Bread-baking tips from the pros

Jeff Cleary began baking bread in Pennsylvania where he ran his first bakery out of an old train station at the age of 15. In Denver, he saw a need for good breads in the growing restaurant scene and launched Grateful Bread to be the top choice of the city’s best chefs, before adding a retail component.

“With cooking, you can improvise and substitute ingredients, change things on the fly,” said Cleary. “Baking is formulabased, and if you alter the formula it usually doesn’t work out. It’s rare to get bread right the first time you try, and it takes years to develop a feel for all the variables and how they work together.”

Cleary’s top tips for home bakers:

• Use a kitchen scale vs. measuring cups for true accuracy • Take notes when you bake so you can repeat successful results • Patience! Good baking can’t be rushed • Practice, practice, practice • High altitude has greater impact on quick breads like banana bread, but you may need to increase water, reduce yeast and/or shorten proofing time when baking breads in Colorado

Steve Redzikowski is the chef/owner of Denver restaurants Acorn and Brider and Boulder’s Oak at Fourteenth, and is a 2017 finalist for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Southwest region. Redzikowski chose Grateful Bread’s country sourdough to serve at Acorn as table bread, diced and toasted in a summer tomato panzanella salad as well as savory bread puddings served with chicken.

“Bread is one of the hardest things to get right because of all the little touches in the process,” said Redzikowski. “It’s simple in that it’s just flour, water and a starter or yeast. Seems like something with so few ingredients should be easy, but it’s not!

“I’m from New York, and I love a good golden brown crusty sourdough that doesn’t look like it came out of a machine. Everyone eats with their eyes first.”

Redzikowski’s tips for home bakers:

• Get good at just a few breads; don’t try to make them all at once • The temperature in your kitchen will impact proofing time; watch the dough