Baking Artisanal Bread at Home (2024)

A decade back, a friend and I started on a journey of bread baking. Both of us, being engineers, wanted to know the science as much as we wanted to learn the art. Early results were a spectacular spectrum of failure (at least for me, he did have partial success). So after a few tries, I gave up. Mainly because, I still hadn’t caught up on the whys and hows, and, unlike cooking, where you can keep on fiddling with the dish, to try and compensate for your mistakes, baking is an unforgiving art. You put the dough in, and start praying — something atheists like me are not very good at. So finally, in 2019, years after my earlier failures that had left scars on my cook’s ego, I decided to go back to the basics.

Sometime last year, I got my hands on Ken Forkish’s book “Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast” — a bible of artisanal bread making. It was a busy year workwise, and while I wanted to bake bread again, like a heart-broken lover coming off a terrible last relationship, I wanted to re-enter the arena only after I knew what I was doing. So I went through the book, at a snail’s pace — taking copious notes, researching on the internet where I thought something wasn’t clear enough, buying the right tools, and so on — till I was ready to bake again. I had given myself a deadline — and to keep myself honest, I had also promised my ten-year-old son that we would bake at least one bread at home in 2019.

See Also

Introducing our Artisan Bread series

It was Dec 30, 2019, when I had my last chance to live up to the promise, given that I wanted to work with an overnight proofing (we’ll come to that) recipe from the book, I decided to take the plunge again — only this time, armed with a much better understanding of the process. I barely passed, yet the bread was better by far than anything I had managed till then. It was made with just four ingredients. And it was delicious.

The year 2020 brought the infamous lockdown, which in a way, has made it easier to plan and bake bread — as is evident from the marked interest is artisan (especially sourdough) bread baking at home. And I’m not exactly been immune to it.

For those, like me, who need to know how things work, before they try them, I want to share some of what I’ve learned.

Disclaimer: use this as a starting point, because, I’m just a fellow traveler on the road, who recently traveled these paths — neither an expert, not a tour guide.

A typical artisan bread “algorithm” looks something like this: Autolyse, Mix, Rest (with folds), Divide and shape, Proof, Bake, Wait to Let it cool (internally too).

Yes, a few new words there for those who don’t already know the bread-making process, but hang in there, with me.

Autolysing is simply mixing water and flour, and letting it rest for a while, for the flour to absorb the water (liquids) before the addition of salt, which tends to tighten the gluten networks. It’s strictly not a necessary step, but it makes it way easier to handle the dough, especially with higher levels of hydration.

Mixing is when all the remaining ingredients (salt and yeast) are added to the dough and incorporated thoroughly. This is where you “knead” the dough. Why is kneading important? It allows the yeast to be distributed to all parts of the dough, and more importantly, activates the gluten.

No-knead breads are getting popular, as those recipes simplify breadmaking process significantly — they use passive time, rather than active time and effort on the part of the baker, to do the trick of gluten development, however the jury isn’t quite out yet on it. And frankly, kneading is the only real “hands-on” part of the process, so don’t throw the romance of bread making out yet!

There are various techniques to mix and fold the dough (Ken Forkish advocates “pincer method”, that’s very simple, and does not need the dough to be moved between the mixing bowl and the countertop multiple times during bulk fermentation.

Bulk fermentation is the first fermentation after mixing all the ingredients. The first quarter of the bulk-fermentation is when you apply folds. Then you let it rest untouched, letting it rise 2–3 times in volume.

Divide and Conquer, err Shape: After the bulk fermentation, it’s time to shape the loaves (or loaf, depending on how much dough you have). The cutting is best done with a dough scraper, but you can use your chef’s knife or any large blade. Shaping is the most intimate activity — it’s about care, not force. Do no harm is the principle here. The air is already in the dough. The gluten strands have formed at this point. Your job is to be gentle — making sure the air remains in, and the gluten strands are not torn. Check out videos on youtube, there are plenty. This is when the dough is really elastic, and fun to work with. Your last chance to handle it. So be good!

Proofing: This is the secondary fermentation stage, and could be from a couple of hours (outside) to tens of hours (inside a refrigerator). This is the final rest before loaves go in the oven, and this is where the flavor is developed. The shaped loaves in the previous step will spread out in this step, nothing to worry about. There are “proof tests”, like finger dent test, but basically, there is an optimal window when the dough is proved just right (the Goldilock right), that’s when you put it in the oven.

Note: You can get a proofing basket like in the image below, or you can line up a regular container with a flour-dusted towel. It’s expensive in India, to buy a proofing basket, but this is a one-time investment. It lasts long with no real care needed.

Scoring: If you follow Ken Forkish method you don’t need this as the “seam” side is kept (where the folds meet while shaping) up while baking, but scoring is simply slashing the dough ball on top (a slightly deep cut) with a sharp object. This serves two purposes — one is it stops air from bursting out from random spots, during the oven rise, and thus avoids big hollow pockets, and it also allows for artistic designs on the loaf.

Scoring was also used in past to mark breads of a specific baker, when a common hearth was used to bake multiple breads from different bakers. That could be where the tradition of beautiful “bread art” may have started.

Baking: The best results I’ve had are when I’ve baked bread inside a closed dutch oven that’s pre-heated in a hot oven (40 mins to an hour). The advantage of this is that the “steam” that is released as the moist dough is heated, is trapped inside the small chamber of the dutch oven, and that helps with an excellent (hard and crisp) crust formation. The trick is: bake for 20–30 minutes with the lid closed, and another 20 mins with the lid taken off — at this point, the crust should already hard and little brown (not dark brown as it would be after this step).

Bread is typically baked at around 240–250 degrees , centigrade (460–480 degrees fahrenheit), almost all through. So for most home ovens, that means maximum heat.

If you don’t have a cast iron dutch oven, you can use any heavy metal pan with a lid.

Wait: This is a very important, and very difficult step, for a new bread maker. An amazing smell is tempting the devil within you to cut it right away and taste it. On top of it there is the curiosity — how has the crumb formed. But remember — good things come to those who wait. It’s never truer than here. That’s because, while the surface cools much faster, as it's exposed to air, the core is hot for much longer (think of our mother earth, which is still cooling at the center after 4.5 billion years). So baking is still in progress at this stage. There is also a process of “starch retrogradation” that’s active at this point, which is essential to the texture of the finished bread. So this is an extremely important part of the recipe. Trust me. Don’t trust the devil in you.

Things to Remember for a New Baker

Ratios by weight not volume: A cheap digital weighing scale is your best bet on this journey. Buy it already. Baking is an exact science, and measuring ingredients by weight means you’ve got the first step right, every time — something you cannot do easily for the other steps!

Temperature is a key ingredient: All bread recipes assume a certain range for the room temperature, so if your kitchen is warmer/cooler, that could be the most important factor that affects the end product. You’ll need to shorten/lengthen the fermentation, or move the dough container to cooler/warmer areas in your kitchen as the rough rests.

Flour quality will decide bread quality: Try with different brands, and note down the differences. For Indians, the whole-wheat flour is the biggest challenge, as the Indian process for grinding the flour tends to partially destroy both the wheat starch and gluten. So be mindful of that. If your bread is too dense, there are multiple reasons possible, but flour should be your first suspect. And yes, use fresh flour wherever possible.

Touch the dough: The dough will tell you more than the theory. From experience you’ll know when’s the right time (it could be hours before or after, depending on temperature, quality of yeast, flour, water, and so on, than what the recipe says). You’ll learn as you go.

Longer the Fermentation, Tastier the Bread: Plan ahead and go for recipes with longer and slower fermentation. You would be surprised how tasty bread with baker’s yeast can be. You don’t always need sourdough (although, sourdough is, well sourdough!). Also, a corollary: darker the crust (to reasonable levels, you don’t want to eat charcoal) the tastier the loaf. Hint: Maillard reaction.

Failure is part of the process: While bread-baking is an exact science, the variables are just too many to control, so you need to “adjust” for them. So yes, you’ll fail. But learn from the failure. Keep notes of every attempt, what you did differently. See what worked better. Adapt the recipe to your region. Till you get it right, don’t make multiple changes in different iterations. Play with one variable at a time. It’s okay to throw away a few loaves, but you’ll be a much better baker.

Best of luck! You’re in for a great ride.

I have used Ken Forkish’s Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast as my main reference (with the associated YouTube channel), but there are various other notable references that you can follow.

• Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson
• FoodGeek on YouTube is an excellent channel for bread baking tips and techniques (and he’s quite a geek, experimenting with multiple variables systematically)
• Bake with Jack on YouTube is another great channel to subscribe to, with frequent tips and tricks for bakers.
• The Bread Code on YouTube is one more option if those don’t work for you.
• If sourdough bread is what you’re primarily interested in, think of joining a Facebook group like The Perfect Loaf

References:

• Mark Bittman’s No-Knead Bread (Bittman popularized the concept in NYT)
• The Science of Kneading the Dough from The Spruce Eats
• To Knead or not to Knead is not the question: Slower Breads
• Against “No-Knead” Bread: Slate (I Neither endorse, nor contest)
• Bulk Fermentation Explained: King Arthur Baking
• Autolyse — What Why and How: Baker Bits

Equipment:

While many of these are strictly optional, I would recommend getting your hands on these (especially the ones in bold):

• A Cast Iron Dutch Oven that fits (and can be taken in an out at high-temperatures of the oven and the dutch oven) comfortably in your oven.
• Digital weighing scale with good accuracy (you need less range, more accuracy: up to 2 kg, but can measure down to a gram).
• Proofing basket
• Scraping knife
• Silicon gloves (normal cotton gloves are good, but when you’re handling a heavy and hot dutch oven, you’re better off with these)
• A mixing container that can hold all the dough, with a lid (I use a plastic container, as it’s easiest to manage)
• Bread knife: Trust me, you don’t want to cut your hard crust bread with normal knives. You need a knife with high serration. Check bread knives online. Get one. You owe it to your fingers.
• Bread lame, aka bread scoring knife
• Food thermometer
• Oven thermometer

Glossary of Commonly Used Terms in Bread-baking

• Oven Spring — the rise when the dough is heated in the oven. This determines how dense or light your crumb will be.
• Hydration — the liquid content measured against the flour quantity (not total quantity — so 100% hydration is possible, even beyond 100%)
• Folding — the process of stretching the dough and folding it on itself.
• Bulk Fermentation — the first fermentation that happens after mixing all the ingredients.
• Proofing — the last fermentation/resting before dough is pushed into the oven.
• Bakers percentages — see hydration above. All ingredients are always in proportion to the combined flour. So flour is always 100%. All other ingredients in the weight percentage of the four.
• Levain — aka the sourdough starter. Levain bread is thus bread made using such.
• Preferment — starter, but yeast-based.
• Scoring — cuts applied to the top surface of the dough.

[All images are created and owned by the author. All rights reserved]