Crazy Dough: One Easy Bread Recipe with Endless Variations - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (2024)

FAQs

What are the 7 ingredients in quick breads? ›

The possibilities are endless, but the common factor is the basic ingredients of fat, sugar, eggs, flour, liquid, leavening agent, and a flavoring ingredient. The flavoring might be a fruit or vegetable, a liquid such as buttermilk or fruit juice, an extract, herbs, or spices.

Tip #1: Don't add too much extra flour. The amount of flour you need to bring the dough together into a smooth, elastic, and cohesive ball will depend on your kitchen environment. If the dough is tacky, or even a little sticky, don't worry. It will absorb moisture as it rests and rises.

You can also put hot water in a heat-safe dish and place it on the floor of a cold oven (or on a lower shelf). The steam and heat from the water will help the temperature rise just enough that the yeast is active. The steam will also assist in keeping the surface of the dough moist so it will stretch as it rises.

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

Muffins, coffeecakes, scones, and pancakes are examples of quick breads, that like their name implies, can be prepared quickly in a kitchen.

Instant milk powder makes bread dough super soft and fluffy and also helps to give it a good rise. It also contributes to the dough staying nice and soft after baking for a little longer than a recipe that does not use milk powder. I use full fat milk powder but if you can only find non-fat or skim that works too.

A dough enhancer is a powder that is supposed to make your dough smoother and is what commercial bakers often use to obtain the smooth textured bread you buy in the store. My bread doesn't last long since we eat it quickly, but it is supposed to help with shelf life as well!"

If you have a high hydration dough, it's going to be sticky. That's all there is too it. If you add more flour, you'll end up with a really tough, dry loaf, so don't add more flour! First thing you can do is set the dough aside after you've added your water and mixed it together.

And It's not just cakes that benefit from a touch of vinegar, but also biscuits, muffins, and even bread. So when it comes to bread, it's the same concept – vinegar inhibits gluten formation which leads to a more relaxed and extensible dough, resulting in a less dense and chewy bread.

What makes bread rise besides yeast? ›

Baking Soda

It helps breads rise and gives them their light and airy texture. Unlike yeast, baking soda needs an acid to activate it. By adding an acid to baking soda (such as lemon juice or cream of tartar) a chemical reaction occurs that produces carbon dioxide and fills your bread with air — much like yeast does.

If your dough didn't rise, the yeast is probably dead. This could be because the yeast was old, or because the water you bloomed it in was too hot. You can still bake the dough but don't expect the same flavor.

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier.

There's something magical about the bread you get at your local bakeries - they're always sooo soft and fluffy. Many of these breads, especially packaged ones, are made with a ton of chemical additives such as calcium propionate, amylase, and chlorine dioxide which help keep them soft, light, and fluffy for days.

All it takes is a small amount of dough enhancer per loaf to create a much lighter and fluffier result. Using a dough enhancer like Vital Wheat Gluten works to improve the texture and elasticity of the dough and elongate the strands of gluten. Doing so allows more room for the gas in the dough to develop and rise.

Flour – main ingredient, gives structure or body. Liquid – provides moisture, dissolves dry ingredients, some leavening in the steam while baking, amount determines type of batter or dough, thick or thin. Fats tenderize the dough, adding moisture, flavor. Leavening –something that incorporates air into a baked good.

For the ultimate in a tasty, high-protein, high fiber loaf, Food for Life developed the original 7-Sprouted Grains Bread. This unique bread contains no flour. Instead, we sprout and specially combine seven nutritious grains: Barley, Brown Rice, Corn, Millet, Oats, Rye, and Whole Wheat.

Quick breads are bread type products that are leavened with baking powder and baking soda instead of yeast. Quick breads include muffins, biscuits, scones, cornbread, and quick loaf breads like banana bread and zucchini bread.

2 The basic ingredients in a yeast dough are: flour, liquid, salt, sugar, fat, eggs and yeast. FLOUR: The flour used in making bread provides starch and protein, namely gluten.