Some Sneaky Bread Baking Tips

  Bread baking involves so many things that first time bakers are often discouraged after a few failed attempts to turn out professional looking and tasting loaves. If they only possessed the professional Baker's secrets bread baking would be so easy that the bread would practically make itself, little do they realize that!

Stop Bread From Sticking In The Pan

How many amateur bakers know the secret to keeping bread from sticking to the pan every time? None! When they try their hand at bread baking for the first time their bread sticks to the bread pan, and ends up a crumbled mess if they try to force it out. They give and cry up thinking that the problem lies with them. The shocking truth is that it doesn't! The problem lies with their lack of knowledge of THE baker's bread baking secret. The secret professional chefs and bakers won't tell you, the secret they guard so jealously. Any kitchen pro likes to keep their secrets. My father happened to learn this bread baking secret in his younger baking days (which is no surprise since his great grandfather was a chef for the White House and owned his own bakery) and has passed it on to his children ever since.

A Neat Baking Secret

Here it is; You will need only one tool besides for the oil and bread pan you already have, and that is quite simply CORNMEAL (you shouldn't need more than 1/4 to 1/2 cup for two loaves of bread). " Cornmeal?" you ask doubtfully. "YES, cornmeal!" No, you do not add the cornmeal to the bread ingredients! That is not the bread baking secret. What you do is you oil your pan as usual, and you lightly sprinkle cornmeal on all of the sides and bottom of the bread pan. Now you can safely place your bread dough into the pans without fear of it sticking to them. While your bread is baking instead of sticking to the pan, your bread will stick to the cornmeal and slide easily out of the pan when done baking. A lot of the time this will be unnecessary however and your bread will pop out just by your turning the bread pan upside down. You will probably also want to use the butter knife to scrape the excess cornmeal off the bottom and sides of the bread as you may not care for the taste of cornmeal. This bread baking secret will work whether you're baking a batter bread or a rising bread (also called yeast bread). I personally use it for both.

Using A Second Baking Pan

Here is another treasured bread baking secret, this one only for batter breads: On the last ten minutes of its baking time cover the bread pan containing the batter bread with another bread pan (a steel bread pan works best), and leave it on until the bread is finished baking. This will keep the batter bread from burning or becoming too hard on top. When it is finished, you may vary the time you leave the steel bread pan on according to how your batter bread usually looks. 20 minutes will work best if it is a very dark brown on difficult and top to slice because the top is so hard. If it is just a little too hard on top and a little too brown the 10 minutes should suffice. If it usually comes out soft and golden on top after the baking is completed, do not cover the bread at all. You may also glaze a batter bread on top with a tablespoon of melted butter mixed with a tablespoon of honey, and sprinkle some flaked coconut or sliced nuts. To glaze you start by taking the bread out of the oven five minutes before the required baking time is finished, then spread the butter/honey mixture on top of the bread, sprinkle on your coconut or chopped nuts and bake for the remaining 5 minutes.

If You Have Too Much Dough

Here is another useful bread baking tip for rising breads ... If your bread loaves over rise (say because you were busy and forgot about them), then you can use a pair of scissors to cut off the excess sides, being careful not to cut any dough from off of the top. You may then use this excess dough to make rolls. You simply oil a pizza or cookie sheet and form the dough into several small balls. Rise them for another half hour and then bake on 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.