Use these bread baking tips from Grandma and learn how to bake better bread with the perfect rise, chewy, golden crusts, and pillowy soft crumb.
The women that went before us baked the most amazing bread at home in primitive ovens. They didn’t have temperature-controlled ovens. They didn’t have standardized yeast. Yet their bread was a staple part of the daily diet. While it’s true that some of these ladies never got the hang of light loaves with crispy crusts, others became locally famous for their baking. If you had the privilege of helping your grandma or a neighbor in the kitchen on baking day, you probably caught some of these bread baking tips. For the rest of us, I offer my own bread baking tips, won by both observing the grandmothers and by not-a-few failed loaves. Here are 16 bread baking tips that will surely improve your chances at attaining that perfect crust and crumb. These tips focus on yeast bread rather than flat breads, sourdough breads, or quick breads. You can use bread flour or all purpose flour to bake homemade bread.
Start with fresh, organic ingredients
This first bread baking tip considers the freshness of your ingredients. Fresh organic flour that you grind yourself includes the vital wheat gluten, the germ, and the bran. This is the best flour to use with your bread. It’s rich in enzymes and protein to make your loaves rise well. If you don’t yet have a grain mill, no problem, buy the freshest flour that you can find from a store with a fast turnover of flour, so that you can be assured of the freshness. Flour oxidizes quickly after grinding and loses some of the protein and vitality that gives home made bread its lightness and rise.
Use high protein wheat or add gluten
Add vital wheat gluten to increase the rise and spring of your bread and make it lighter. Commercial bread machine flour and specialty bread flour has vital wheat gluten added. I prefer Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Flour. I’ve always had good success with it. You don’t need much. 1/4 cup per 5 cups of whole wheat flour is enough to make your loaves lighter. You can use all purpose flour but if you find that the dough isn’t as light as you want, adding vital wheat gluten can give it the oomph you are looking for. This added gluten increases the protein content of the dough which gives the yeast something to feed on.
Rise it at 70F
The best and most flavorful bread rises slowly at cooler temperatures. In the summer in a warmer climate, you may need to put your bread in a cooler location to rise. Adjust the rising so that you can maintain this optimum temperature.
Proof your yeast
Yeast has a shelf life. Keeping your yeast in the fridge can increase its shelf life. But eventually, it loses its vitality. Always proof your yeast before adding it to your bread. Don’t add soda to increase the rise. When the yeast is vital and proofed at cooler temperatures you’ll get the rise you are looking for.
There are different kinds of yeast. For regular bread baking (not a bread machine) I prefer active dry yeast. It will work with the dough and give you a long rising time without collapsing prematurely. Instant yeast is fast but the bread isn’t given a chance to develop fully. Instant yeast will collapse with a long rising time. Wine yeast isn’t used for bread baking.
Optional dough conditioner bread baking tip
Add 1 tablespoon cider vinegar to the dough or 1 teaspoon of diastolic malt, when you mixing it as a dough conditioner. This adds enzymes and increases the lightness of your dough. Ginger can also act as a dough conditioner, add 1/4 teaspoon of dried, powdered ginger per 2 loaf recipe. This bread baking tip was listed on the bags of Roger’s flour in the 1970s. It’s a classic bread baking tip that Grandma used to get a good rise in her loaves.
Half the yeast and double the rising time
When following a commercial recipe, decrease the yeast by ½ and double the first rise. If you use this bread baking tip you’ll remove some of the yeasty, alcohol flavors of the bread. This will give it a more complex flavor and a better crumb. The lightness of the dough comes as much from the handling and rising time as from the yeast.
Use less flour than you think you need
The bread dough should be very sticky when you put it to rise for the first time. The flour will absorb a lot of the stickiness during the first rising. Don’t be tempted to make the dough “smooth and elastic” in the first kneading, as so many recipes say. Your bread will turn out heavy. Instead, reserve up to a third of the flour that the recipe calls for to add after the first rising. Then knead it in one handful at a time. And stop as soon as you can handle the dough without it sticking to your hands or the countertop. The actual amount of flour that you need will depend on the relative humidity in your kitchen on the day that you bake. Then put your bread aside for the second rise.
Knead with wet hands
Instead of flouring your hands when you knead the dough, wet them. This will keep the dough from sticking to your hands without adding any heaviness to the dough.
Don’t forget the salt
Bread without salt is tasteless and the crumb isn’t as well-formed. Salt mediates the yeast and changes the texture of the bread. Add about 1 tsp. of salt for each loaf of bread that the recipe makes. Too much salt can inhibit the yeast though, so don’t overdo it.
Use a baking stone
The baking stone increases the heat retention in the oven and gives that crisp brown crust the wood-fired ovens give. I don’t have one. If you don’t have one either, you can put two bricks in the bottom of your oven and preheat them with your oven. They will retain the heat, like a baking stone, and make the bottom crust brown evenly. For artisan bread, you can bake the loaves right on the baking stone. But for this recipe, we are using bread pans. Place the bread pans on top of the baking stone.
Slash the tops of the loaves
Slash loaves diagonally across the top about 20 minutes before baking. This gives space for the loaf to spring in the oven without cracking your bread. By slashing the loaves, you’ll get lighter loaves that don’t crack on the side, spoiling your sliced bread.
Create steam in your oven during baking
This is the key to making the very best artisan bread. If you don’t take anything else away from the article take this bread baking tip. Commercial artisan bread bakeries have ovens that steam the bread during the baking process. The steam encourages “oven spring” which makes taller, lighter loaves of bread. It also crisps the crust and makes the crust chewier.
You can create steam in your oven while baking, by putting a heavy pan, like a small cast iron frying pan, onto the bottom rack of your oven. Just before you put your loaves into the oven to bake, pour boiling water into the frying pan. Add your loaves and close the oven door.
Another way to create steam is to lightly spritz the oven walls with water, avoiding the oven light, at the beginning of the baking period. Experiment with your own oven and see which way works best for you. Never spritz cold water on a hot light bulb though.
Create the crust texture that you want
Brush loaves with water before baking for a crustier loaf. Brush with egg before baking for a softer, golden loaf. Brush with butter when you bring the bread from the oven for a very soft crust.
Use a long preheat in your oven
Don’t be in a hurry to get your bread in the oven. Preheat the oven before putting in your bread dough for at least 20 minutes. Some artisan bakeries preheat the oven for a full hour. Bake bread at 425F for a crisp browned, caramelized crust. You can’t rush this step. The best bread making tip is to let the oven preheat for the full time so that when you put your loaves in, it doesn’t lose any heat.
Preheat the pan before putting in your bread or place the bread pan on a baking stone – use parchment paper to transfer your dough to the pan
Don’t rush bread baking
Time – allow for at least 4 hours to make an awesome, loaf of bread. The dough needs time to ferment, proof, and bake. Don’t rush it. The actual hands-on time is less than 20 minutes. Most of the time is waiting. Start early in the day and you won’t be disappointed.
Whole grains
While bread is traditionally made with wheat, rye, oat, and other whole grains can be used alone or added to bread to increase the toothiness of the crumb and the nutrition of the bread. Grinding your own flour and using the whole grain including the germ and the bran can lead to a heavy bread. Lighten up on the amount of flour in the first kneading and give it a slower rise to compensate. You’ll be rewarded with a lighter loaf that is still toothsome, chewy, and delicious.
Bake more bread….
While these bread baking tips can set you on the right track for baking awesome bread, bread baking is an art that you learn by experience. Bake lots of bread and learn the feel of the dough and the behavior of the yeast. If you have a failure, know that we all do. Failures can be made into crumbs to add to meatloaf or hamburgers or make croutons or bread pudding. Homemade bread is worth the effort to learn to do well. It is healthier and tastes better than store-bought.
Practice these 16 bread baking tips by making this beginner’s loaf of whole wheat bread. Get the feel of the dough on your hands and observe the finished loaves. It’s only by actually baking bread that your hands will learn the feel of the ideal dough, the exact right temperature of your oven for golden brown loaves, and the smell of the best artisan loaves coming out of your oven. These are clues that you are getting bread-making intuition just like grandma and you’ll be turning out amazing bread on a weekly basis too.
This is an easy beginner’s loaf of whole-grain bread. Additional vital wheat gluten is added to give the bread spring and increase the lightness of the loaf.
Ingredients
Scale
1 tablespoon yeast
1 ½ cups of warm water (110F)
1 teaspoon organic sugar or honey
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 teaspoons salt
4 to 5 cups of whole wheat flour, divided
¼ cup of vital wheat gluten
Instructions
Proof the yeast: Mix yeast, hot water, and sugar or honey in a 2 cup measuring cup. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Active yeast will bubble up. If your yeast doesn’t bubble then discard and try again with fresh yeast.
In a mixing bowl add the proofed yeast, butter, and salt. Mix in 3 cups of the whole wheat flour and the ¼ cup of vital wheat gluten. Mix well with a dough hook. This batter will be the consistency of heavy, wet dough. Keep mixing until you see threads forming in the dough. This is the gluten. Once the threads form add 1 cup of flour more. Beat with the dough hook to incorporate well. The dough should be slightly sticky.
Cover and let rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours at room temperature. As it rises, the dough will dry out as the water in it is absorbed by the flour.
Remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in a small amount of flour, as needed. Less is better than too much.
Divide dough into two portions. Form two loaves by stretching the dough and tucking under the edges, so that the surface of the dough is smooth on top. Place in two well-buttered bread pans. Cover with a floured towel and allow to rise for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 425F. Place a pan of water in the bottom of the oven during the pre-heat.
Before you put the bread in the oven, slash the top with a thin, sharp blade, to allow for oven spring. Place the bread pans in the oven and with a spray bottle of water, spritz the wall of the oven, avoiding the oven light. Close the oven door and repeat the spray after 2 minutes, and again after 4 minutes. Now keep the oven door closed and bake for 20 minutes until the loaves are a deep golden brown. Turn off the oven heat but leave the loaves inside the oven for an additional 5 minutes.
Remove the bread from the oven and turn out of bread pans onto a cooling rack. Allow cooling for at least an hour before slicing. The bread continues to bake while it is cooling and the crust draws air into the hot loaves, increasing the flavor and complexity of the bread as it cools. Don’t rush the cooling period.
Recipe Card powered by
Basic whole wheat bread
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon yeast
1 ½ cups of warm water (110F)
1 teaspoon organic sugar or honey
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 teaspoons salt
4 to 5 cups of whole wheat flour, divided
¼ cup of vital wheat gluten
Method:
Proof the yeast: Mix yeast, hot water, and sugar or honey in a 2 cup measuring cup. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Active yeast will bubble up. If your yeast doesn’t bubble then discard and try again with fresh yeast.
In a mixing bowl add the proofed yeast, butter, and salt. Mix in 3 cups of the whole wheat flour and the ¼ cup of vital wheat gluten. Mix well with a dough hook. This batter will be the consistency of a heavy,l wet dough. Keep mixing until you see threads forming in the dough. This is the gluten. Once the threads form add 1 cup of flour more. Beat with the dough hook to incorporate well.
Cover and let rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours at room temperature. As it rises, the dough will dry out as the water in it is absorbed by the flour.
Remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in a small amount of flour, as needed. Less is better than too much.
Divide dough into two portions. Form two loaves by stretching the dough and tucking under the edges, so that the surface of the dough is smooth on top. Place in two well-buttered bread pans. Cover with a floured towel and allow to rise for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 425F. Place a pan of water in the bottom of the oven during the preheat.
Before you put the bread in the oven, slash the top with a thin, sharp blade, to allow for oven spring. Place the bread pans in the oven and with a spray bottle of water. Spritz the wall of the oven, avoiding the oven light. Close the oven door and repeat the spray after 2 minutes, and again after 4 minutes. Now keep the oven door closed and bake for 20 minutes until the loaves are a deep golden brown. Turn off the oven heat but leave the loaves inside the oven for an additional 5 minutes.
Remove the bread from the oven and turn out of bread pans onto a cooling rack. Allow cooling for at least an hour before slicing. The bread continues to bake while it is cooling and the crust draws air into the hot loaves, increasing the flavor and complexity of the bread as it cools. Don’t rush the cooling period.
Get more bread baking tips on Bluprint (formerly Craftsy)
Now that you’ve tried a basic loaf of whole wheat bread, learn to make artisan bread from a professional artisan baker. Pick up Bluprint‘s Bread Baking Basics for free.
If you are ready to commit to learning this homesteading skill well, go deeper by taking a Craftsy class, in the comfort of your own home, and at your own pace. Peter Reinhart, author of many books on bread baking, including his newest book Bread Revolution, teaches Artisan Bread Baking on Craftsy.
It’s an excellent course to give you the basics in a format where you can ask questions and get feedback from a professional. Post your own pictures of homemade bread as the course progresses and learn from the instructor’s comments. It’s the perfect learning environment.
What is Crafts?
Peter Reinhart’s course is also available in the Craftsy membership, for one low annual or monthly fee, you can watch all the classes anytime you want. It’s less than the cost of a cup of Starbucks once or twice a month, for all the baking, cooking, crafting, and photography courses that you want. Plus there are other perks, too, like a discount on crafting supplies, and a monthly forever class that is yours to keep. Get started with Craftsy now.
Your tips has been helpful. I actually wanted to throw in the towel cos I had crumbled loafs too many a times. Now I’ll continue baking till I get it right. Thanks Nancy.
This is my Ciabatta bread.
I make a biga ( 14% protein flour, water pinch of dried yeast) cover w/ saran wrap and towel and let it sit for 24 hours. Add the rest of the ingredients (flour, yeast, salt, lemon juice, water, mix with wooden spoon), cover, let rise for 45 min. Un cover, wet hands, lift and fold 4 times whilst turning the bowl 1/4 turn, cover and sit for another 45 min. Total 3 – 45 min lift and folds. Dough is very wet ans sticky, no kneading. Let rise again however or whatever you bake on for 1 hour. Pan of water at pre-heat to 450 F. Check at 18 min. Make sure inner loaf is 200 F. Take out and cool for 1 hr. I’m a believer if the bread isn’t right, whatever is on it or in it won’t be very good. I have baked bread that wasn’t what I remembered as a kid in an Italian household . . . finally combined recipes and came up with this method and this one only to bake Ciabatta . . .It’s my perfect bread.
Very informative article…..thank you.
But why u r using so much yeast in your bread…2 tablespoon for 4-5 cup flour?
According to me,1/2 teaspoon is enough for one cup. Even if you are using whole wheat flour without adding vital wheat gluten.
Thanks for all the wonderful bread baking tips! Great site. Started baking sour bread March 15, 2020 as I knew I would have time. I love sourdough bread and I’ve been adding citric acid to my bread since June. It makes the bread more sour…yummy. It’s natural, fine grain and non-gmo. I have been cooking and baking since I was 11. I’ve love making kids birthday cake and have done a few wedding cakes. I was always intimidated about making bread, now I have for sure made over 200 loafs since I started. Love all the help bread bakers are willing to share.♥️ Thanks
That is such a clever idea. I like to eat bread and my breakfast always bread every day. I have a silver bread box. I store my bread in the bread box. Actually, Bread boxes are not merely for appearance. They are additionally perfect for saving bread to keep it from molding. Simply put the loaf straight into the box without placing right into a paper or even plastic container initially.
I love all of the information, but my bread won’t rise! What am I doing wrong? I’ve researched, tried a few times and nothing… My water was exactly 110°F, I proofed until the yeast was puffy and covering the top, I added flour slowly, and kneaded just until mixed (I don’t have a standing mixer.) HELP!
I bet you didn’t knead it enough. If you only basically kneaded it to mix it together, then it wasn’t enough. Watch a video on kneading on YouTube and try kneading for a good 5 minutes. The advice on this site (not saying it won’t work) is the opposite of what I’ve been told and doing for years. It certainly won’t hurt to try! P.S. I watch a lot of professional bread bakers on YouTube. It’s very helpful!
Thank You, I think you solved my splitting loaves, so I will score them from now on. My family love my heavy whole grains loaves. I have been making bread for at least 65 years started on the farm when I was young and used wood stoves and made 10-12 loaves at a time. Then got married had my own family and still baking for them. But they don’t like white fluffy bread, they love grainy bread. I am 82 and still love kneading bread. Thank You for your article.
I learned to bake bread from my mother. We did not have store bought bread in our house until I was in Junior High. I still have the wooden bowl my grandmother used when the thresher teams came one a year to harvest the crops. The one thing blatantly overlooked is the air pressure. She never made bread when a storm was brewing as it affected how the bread rose.
Thought I’d share some experience that would relate to how a grandma would have made bread, but perhaps more like a great-great grandma! This is my personal experience. The family loves the bread. I offer it here for everyone’s blessing!
My wife and I bought pasta maker: perfect for making flat bread. (I was getting a bit fed up of the rolling pin: too slow.)
The recipe I used (from a Youtube tutorial) called for flour / water / salt / oil. Pour flour directly on workstation (counter, etc.), make a well, pour salt, water & oil in center and stir water with fork drawing in the walls until dough thickens enough to switch to hands. Continue to mix/knead and rest a few hours.
Cut in strips and run through the first part of the pasta-maker, cut long strip it produces into rectangles and heat in fairly hot dry skillet till lightly golden on both sides.
Here’s the key: make more than required for a sitting. Repeat the dough creation process adding remainder dough thoroughly mixed in and allow to rest overnight. Make more flatbreads the next day, leaving a small portion behind (the size of a fist or larger) and add fresh ingredients on top, allowing to rest overnight.
Done steadily, the dough will soon be ready to form loaves of bread. How to tell: Dough, when split open, appears to have the texture of any loaf of bread.
At this point repeat above: make flatbreads, refresh dough but cut into 500 (or so) gram portions and lay in greased bread pans, allow to rest overnight, preferably covered with a wet tea-towel.
Pre-heat oven to 400F and bake till golden brown. Bread should have a light tang of sour-dough, but be as springy as standard home-made.
Note: since natural yeast leavens this bread, it is best not to do the typical “punch down” to allow a second rise. Second rise will result in a denser, very sour bread.
Chris, some great tips here, especially the one about not using too much flour. That’s probably the biggest mistake beginners make. We don’t buy bread; I make all our bread. I haven’t made whole wheat in a long time, but I like it and will be baking it again. Never added any gluten to it. My husband is addicted to my sourdough bread (true sourdough, no commercial yeast) and I make that twice a week (and make other yeast breads and rolls in between!). My life is complicated enough, so I don’t use bread flour or cake flour in my kitchen. I’ve developed all my recipes (bread, cakes, everything) to work with organic unbleached all-purpose flour. And with instant (rapid rise) yeast, not that I’m interested in a rapid rise, quite the contrary. I’m a proponent of the long slow rise and measure my yeast accordingly. I never use dough conditioners except when making gluten-free bread; then I add a little apple cider vinegar. I love kneading dough! My heavy-duty stand mixer and food processor sit idly on the counter while I knead by hand. It’s so therapeutic! And I think beginners would do well to skip the machines and make it by hand; that way they would get a feel for the dough and never add too much flour.
And at 57 I’m still learning too. My adventure has been in getting a good sourdough started up. Not quite at the state where the bread it makes is amazing, but the pancakes are, according to my wife, better than her chemical-based version.
When the wife is enthusiastic about something, then I know it’ll flourish in the in household. Sourdough is no where as difficult as folks made it out to be. For this, I’m very pleased. But the bread it makes seems more in line with the current topic: Tips Your Grandma Forgot To Tell You.
Very good post in many ways, but do not be put off by some of the points which are absolutely not essential for making excellent bread: 1, 2 and 10 especially. Whatever you choose to do, just follow the recipe, excpet for these 3 points.
I make bread regularly. Some of the tips depend on how you are making the bread and what kind of yeast is being used. But 1, 2 and 10 have no bearing on making a perfectly good loaf of bread.
1st point is especially problematic since use of organic ingredients has nothing whatsoever to do with turning out a good loaf of bread. That’s purely a matter of personal preference.
Adding gluten or using bread flour are not essential either. I make excellent bread with my home ground wheat and with unbleached all purpose. Each is only different, but not doomed.
Same with use of baking stone. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. Depends entirely on what type of bread you’re after.
Boy oh Boy! Your post today is just what I needed to hear. So far I have been a failure on making bread. I always blame it on the yeast not riding or too much flour. After reading your post just now I’m ready to give breadmaking a try. No more bread challenges. Only bread accomplishments!
Awesome. It could be that your yeast isn’t fresh. If after giving it your best effort, you are frustrated, the Craftsy bread making courses are awesome. You actually get coaching from the instructor if you need it to be successful and you can go over the course lessons as many times as you need to.
Once you find your sweet spot in bread making, you’ll never go back to store bought.
These are great, but I vouch for the fact that added gluten is NOT EVER necessary to get a fluffy whole wheat loaf every time. I let my lightly mixed dough sit for 30-45 mins (use a tad more liquid for whole wheat when coverting from a white flour recipt because whole wheat soaks up the liquid when resting). I then knead it to the right consistency using the window pane test. Rise as usual. It comes out, light, tasty and perfect every time.
It depends on how much gluten your wheat has. When I’m baking with hard winter wheat that I grind myself I don’t add extra gluten. When I’m using bread flour I don’t add extra gluten. All purpose flour here can be iffy.
I’ve been baking bread for 42 years. My husband does not eat store bought bread. When proofing my yeast , I use tepid water…like baby bottle warm on the wrist and not VERY WARM like the package always says. Dump the yeast into the water with about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Within just a few minutes, (about the time it takes me to mix in the salt, shortening, honey and some of the flour) the yeast should almost double and get really foamy.
Wow amazing site. I as a single father got a bread machine and started baking for fun and cuz the kids love my bread. I cant wait to try the real thing in the oven and this site is going to make me a local expert real fast lol. I love the cup of water concept in the oven to regular the rise. Also i love the little tidbit about how a little less flour is better then a little more. I already plan in the next week to make a bread i saw online which is a Austrian Specialty called ‘Mohnkranzerl aus Hefeteig’ or filled rolls. It uses a poppy seed filling. U can google the recepy. It looks amazing. If u want to special order the poppy seeds that they grow near germany they are called. Waldvierteler Granmohn. Peace thx
I have been baking bread for 45 years and there are easier ways to do it. We grind all of our grains for baking. I generally make 6 or 8 loaves at one time in my Bosch Kitchen Machine. I put the water (very warm) in the bowl and add the honey, oil, salt and half of the flour, and mix it thoroughly. After that, I add the yeast and mix it in thoroughly. I then mix in the rest of the flour, 2 cups at a time, until the dough starts to become elastic and pulls away from the bowl. I then let the machine kneed the dough for 10 minutes. When that is done, I remove the dough and kneed it for a minute or two by hand. I use a mixture of oil and Lecithin (3 to 1) on my hands and the counter, to keep the dough from sticking and then weigh it out into 6 or 8 loaves. I use old pineapple cans for my bread baking pans. I oil the cans with the same oil/Lecithin mix, put the dough in, press it down to remove any air pockets and put it in a preheated oven. The oven is heated to 200°, previously, and then turned off. The loaves go in and when they have risen to to top of the cans, the oven is then tuned back on to 350°-375° for 45 minutes to an hour.
I line the cans with thin parchment paper when ever I’ve done it that way. I’ve never had success getting it out of the cans with just greasing because of the ridges on the cans.
My grandmother and my mother also made bread in cans. These were large Tree-Top apple juice cans. It was so fun to cut the mushroom top off and eat that like a big bun with butter and honey. We never used bread pans. Our sandwiches were always round.
Thank you. Sharing. BAKING STONES can successfully be replaced with a good, heavy cast iron griddle: a single one for one loaf, or a double griddle for two, flat side up if you have the kind that has grilling ridges on one side. They work like a charm, and don’t break!
Definitely good tips for modern breadmaking, but I’m curious about the age of the grandmothers in question. 🙂 My grandmothers used fresh yeast so they wouldn’t have had to proof it, and I know my farming grandmother bought her flour in barrels once a year, so it definitely wasn’t freshly ground.
Interesting, too, what you say about rising bread at 70F. My old Five Roses cookbook (from 1915) says to keep the kitchen between 80 and 90F when rising bread. My difficulty is that we have a wood-heated home and it is never as warm as that in our house during the winter. It’s more likely to be around 62F. No matter how I try, I can’t get bread to rise properly in the winter. So *too cold* doesn’t work well.
About the house temps and rising bread – The higher the temp, the faster the rise (within limits, of course!!) But the drawback to the fast rise is that the enzymes in the dough don’t have a chance to break down much of the starch and the wonderful complex flavors of a true artisan loaf will never develop. So you can create bread with a fast rise, but it won’t have as full/complex a flavor as it could have had. As for the 62 degrees — that is actually a great temp! Our house is usually below 60 in the winter at night and mid-60s during the day. And I bake bread all winter. It just takes longer for the yeast to do its thing. You can counteract this by using more yeast or by giving it more time. I think every 10 degrees difference leads to double the time? Or is it 20 degrees difference? Good luck!
Boil a cup of water, put the water in your oven, put your dough in with the hot water still in the cup and close the door. The water will warm up the inside of the oven enough for your bread to rise but it will never rise too fast.
I always just put the rising dough in a bowl with a light coat of olive oil cover with a cotton towel and place on my oven while oven preheating and bread rising. Definitely warm enough.:-)
In the winter when it is too cold…place your bread pans on a heating pad…ON LOW to let it raise. If you raise it too fast, it just might fall when it starts to bake.
Trying to get the bread to rise in the winter is hard. I have placed the dough in a parchment lined crockpot on warm. Mine has a setting that is very low and doesn’t get above 90. Sometimes I place the parchment ontop of a damp cloth to create steam while it raised. I have also placed the bowl of dough on top of the oven while cooking breakfast (or refrigerator depending on the temp in the house), to help it proof.
I had the same problem at my house in winter so I rigged up something that works for me. I put a heating pad (set on low) under an old roasting grate so the grate is a couple of inches above the heating pad, and place my bread pans on top of the grate to rise. All this is inside a large plastic tote with a lid. I call it my poor man’s proofing oven! 😉 You need to watch the rise carefully the first few times to see how your combination works. My daughter-in-law uses a larger box and a higher setting on the heating pad. We both make what we have work and I assure you I constantly have nice light rise. Think of it as layered like this (from the bottom) Bottom of the tote, heating pad, air space of about 2 inches or more), metal or plastic grating, bread pans, several inches of air space with plenty of room for dough rise, lid of tote snapped into place. It’ easy to keep the small area of the tote warm rather than trying to warm up your entire kitchen.
just a suggestion, with wood heating ( with any heat), the heat rises. why not build a dough rising shelf, high up on your wall. big enough for your bowl and then for your bread pans. I have the same issue with heating in the winter, but it is always hot on the ceiling.
My grandma Della had a cast-iron stove, which had a warming shelf above the stove. It’s where the grandkids could always find the leftover homemade biscuits she made fresh every morning. I expect it was where for baking needs, as well.
I have not bought a loaf of bread in nearly a year. I love these tips. I actually forgot the importance of the steam. I always slash the top of my bread. Also a longer rise time will help the yeast “predigest” the gluten which makes it easier to digest. Also a good natural yeast sourdough starter will help to break it down more. I always allow for an 8-10hour rise time. Also most recipes call for 5 minutes of kneading. Kneading activates the gluten for a lighter fluffier bread, so I knead around 15 minutes. Also if the natural sourdough tastes to sour for you, for each loaf your recipe makes add 1 egg before the first rise and 1 tps baking soda kneaded in when you punch it down. Also to keep a more tender crust coat with a bit of olive oil during each rise time. I too have baked my share of lead bricks and SOUR sourdough bread and learned these through trial and error. But lead bricks make great homemade stuffing and SOUR sourdough will make a good bread pudding for desert.
Well, I love anyone that loves to make bread and provides tips to people, I’d be lost with the help of those with baking experience. I tell people too, that the more be bake bread, it comes familiar and you know when things are not ‘right’ Love your site! Nancy
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Your tips has been helpful. I actually wanted to throw in the towel cos I had crumbled loafs too many a times. Now I’ll continue baking till I get it right. Thanks Nancy.
This is my Ciabatta bread.
I make a biga ( 14% protein flour, water pinch of dried yeast) cover w/ saran wrap and towel and let it sit for 24 hours. Add the rest of the ingredients (flour, yeast, salt, lemon juice, water, mix with wooden spoon), cover, let rise for 45 min. Un cover, wet hands, lift and fold 4 times whilst turning the bowl 1/4 turn, cover and sit for another 45 min. Total 3 – 45 min lift and folds. Dough is very wet ans sticky, no kneading. Let rise again however or whatever you bake on for 1 hour. Pan of water at pre-heat to 450 F. Check at 18 min. Make sure inner loaf is 200 F. Take out and cool for 1 hr. I’m a believer if the bread isn’t right, whatever is on it or in it won’t be very good. I have baked bread that wasn’t what I remembered as a kid in an Italian household . . . finally combined recipes and came up with this method and this one only to bake Ciabatta . . .It’s my perfect bread.
Thanks for sharing your method. It sounds yummy.
Very informative article…..thank you.
But why u r using so much yeast in your bread…2 tablespoon for 4-5 cup flour?
According to me,1/2 teaspoon is enough for one cup. Even if you are using whole wheat flour without adding vital wheat gluten.
Thanks for all the wonderful bread baking tips! Great site. Started baking sour bread March 15, 2020 as I knew I would have time. I love sourdough bread and I’ve been adding citric acid to my bread since June. It makes the bread more sour…yummy. It’s natural, fine grain and non-gmo. I have been cooking and baking since I was 11. I’ve love making kids birthday cake and have done a few wedding cakes. I was always intimidated about making bread, now I have for sure made over 200 loafs since I started. Love all the help bread bakers are willing to share.♥️ Thanks
That is such a clever idea. I like to eat bread and my breakfast always bread every day. I have a silver bread box. I store my bread in the bread box. Actually, Bread boxes are not merely for appearance. They are additionally perfect for saving bread to keep it from molding. Simply put the loaf straight into the box without placing right into a paper or even plastic container initially.
I love all of the information, but my bread won’t rise! What am I doing wrong? I’ve researched, tried a few times and nothing… My water was exactly 110°F, I proofed until the yeast was puffy and covering the top, I added flour slowly, and kneaded just until mixed (I don’t have a standing mixer.) HELP!
I bet you didn’t knead it enough. If you only basically kneaded it to mix it together, then it wasn’t enough. Watch a video on kneading on YouTube and try kneading for a good 5 minutes. The advice on this site (not saying it won’t work) is the opposite of what I’ve been told and doing for years. It certainly won’t hurt to try! P.S. I watch a lot of professional bread bakers on YouTube. It’s very helpful!
Great, helpful article! How long will wheat gluten last in the fridge? I’ve had some for quite awhile.
At least a year.
What kind of yeast are you using?
Regular baking yeast. It’s the easiest to find in my local grocery store.
Thank You, I think you solved my splitting loaves, so I will score them from now on. My family love my heavy whole grains loaves. I have been making bread for at least 65 years started on the farm when I was young and used wood stoves and made 10-12 loaves at a time. Then got married had my own family and still baking for them. But they don’t like white fluffy bread, they love grainy bread. I am 82 and still love kneading bread. Thank You for your article.
I learned to bake bread from my mother. We did not have store bought bread in our house until I was in Junior High. I still have the wooden bowl my grandmother used when the thresher teams came one a year to harvest the crops. The one thing blatantly overlooked is the air pressure. She never made bread when a storm was brewing as it affected how the bread rose.
Oh dear, I forgot to put salt in my bread dough!!
LOL. I’ve done that too.
I just did that! LOL good thing I accidentally added salted butter 🙂
Heya Chris!
Thought I’d share some experience that would relate to how a grandma would have made bread, but perhaps more like a great-great grandma! This is my personal experience. The family loves the bread. I offer it here for everyone’s blessing!
My wife and I bought pasta maker: perfect for making flat bread. (I was getting a bit fed up of the rolling pin: too slow.)
The recipe I used (from a Youtube tutorial) called for flour / water / salt / oil. Pour flour directly on workstation (counter, etc.), make a well, pour salt, water & oil in center and stir water with fork drawing in the walls until dough thickens enough to switch to hands. Continue to mix/knead and rest a few hours.
Cut in strips and run through the first part of the pasta-maker, cut long strip it produces into rectangles and heat in fairly hot dry skillet till lightly golden on both sides.
Here’s the key: make more than required for a sitting. Repeat the dough creation process adding remainder dough thoroughly mixed in and allow to rest overnight. Make more flatbreads the next day, leaving a small portion behind (the size of a fist or larger) and add fresh ingredients on top, allowing to rest overnight.
Done steadily, the dough will soon be ready to form loaves of bread. How to tell: Dough, when split open, appears to have the texture of any loaf of bread.
At this point repeat above: make flatbreads, refresh dough but cut into 500 (or so) gram portions and lay in greased bread pans, allow to rest overnight, preferably covered with a wet tea-towel.
Pre-heat oven to 400F and bake till golden brown. Bread should have a light tang of sour-dough, but be as springy as standard home-made.
Note: since natural yeast leavens this bread, it is best not to do the typical “punch down” to allow a second rise. Second rise will result in a denser, very sour bread.
Chris, some great tips here, especially the one about not using too much flour. That’s probably the biggest mistake beginners make. We don’t buy bread; I make all our bread. I haven’t made whole wheat in a long time, but I like it and will be baking it again. Never added any gluten to it. My husband is addicted to my sourdough bread (true sourdough, no commercial yeast) and I make that twice a week (and make other yeast breads and rolls in between!). My life is complicated enough, so I don’t use bread flour or cake flour in my kitchen. I’ve developed all my recipes (bread, cakes, everything) to work with organic unbleached all-purpose flour. And with instant (rapid rise) yeast, not that I’m interested in a rapid rise, quite the contrary. I’m a proponent of the long slow rise and measure my yeast accordingly. I never use dough conditioners except when making gluten-free bread; then I add a little apple cider vinegar. I love kneading dough! My heavy-duty stand mixer and food processor sit idly on the counter while I knead by hand. It’s so therapeutic! And I think beginners would do well to skip the machines and make it by hand; that way they would get a feel for the dough and never add too much flour.
Good point. Experience is the best teacher.
ditto to the above…I am still learning at 52 but love to hand knead and pray…
And at 57 I’m still learning too. My adventure has been in getting a good sourdough started up. Not quite at the state where the bread it makes is amazing, but the pancakes are, according to my wife, better than her chemical-based version.
When the wife is enthusiastic about something, then I know it’ll flourish in the in household. Sourdough is no where as difficult as folks made it out to be. For this, I’m very pleased. But the bread it makes seems more in line with the current topic: Tips Your Grandma Forgot To Tell You.
Very good post in many ways, but do not be put off by some of the points which are absolutely not essential for making excellent bread: 1, 2 and 10 especially. Whatever you choose to do, just follow the recipe, excpet for these 3 points.
I make bread regularly. Some of the tips depend on how you are making the bread and what kind of yeast is being used. But 1, 2 and 10 have no bearing on making a perfectly good loaf of bread.
1st point is especially problematic since use of organic ingredients has nothing whatsoever to do with turning out a good loaf of bread. That’s purely a matter of personal preference.
Adding gluten or using bread flour are not essential either. I make excellent bread with my home ground wheat and with unbleached all purpose. Each is only different, but not doomed.
Same with use of baking stone. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. Depends entirely on what type of bread you’re after.
Boy oh Boy! Your post today is just what I needed to hear. So far I have been a failure on making bread. I always blame it on the yeast not riding or too much flour. After reading your post just now I’m ready to give breadmaking a try. No more bread challenges. Only bread accomplishments!
Awesome. It could be that your yeast isn’t fresh. If after giving it your best effort, you are frustrated, the Craftsy bread making courses are awesome. You actually get coaching from the instructor if you need it to be successful and you can go over the course lessons as many times as you need to.
Once you find your sweet spot in bread making, you’ll never go back to store bought.
These are great, but I vouch for the fact that added gluten is NOT EVER necessary to get a fluffy whole wheat loaf every time. I let my lightly mixed dough sit for 30-45 mins (use a tad more liquid for whole wheat when coverting from a white flour recipt because whole wheat soaks up the liquid when resting). I then knead it to the right consistency using the window pane test. Rise as usual. It comes out, light, tasty and perfect every time.
It depends on how much gluten your wheat has. When I’m baking with hard winter wheat that I grind myself I don’t add extra gluten. When I’m using bread flour I don’t add extra gluten. All purpose flour here can be iffy.
What is the window pane test?
You knead until you can hold a piece of dough up and it stretches into a thin sheet. That demonstrates that the gluten is active.
I suck at bread, maybe I will give it another attempt…
You probably aren’t kneading it enough. After you think you did enough, add another 5 minutes
How much should the yeast bubble? Mine is bubbling, but it’s like a pot on a low simmer. I hope I don’t screw up this bread
If it’s bubbling you’re ready to add your flour. Good luck with your bread.
I’ve been baking bread for 42 years. My husband does not eat store bought bread. When proofing my yeast , I use tepid water…like baby bottle warm on the wrist and not VERY WARM like the package always says. Dump the yeast into the water with about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Within just a few minutes, (about the time it takes me to mix in the salt, shortening, honey and some of the flour) the yeast should almost double and get really foamy.
Wow amazing site. I as a single father got a bread machine and started baking for fun and cuz the kids love my bread. I cant wait to try the real thing in the oven and this site is going to make me a local expert real fast lol. I love the cup of water concept in the oven to regular the rise. Also i love the little tidbit about how a little less flour is better then a little more. I already plan in the next week to make a bread i saw online which is a Austrian Specialty called ‘Mohnkranzerl aus Hefeteig’ or filled rolls. It uses a poppy seed filling. U can google the recepy. It looks amazing. If u want to special order the poppy seeds that they grow near germany they are called. Waldvierteler Granmohn. Peace thx
I have been baking bread for 45 years and there are easier ways to do it. We grind all of our grains for baking. I generally make 6 or 8 loaves at one time in my Bosch Kitchen Machine. I put the water (very warm) in the bowl and add the honey, oil, salt and half of the flour, and mix it thoroughly. After that, I add the yeast and mix it in thoroughly. I then mix in the rest of the flour, 2 cups at a time, until the dough starts to become elastic and pulls away from the bowl. I then let the machine kneed the dough for 10 minutes. When that is done, I remove the dough and kneed it for a minute or two by hand. I use a mixture of oil and Lecithin (3 to 1) on my hands and the counter, to keep the dough from sticking and then weigh it out into 6 or 8 loaves. I use old pineapple cans for my bread baking pans. I oil the cans with the same oil/Lecithin mix, put the dough in, press it down to remove any air pockets and put it in a preheated oven. The oven is heated to 200°, previously, and then turned off. The loaves go in and when they have risen to to top of the cans, the oven is then tuned back on to 350°-375° for 45 minutes to an hour.
HOW DO YOU BAKE IT IN CANS ?
I line the cans with thin parchment paper when ever I’ve done it that way. I’ve never had success getting it out of the cans with just greasing because of the ridges on the cans.
My grandmother and my mother also made bread in cans. These were large Tree-Top apple juice cans. It was so fun to cut the mushroom top off and eat that like a big bun with butter and honey. We never used bread pans. Our sandwiches were always round.
How big are the cans?
Thank you. Sharing. BAKING STONES can successfully be replaced with a good, heavy cast iron griddle: a single one for one loaf, or a double griddle for two, flat side up if you have the kind that has grilling ridges on one side. They work like a charm, and don’t break!
Excellent tip.
Definitely good tips for modern breadmaking, but I’m curious about the age of the grandmothers in question. 🙂 My grandmothers used fresh yeast so they wouldn’t have had to proof it, and I know my farming grandmother bought her flour in barrels once a year, so it definitely wasn’t freshly ground.
Interesting, too, what you say about rising bread at 70F. My old Five Roses cookbook (from 1915) says to keep the kitchen between 80 and 90F when rising bread. My difficulty is that we have a wood-heated home and it is never as warm as that in our house during the winter. It’s more likely to be around 62F. No matter how I try, I can’t get bread to rise properly in the winter. So *too cold* doesn’t work well.
About the house temps and rising bread – The higher the temp, the faster the rise (within limits, of course!!) But the drawback to the fast rise is that the enzymes in the dough don’t have a chance to break down much of the starch and the wonderful complex flavors of a true artisan loaf will never develop. So you can create bread with a fast rise, but it won’t have as full/complex a flavor as it could have had. As for the 62 degrees — that is actually a great temp! Our house is usually below 60 in the winter at night and mid-60s during the day. And I bake bread all winter. It just takes longer for the yeast to do its thing. You can counteract this by using more yeast or by giving it more time. I think every 10 degrees difference leads to double the time? Or is it 20 degrees difference? Good luck!
Boil a cup of water, put the water in your oven, put your dough in with the hot water still in the cup and close the door. The water will warm up the inside of the oven enough for your bread to rise but it will never rise too fast.
I always just put the rising dough in a bowl with a light coat of olive oil cover with a cotton towel and place on my oven while oven preheating and bread rising. Definitely warm enough.:-)
In the winter when it is too cold…place your bread pans on a heating pad…ON LOW to let it raise. If you raise it too fast, it just might fall when it starts to bake.
Trying to get the bread to rise in the winter is hard. I have placed the dough in a parchment lined crockpot on warm. Mine has a setting that is very low and doesn’t get above 90. Sometimes I place the parchment ontop of a damp cloth to create steam while it raised. I have also placed the bowl of dough on top of the oven while cooking breakfast (or refrigerator depending on the temp in the house), to help it proof.
I had the same problem at my house in winter so I rigged up something that works for me. I put a heating pad (set on low) under an old roasting grate so the grate is a couple of inches above the heating pad, and place my bread pans on top of the grate to rise. All this is inside a large plastic tote with a lid. I call it my poor man’s proofing oven! 😉 You need to watch the rise carefully the first few times to see how your combination works. My daughter-in-law uses a larger box and a higher setting on the heating pad. We both make what we have work and I assure you I constantly have nice light rise. Think of it as layered like this (from the bottom) Bottom of the tote, heating pad, air space of about 2 inches or more), metal or plastic grating, bread pans, several inches of air space with plenty of room for dough rise, lid of tote snapped into place. It’ easy to keep the small area of the tote warm rather than trying to warm up your entire kitchen.
I have found that the use of a heating pad is a great way to hold the temperature you want on a cold winter night or day . On low is great .
Good idea.
just a suggestion, with wood heating ( with any heat), the heat rises. why not build a dough rising shelf, high up on your wall. big enough for your bowl and then for your bread pans. I have the same issue with heating in the winter, but it is always hot on the ceiling.
Good idea.
My grandma Della had a cast-iron stove, which had a warming shelf above the stove. It’s where the grandkids could always find the leftover homemade biscuits she made fresh every morning. I expect it was where for baking needs, as well.
My mom put the dough into the car in the garage to rise. It was the right kind of warm there with no breeze.
I have not bought a loaf of bread in nearly a year. I love these tips. I actually forgot the importance of the steam. I always slash the top of my bread. Also a longer rise time will help the yeast “predigest” the gluten which makes it easier to digest. Also a good natural yeast sourdough starter will help to break it down more. I always allow for an 8-10hour rise time. Also most recipes call for 5 minutes of kneading. Kneading activates the gluten for a lighter fluffier bread, so I knead around 15 minutes. Also if the natural sourdough tastes to sour for you, for each loaf your recipe makes add 1 egg before the first rise and 1 tps baking soda kneaded in when you punch it down. Also to keep a more tender crust coat with a bit of olive oil during each rise time. I too have baked my share of lead bricks and SOUR sourdough bread and learned these through trial and error. But lead bricks make great homemade stuffing and SOUR sourdough will make a good bread pudding for desert.
Really good tips. Thanks for sharing. I love sour sourdough as croutons.
all I wanted to say Thanku so much….
Well, I love anyone that loves to make bread and provides tips to people, I’d be lost with the help of those with baking experience. I tell people too, that the more be bake bread, it comes familiar and you know when things are not ‘right’ Love your site! Nancy
Nice to meet you, Nancy. Yes, you’re right. The more often you bake bread the more familiar you become with the feel of it when it’s right.