Tender wheat bread without leaven

Sådan gør du

Dough - three kneading methods

You can choose to knead on a machine or by hand.

Food mixer

A food mixer will knead your dough relatively fast – in approx. 12-15 minutes – and your arms won’t get tired and you brow will be sweat-free. Then again, you may overdo the kneading, which is practically impossible if you knead by hand.

#KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR MIXER There are many different food mixers out there, and every single one of them will jump and dance across your kitchen table when mixing bread dough. So keep an eye on your machine to make sure it doesn’t jump onto the floor. And if it sounds a little strained, then give it a rest before finishing your dough.

1. Mix cold water and leaven in the bowl. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. 2. Add flour and salt to the mixing bowl. 3. Place the mixing bowl in the food mixer along with its dough hook, and knead at lowest possible speed for about one minute, to gather the ingredients without flour flying all over the place. 4. Turn up the speed and knead thoroughly. How long you need to knead the dough depends on the water-flour ratio, so don’t look at your watch but keep an eye on the dough. When it slips completely off the sides of the mixing bowl and gathers around the dough hook, turn it off immediately. Your dough is ready. 5. You can do the gluten-test to make sure that you dough is thoroughly kneaded: lift a bit of dough and gently pull it until it becomes a bit like parchment, without breaking it. If you can do this, you have perfect dough ready to rise.

By hand - the quick method

By using this method, you’re trying to imitate a food mixer to some extent; only you use a wooden ladle. It may also be a good idea if you let the dough rest for ½ hour before kneading it.

Put water and leaven in a large mixing bowl. Then add yeast, the two different types of flour and salt. Mix, or rather whisk the dough with a flat wooden ladle, while scraping the dough off the sides of the bowl from time to time, which will allow air to seep into dough. You should give it a good bashing for approx. 10 minutes or longer, with a few inserted breaks, until the dough has transformed from floury ‘glue’ to smooth, shiny and supple dough that easily slips off the sides of the bowl.

#TAKE TURNS If there’re two of you baking together, you can take turns at mixing and resting – collaborative efforts will only make your dough better!

By hand - the gentle method

Using this method, you’ll get a good feel of how the dough and gluten binders slowly develop. At the same time, this method requires a minimum of strength – you just need plenty of time. It takes approx. four hours all in all, where you regularly show the dough a little attention by lifting it – approx. once every half hour. In other words, this method is highly suitable for holiday baking or when there are commercials on TV anyway.

1. Put all ingredients, except salt, in a container, e.g. a plastic container with a lid. 2. Mix the dough by hand for approx. one minute. 3. Sprinkle salt on top of the dough and put the lid loosely on top of the container and leave it to rest for 30-40 minutes. This part of the process is called autolyse. 4. Place a small bowl with water next to your container. Dip your hand in the water and grab one corner of the dough. Carefully pull it upwards. 5. Pull the dough towards the opposite corner of the container – and let go. 6. Bring the container quarter of the way around and repeat procedure. 7. Keep turning the container and stretching the dough, four times in all. Loosely place the lid on top again and leave for another 30 minutes. Then repeat the entire procedure each half hour, 6-7 times in all. You’ll get a feeling of how the dough becomes more and more expandable and supple with each time.

Baking the bread

Now you’re ready to bake your bread – no extra rising time is needed as the dough is light enough as it is. Carefully lift your dough onto a piece of baking paper, using your spatula(s). Then gently slide the baking paper with the dough onto the hot baking sheet or stone already in the oven –you can use a baking spade or a piece of cardboard, e.g. the lid on a pizza box. Once you get the hang of it, you can lose the baking paper, but it’s easier to start this way compared to only using a baking spade brushed with flour.

Bake your bread for approx. five minutes at the oven’s highest temperature (250° C-275° C). Then lower the temperature to approx. 230°. We say approximately, because ovens are different and they bake differently, which is why the actual temperature in your oven may be significantly different from our oven – and this influences the time it takes to bake a loaf of. So, baking temperatures and baking times are approximations – utilize your senses (possibly aided by relevant equipment) to assess when your bread is done.

If the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it and its color is nicely dark brown, your bread is usually done. If you’re not entirely sure, we recommend that you use a thermometer to measure the bread’s core temperature the first couple of times. Stick the thermometer’s awl right into center of your bread, where the temperature should be 99°-100° C.

When in doubt, it’s better to bake your bread a little longer, only make sure you don’t scorch the crust. Move the baking stone/sheet up or down a notch, depending on which position darkens the bread more. You can also turn down the heat or cover the bread with aluminum foil, or simply place a baking sheet between the bread and the oven’s top or bottom.

When done, take the bread out of the oven and place it on a roasting rack, to ensure air circulation, and leave it there to cool. Don’t slice the bread the moment it’s out of the oven, wait until it’s cooled down, or you may well press down on it and ruin the texture. So be patient, even though it’s often hard…