“Bread is the head of everything,” the popular wisdom says, adding that “you won’t be full without bread and honey.” And it is true. There are vegetarians who do not eat meat, there are dieters who have excluded certain foods from their diet, but bread is always present on the table. Without it, you will not be full, because wheat bread contains fiber necessary for the body.
Previously, bread was baked in large Russian ovens. It turned out to be unusually tasty and magnificent. Bakers worked wonderfully, and the bread was stored for a long period, while not staling. Now on the shelves of stores sold a huge amount of pastries, including bricks and round rolls, long loafs and long French baguettes. But for some reason, on the second day they are already stale, and after a couple of days they are covered with mold.
General concepts of baking bread
If you want to eat a quality home-made product, bake the wheat bread yourself in the oven according to the recipes described below in our article. Use the simplest ingredients for the classic cooking option, if you want to diversify your baking, you can add spices and experiment with caraway seeds, add sesame seeds or poppy seeds.
Wheat bread is prepared according to a recipe in a leaven oven, so yeast is needed to knead the dough. Mistresses use both fresh and dry. A good result is obtained in the first and second cases. It is also necessary to know the small tricks that experienced bakers use so that the bread rises well, does not have voids inside. We will also tell readers how to achieve a crisp and why we need cuts on it.
Useful properties of bread
We all know that fats, carbohydrates and proteins, as well as the presence of minerals and vitamins, are released in foods. Many people consider bread to be unhealthy, as it contains a lot of carbohydrates and you can gain weight from them. But besides carbohydrates, white and rye bread has a large amount of vegetable proteins and natural fatty acids, for example, Omega 6.
Separately, it should be noted the importance for the body of fiber, which is abundant in bread of any kind. According to the benefits, you can compare bread with the use of cereals from various cereals. It is especially useful to eat bread for meat lovers. It compensates for the excessive consumption of protein and relieves the body of problems. Fiber promotes better digestion.
White bread has a high glycemic index, that is, it best fills our body with energy, and rye bread contains more minerals and vitamins than white, so some chefs combine white and rye flour in one batch.
Types of flour
According to the recipe, wheat bread in the oven is baked from dough mixed with flour, yeast and water. Particular attention should be paid to the choice of the first ingredient. White flour is divided into several varieties. Let's take a closer look:
- Top grade - the bread is beautiful, but quickly stale and contains a minimum of nutrients.
- The first grade - retains freshness longer, more elastic, well cut and has small pores.
- The second grade - contains interspersed bran. White color echoes the dots of brown and yellow. It is considered more useful than the highest grade.
- Whole grain or, in other words, wallpaper, flour itself is healthy and rich in vitamins and minerals. This is the most nutritious variety, nutritionists prescribe bread from such flour to those who want to lose extra pounds.
- There is another kind of flour called grains of flour. When mixing between the fingers, small grains are felt. Bread from this kind of flour turns out to be the most useful, but, unfortunately, it is impossible to find on store shelves, so we will not talk about it;
Rye flour is crushed rye grains. When it is added to the dough after baking, the bread acquires a darker color, but also becomes more nutritious. In the article, we describe how to bake white bread, and give a recipe for wheat-rye bread in the oven.
Classic homemade bread
To learn how to bake home-made bread for your family, first get acquainted with the classic recipe for such baking. It contains only the most common ingredients, no additives or tricks. Flour choose the first or second grade.
According to the recipe for cooking wheat bread in the oven for 1.3 kg of flour, take:
- yeast - 25 grams (preferably fresh);
- granulated sugar - 2 teaspoons;
- salt - 1 tbsp. l without a hill;
- water - 900 ml;
- refined oil - 50 ml.
The first thing to do is opara. Crush fresh yeast with your hands into small pieces in a small bowl. Add sugar and grind until smooth. Pour in half a glass of warm water (but not hot) and continue to knead until the yeast and sugar are completely dissolved. The water should turn light brown. Set the bowl aside in a warm place for 10 minutes to allow the workpiece to brew. In the meantime, mix the flour sifted through a sieve with salt. In the mixture, deepen and pour in the yeast and vegetable oil that have been infused in the water.
Knead the dough thoroughly for at least 15 minutes. To do this, you can use an electric mixer from a food processor or act manually. As a result, the dough should be soft, elastic, but not stick to the hands. When you have the necessary texture, put the workpiece in a warm place and be sure to cover it with a cotton napkin. Even according to a simple recipe for wheat bread in the oven, the workpiece must survive at least an hour and double in volume.
Baking preparation
The baking dish can be used silicone, teflon or conventional metal. The latter must be lubricated with vegetable oil before spreading the dough. The dough that has come up needs to be kneaded again in order to get rid of carbon dioxide bubbles. Transfer it to the prepared tin and put in a warm place to insist again. Do not forget to cover the container with a cotton napkin. It should stand for 20 or 30 minutes.
Bake wheat bread according to the recipe in the oven, so turn it on in advance so that the oven warms up well. If it has several modes, then turn on only the lower fire so that the crust on top does not burn and does not spoil the appearance of home baking. When the dough comes up again, make a notch with a sharp knife. This is necessary so that carbon dioxide can come out and not spoil the shape of the bread. Bake it at a temperature of 200 degrees 30 to 40 minutes. The door must never be opened for the first 25 minutes, otherwise the dough may settle. After baking, the bread is usually left directly in the mold on a wire rack for cooling. Only then can it be removed from the container by turning over.
Fragrant pastry with spices
The next version of the bread from wheat flour according to the recipe in the oven is made with the addition of dry spices. Optionally, choose caraway and basil or hot chili, depending on who the baking is for.
To work, prepare the following ingredients:
- white flour of 1 grade - 400 grams;
- yeast, preferably fresh, - 15 grams;
- fine salt - 10 grams;
- refined oil - 1 tablespoon;
- 200 ml of milk (you can knead on water), some housewives take milk and boiled water in equal proportions;
- spices of your choice.
Make a dough
Opara is a preparatory stage in the preparation of yeast dough for baking wheat bread in the oven according to the recipe. When oil is added to the dough, it becomes difficult for the yeast and it is difficult for them to start their activity. To facilitate the work of fungi, first knead a light dough, only in water or milk with the addition of a small amount of flour.
Dissolve the yeast in water and add about 100 grams of sifted white flour. Stir until a homogeneous consistency is formed and set in heat to lift. Do not forget to cover the dough with a natural cloth.
After half an hour, check the dough. It should be filled with bubbles and a clear yeast smell will appear.
Kneading and baking dough
When the yeast has earned and raised a small portion of the dough in a dough, you can begin the bulk of the work on preparing the dough for baking homemade wheat bread with a recipe in the oven. Refined oil and salt are added to the dough. Spices are added to the still sifted flour and mixed, then sent to the rest of the products in a batch.
Next is the kneading procedure. Knead the dough with strong pressing movements of the hands for 15 minutes. It is not just wrinkled, it is necessary to make several stretching and folding movements. If there is an electric mixer, it is advisable to use it.
The dough should not be sticky. It can stick to your hands for a long time, but do not rush to add flour. Stir patiently and after a while get the desired result. The dough will become homogeneous. Then the container is again covered with a towel and put in heat for an hour. The dough should rise twice. Only after that it is transferred to a greased form and again covered with a napkin. When the dough has risen, the mold is put in a preheated oven and baked at a temperature of 200 minutes for half an hour.
Before you put the workpiece in the oven, make cuts on the top surface. It is possible to remove wheat bread cooked according to the recipe for baking in the oven only after complete cooling. The product is fragrant and airy. Bread is stored for a long time and at the same time remains fresh.
Wheat-rye bread in the oven
The recipe for this bread includes two types of flour - white wheat and dark rye. To start baking, prepare the following ingredients:
- white sifted flour of the highest grade - 200 grams;
- rye - 100 grams;
- a package of dry yeast - 10 grams;
- refined vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon;
- salt - 1 tsp;
- as much sugar;
- water - 220 grams.
Cooking dough
Put the dough first: throw sugar and a couple of spoons of flour mixture into warm water. Shuffle everything by hand, crushing each lump. You can use a whisk. When the dough begins to emit gas and bubble, add oil, salt and the rest of the flour to it. Mix well. The dough should be dense, but soft to the touch. Sprinkle a bowl of flour and put a lump of dough in it, be sure to cover it with a napkin and put in a warm place without drafts. The dough should increase its volume at least twice. It will take 1 - 1.5 hours.
Then, with your hands, knead the baking dish on the surface of the table. Smear the baking dish with vegetable oil and put the dough in it, make a couple of notches with a sharp knife and let it rise again. Turn on the oven in advance so that it warms up. Then put the baking dish at a temperature of 200 degrees. After half an hour, check the bread. Readiness can be determined with a wooden skewer, piercing it with pastries. There should not be any crumbs on the stick. To make the crust crisp, a few minutes before turning off the oven, walk along the top of the bread with a brush dipped in milk.
Tips & Tricks
To bake wheat bread in the oven at home according to the recipes given in the article, you must follow the general rules:
- Air will turn out bread, for baking which white flour was sifted through a sieve. It is saturated with oxygen, and at the same time gets rid of small lumps and possible bugs.
- Be sure to crush the dough for 15 minutes (at least). You need to push hard and in different directions.
- Before putting the form into the oven, check the readiness of the test with your finger. When touching it, there should be a small depression, which quickly aligns back.
- Be sure to make incisions at the top. If it is round bread, then a single crescent incision is enough. If a long loaf is baked, then several diagonal cuts are made at regular intervals.
- Do not open the oven door for the first half hour to prevent the dough from settling.
Output
In the article we described in detail several recipes for wheat bread in the oven with a photo. You now know how to bake a classic version of bread on water with yeast, how to make fragrant spiced bread for an amateur. It is advisable to use flour of 1 or 2 grades so that the bakery retains all the useful minerals and vitamins. Cook with pleasure!