Stages of Bread Making

Lesson Goals

There is something magical about combining the simplest ingredients and kneading them together with your very own hands to create a beautiful, rustic loaf of crusty bread.

No matter what type of bread you choose to make, all yeast breads go through the same main bread making stages. In this lesson, we will walk you through the main bread making stages, using the most basic dough – a lean dough – as our example. Artisinal breads are much more difficult to make and require precise understanding and methodology, which we will get into down the road. The goal with this lesson is to get people baking bread. We are trying to get those people who have never made bread before – which is actually the majority of people out there – to learn how to make bread by hand…from scratch, using the most basic ingredients and equipment (their hands). So, for now, let's start with the basics.

At the end of this cooking school lesson, you will be able to:

• identify the stages of bread making
• make and bake a lean dough
• know how to prepare and mix lean dough using the straight dough method
• knead dough and perform a window pane test
• understand the concept of fermentation
• shape dough into a basic baguette
• understand the concept of proofing
• perform a spring back test
• slash dough and describe why it often is done
• bake bread and test it for doneness
• identify the reasons for cooling bread
• know how to properly store and refresh bread

Prerequisites

• Wheat & Gluten
• How to Make Bread | Basics