You knead to practice if you want to dough things right
Breadmaker’s advice for newbies
Combining just four simple ingredients – flour, yeast, water and salt – can result in an almost endless array of sweet and savoury treats, from baguettes and sourdough loaves to fluffy pancakes and shiny glazed doughnuts.
The age-old process of bread-making, dutifully performed since Biblical times, has always fascinated Jack Sturgess, particularly as the same ingredients, process and recipe can yield such varying results.
“That’s one of the things I like so much about bread – dough does what it wants to do,” explained the professional-chef-turned-breadmaker, who regularly shares his expertise on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch.“it puffs up, ferments and develops flavour all by itself and we, as home bakers, have to try to get the best out of it, helping out along the way.
“It’s like a joint effort between you and the dough.you have to understand what it’s doing, observe and give it time to do its own thing while you do yours.”
Bread, he says, has a mind of its own, so much so that even the most experienced baker can’t be sure what will appear from behind the oven door.
He added: “Every bread can be made out of the same ingredients to exactly the same recipe, altogether in exactly the same room, but everyone’s loaf or ciabatta or sourdough has its own little distinct characteristics. They all come out looking different and that’s because of everybody’s unique way of handling stuff.”
Having made it his mission to help
more people bake amazing bread at home, Sturgess shares detailed tutorials with 200,000 fans on Youtube, holds in-person workshops at his studio in Woking, Surrey, and has now penned a book, bringing together his years’ of hard-earned bread-making knowledge.
Published this week, Bread Every Day: Bake With Jack boasts 30 classic recipes, from loaves, rolls and rye to ciabatta, focaccia and sourdough, as well as 50 dishes that complement the bread – all designed to help novice bakers master bread-making without over-complicated steps.
“I wanted to take the reader on a journey, and I wanted every bread to have a purpose in that journey,” explained Sturgess, who shares recipes on social media under the moniker Bake With Jack.“whether it’s making a wet dough for the first time for ciabatta or focaccia or boiling a bagel, I wanted everything to have a lesson.
“In my classes, we’ve always celebrated the bread and used the time while the bread is resting to make some delicious dishes to go with it, build it up into a meal instead of making, say, a sandwich. So, a lot of the recipes have been the ones that we’ve done over and over in class, while others were made for the first time for the book, which is really cool.”
Although bread-making can be therapeutic, mindful and meditative (“It’s just you in the peace and the quiet, tending to your dough,” admits Sturgess), a poorly risen loaf can make bakers themselves feel a little deflated. So, what are the common mistakes to avoid?
“There’s mistakes on a practical level and then there’s mistakes on an emotional level,” answered Sturgess.“on a practical level, the biggest mistake everybody makes is dusting the table liberally when they are kneading the dough.they do it because it’s written in every single recipe book to knead on a floured surface or to dust the dough to stop it from sticking but it’s actually the
number one cause of people’s bread going wrong.
“When you are kneading bread, you’re waiting for the dough to come together all nice and bouncy and smooth. When you add flour, it will come together but not because it’s kneaded properly. It’ll come together because you’ve added a load of flour to the recipe.the dough then won’t puff up and it will be heavy.”
And on the emotional side, it’s all about adjusting your expectations.
He said: “Don’t expect the perfect sourdough or crusty baguette to emerge from the oven the very first time you make it. I’d love to say to people,‘here is the easy way to make bread’ but, realistically, bread-making is a long process. To get to the perfect result, it takes time and repetition.
“In my mind, as long as you can make a sandwich, make toast or enjoy your bread with family and friends, you’ve won the game.”