cuisine has its bread. There are loaves for every day, loaves for celebration. There are quick loaves to be made with nothing but flour and water, such as Australian Damper. And there are loaves that take days – such as this 60-Hour Sourdough – and that is assuming you already have a mature Sourdough Starter. There is Pumpernickel to top with finely sliced smoked salmon, a Crusty Roll to dip in hot soup, and golden shiny-skinned Brioche to accompany your first coffee of the day.
Whatever time you have, whatever your level of patience or interest, whether you like your bread fluffy and white, or dark and tangy, making your own bread is not only possible but one of the kitchen’s great joys. Fresh from the oven, with no adornment, toasted the next day with a good slathering of quietly melting butter, nothing tastes better than homemade bread.
Once you are underway with your bread-making journey, you will find that you are in very good company. And there are many chefs and food writers ready to spur you on. Take a look at our Bread Bookshelf for further inspiration. Happy baking!
Bread: Core recipes
The world of bread baking is infinite, which can seem a bit daunting if you are a newbie baker. We have a wealth of recipes, and whole books, to get stuck into once you are confident with your baking, or even just to drill down into a particular bread you want to explore. For example, search Challah, to find a host of recipes to try along with reference materials about the egg-enriched Jewish sabbath bread. But to get you started with bread, here are seven core recipes. From the simplest, a quick, yeast-free Irish soda bread, to a basic white loaf, and a basic wholemeal loaf. Sourdough is not just for lockdown, and if you want to start exploring the tangy, complex tastes of wild yeasts and the development of the perfect sourdough crumb, there is a recipe here for that all important starter, and a great sourdough loaf. The world of enriched doughs is epitomised by brioche, that deceptively light, buttery dough, that takes yeast-risen dough into a different, more indulgent world, and tastes of heaven. Take a look around, sniff fresh bread in the air, and if you like what you see explore our other bread collections.
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Adjusting the yield of our recipes is simple and designed to fit your table, whether you are cooking for one or hosting a dinner party. Most recipes in our cookbooks are optimized for four to six servings, but they can easily be scaled by multiplying or dividing the ingredient measurements accordingly. We recommend keeping a close eye on cook times when scaling down, as smaller portions may heat through more quickly, and always seasoning gradually to ensure the flavors remain perfectly balanced as the volume changes.
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