please teach me to make bread at home?

Question

iwould like to make my own loaf bread at home itried many times but it does not become fluffy please help me

Answer 1

I'm glad you asked this question, because I make bread ALL the time -haven't purchased a loaf in years. But, before we get down to a recipe, it is helpful to understand what's going on when we make bread.

Basically, bread is a mixture of flour, liquid and air. What makes it "puff up" is the action of yeast; literally, yeast farts, to tell the truth. And when they do, a teeny bubble of gas is released into the bread dough, which then expands a bit to hold the gas.

What holds the bread together is protein in the flour. "Gluten" as it is called, is a stetchy, sticky stuff that dries out when baked, and so maintains the puffiness of the bread. Sort of like blowing up a balloon then coating it with something that gets hard, then deflating the balloon, OK?

In a way, it is almost impossible to NOT make bread, because most of the action is courtesy of mother nature. In fact, really classy bakeries use yeast that is naturally in the air to make bread -they just sit out the dough long enough for the yeast to drop in and and setup housekeeping.

But, to keep this fun and learn something about the mechanical properties of bread (texture, lightness, etc.) let's start with something that will give immediate results -soda biscuits.

Set your oven for 350.

Get a big bowl. Put in 1/4 cup of cheap WHITE baking flour. Just plain flour -NOT self-rising. Put about a tablespoon of oil in it -any old edible oil like Crisco is fine. Now, gradually add milk -a splash or two at a time, and stir it up. Or use water if you don't have milk -the milk just gives some flavor and a bit more protein. Keep adding milk and stirring until the dough is like very thick icing. If the mix is too wet, add some flour; if too dry, add some milk or water. Use just spoonfuls at a time.

Stir this hard and fast about 100 more times (a wooden spoon is good). What this stirring does is to release the gluten in the flour and make it stickier -so everything holds together better. Now add a teaspoon or two of "double acting" baking powder. Usually comes in a metal can.

"Double acting" means the baking powder will work TWICE. First, when it hits moisture, it will release gas bubbles. THEN, when it gets hot from baking, it will do it again.

Stir in the powder, you don't have to it fast or hard -just thoroughly.

Now, gradually add more flour -a tablespoon or a shake at a time, and stir until the dough gets really tough to stir and becomes sort of rubbery. Now take a handful of flour and spread it lightly around a countertop or a board of some kind. And rub it over your hands, to make them dusty.

Drag the gluey, rubbery glop of dough onto your dusty work surface; this can be a bit messy. Now toss a few fingerfuls of flour on top, and start pushing the pile around and turning it over on your work surface. The idea is to gradually work the dry flour into the mass of dough.

You will notice that, after a while, the outside of the dough will start to be dry -but, if you poke your finger into the mass - it is still sticky. Drag a portion of the mass away from the main mass, and roll it between the palms of your hands. Add more flour so that you can form a tacky ball of it. Yes, you'll have sticky fingers, but the idea is to be able to form a ball, rolling the dough around under increasing pressure between your palm so that most of the dough is in the ball -not on you. Do this with similar size portions from the remaining glob of dough. Let's say you have 3 or 4 balls when done.

Apply some oil (or spray) to a cookie pan (raised edges), and set your balls on it so they have as much space between thmeselves and the raised edges as possible -plenty of room to spread out without touching anything else.

Now, pop those puppies into the oven and watch what happens. In about 15 to 20 minutes, you should have some really yummy dinner rolls. Just lightly browned on top is good. The heat will trigger another release of gas from the soda, which will make the rolls rise. If you've stirred up the dough really well, they should not fall apart into crumbs -you should be able to butter a hunk and pop it into your mouth without it falling to pieces.

The reason for making a soda-based bread is you get immediate results -no waiting for dough to rise, punching down, waiting, kneading, etc. The baking powder (soda) does what the yeast do -only right away, no waiting! With ingredients at hand, we're talking just 45 minutes from start to finish. In other words, you get to really see what's going on. The purpose of the oil was to make the final product softer and moister; add more or less and see what happens.

Since we are working with small quantities and cheap ingredients here -and since we get results right away, you can play around with the above procedure to learn what happens when you change something. The "drop biscuit" method is even faster, you take that thick icing mix and make it just a bit thicker, then use a spoon to "drop" blobs on your baking pan -and bake them! They'll crumple a bit more but also be more "bite size." Got a cupcake baking tin? Fill each cup about half way with the mix I gave you -and get some delightful "formal" rolls.

Keep at this, using baking powder, until you really know what to expect and have a high confidence level in the results. Once you have feel for it, you'll see that you actually judge where you are in the process by the consistency of the dough -you do it by "feel," really, as opposed to measurements.

Now, do the same thing for yeast rolls, only this time, use yeast (a teaspoon), which you should add to the flour right at the get-go. No baking powder. Here's what else you'll do:

Add a teaspoon of sugar to the dry flour and yeast. This will feed the yeast.

After you've made the thick icing and stirred the batter vigorously, add even more flour until you just can't stir it at all. On your work surface, add more flour, so that the dough doesn't stick to you. Start first by coating the glob with flour, patting it, rolling it around, turning it over, dusting with more flour, gradually puching into it with your fingers until it bounces back a bit. Now, start kneading the dough. Do this by forming a ball shape on the work surface, then pushing into the side of it with the bottom of your palms, above your wrists, like your shoving someone gently away. Keep the work surface dusted with flour. Give 2 or 3 shoves, and note that the dough will startto squeeze out left and right. Flop those ends back toward the middle, and knead some more. The dough will strat to get tacky -add some more flour -just disting the dough and work surface. You want to knead the dough about 40-50 times, flopping the ends back, turning it over, working it this way and that. You're done when the ball has a smooth surface, and is sort of rubbery. Clean out your bowl, put the ball in it, and put it in an UNHEATED or other similar warm place. Go away for 1/2 hour. The ideal temp is about 100, so you can heat the overn then shut it off. Too much heat kills the yeast -too cold and it stalls it.

When you come back, roll the ball may have gotten bigger, a bit flatter, and kind of spongy -or you may note little change at all. If there IS a bigger mass, "punch it down" with your fist -a good, sharp jab. This releases gas bubbles for the next kneading session. Do the keanding thing again -adding more flour if it is too sticky. Finally, make your individual balls, and then shape them into cones, as narrow and tall as you can make them. Put 'em on the baking tin, and then back in the oven (no heat yet). Go away for 1/2 hour.

Come back, fire up the oven to 375 and watch what happens. Should take about 20 minutes or so. Its OK to peek, but don;t open the oven door too much. Important NOT to let doors bang or stomp around at this time, as the dough will fall! What you may notice is that the rolls will rise -but also flatten out somewhat. That's why the bread baking tin has sides -to force the bread to go up, not out. And that's why we made cones -so the finished product won't be too flat.

Many recipes call for salt in the dough; the reason is to slow down the action of the yeast so it makes smaller bubbles and a finer texture of bread. I don't use it, myself.

At some point, yer gonna wanna make an actual loaf of bread. To get the proportions right, put all your dry ingredients (no liquid) right smack dab in the bread baking tin, so they come up to a point between 1/2 and 2/3's the height of the tin. Because bread basically doubles in size when it rises, this will give you a loaf with a decent crown and you can forget about measuring cups and all of that. When you put the dough in the tin to rise, wait for it to get to within an inch of the top, and THEN turn on the heat.

One of the biggest problems making loaves is that the crown often falls -giving a sort of camel back effect. The best way to overcome this is to make sure you've stirred up the batter very thoroughly early in the game, so the gluten is released throughout the dough, and to not use too much yeast, which results in too much "air" at the top. You may have noticed that even commerially made bread often has voids near the crust. Also, using higher heat for ten minutes or so can help "set" the crown in place. Then, turn the heat back to finish.

For a fun variation of yeast rolls, make English muffins. For these, flatten the balls to make circles about 2" across and 3/4 high. Brush them with water, and either sprinkle them with or drag them through Farina (yup -good old Farina). This adds those seed looking things to the outside and the flavor you grave. I also add Farina to the dough itself. Put them in a frying pan for the 2nd rising. After they've risen to muffin size, VERY CAREFULLY remove the pan from the oven, and VERY CAREFULLY set it on a burner. Then -are you ready for this?

You grill them! Turn up the heat to about half way, and observe them. They'll start to rise -then stop. Wait a minute, then gently turn them over. They'll deflate -a bit- and then maybe rise a bit more. Turn off the heat and let the heat of the pan finish the job for you. Let 'em cool down, then separate them with a fork and toast those puppies. Oh, my. The real "Thomas" flavor at about 1/20th the cost.

After you get the hang of this, you'll be making bread routinely, doing other things while it rises and bakes -and you'll wonder why anyone ever buys bread.

Enjoy!

Answer 2

Sounds like you're not using the proper kind of flour or yeast, or perhaps not maintaining a good temperature.
For bread to rise, you need 3 things.
"Strong" flour, aka bread making flour. You can get this in your supermarket. You can use "all purpose" flour but strong is better.
Bread yeast, not baking soda or baking powder. This is in the cold case of your supermarket, or sometimes in sealed jars on the shelves. Check the use-by date--if your yeast is old, it may be dead and won't rise.
Yeast must be "worked" before adding it to the flour and water. This is done by putting the yeast with a small amount of warm (not boiling) water and sugar in a bowl, mixing well and allowing it to sit in a warm place until it starts to foam a bit.
That's the third point: the room where your bread is risen must be warm! A cold draft is not good for bread making. Kneading is important too, to allow the gluten in the flour to develop. That is why they say "knead until elastic." It gets elastic, and slightly shiny. It takes a while. Once the dough is made and kneaded, place it in a glass or metal bowl that has been rinsed in warm water and lightly oiled (so the dough doesn't stick to it). COVER the bowl with a damp cloth and leave the dough to rest in a warm place.
Good luck making bread, I made my own for years and it's a very satisfying accomplishment, once learned.

Answer 3

this one worked pretty good for me as a first time effort. It is kinda crusty like italian bread....best when hot out of the oven.

Old Fashioned Potato Bread

1 med. potato, peeled and diced (about ½ cup mashed, plus 0.1 cup)
2 pkgs. dry yeast
2 tbsp. butter or margarine
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. salt
1 c. milk
5 1/2 to 6 c. all-purpose flour

Cook potato in a small amount of boiling water 10 to 15 minutes or until tender; drain and reserve liquid. Mash potato, and measure 3/4 cup; set aside. Add enough water to reserved liquid to make 1 cup; cool to 105 to 115 degrees. Dissolve yeast in potato liquid in a large mixing bowl. Add butter and stir well. Stir in sugar, salt, milk, mashed potatoes, and 1 cup flour. Gradually stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff dough. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 to 10 minutes). Place in a well greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85 degrees) free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down, and divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf. Place in two well-greased 8 x 4 x 3 inch loaf pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85 degrees), free from drafts. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Yield 2 loaves.

Answer 4

The easy way these days is to buy a bread machine and follow their recipes or buy the mix packets. If you'd rather do it from scratch, the flour and yeast are very important. You must get high-gluten flour and very fresh yeast. Also, letting the bread rise twice before baking helps with fluffiness.

Answer 5

Aside from trying different recipes, I have to ask. Is your yeast still in date? That's a biggee for good bread.

Answer 6

Go to this link they even have pictures
http://baking.about.com/library/weekly/aa020100.htm