New Castle, DE, Nov. 19, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Want to let your bread making skills shine and enjoy the holidays? Making crusty artisan-style breads can be daunting for home bakers as well as for professionals. But with the right tools and a little practice, gift-worthy results are within your reach.
The magic of bread baking tastes place in the oven. That is where what stars as a sticky lump of flour and water turns into an aromatic loaf. Professionals bake bread in brick-lined hearth ovens. The even intense heat these ovens produce guarantees billowy and crisp loaves. Steam injected into the ovens during baking keeps the surface of bread dough moist so that it can rise. Home ovens just can’t compete. They produce heat unevenly, often burning one side of a loaf before it cooks through. And adding steam to a home oven is a juggling act. You can spray water on your bread before it bakes. But this produces inconsistent results. You can toss water into a pan placed on the bottom of your oven. But you had better act quickly and jump back to avoid being burned.
Covered ceramic bakeware from Emile Henry helps you create the kind of bread found at a quality bakeshop. And it takes away the frustration of inconsistent results. Are you considering making a rustic multigrain loaf for a holiday buffet? Or maybe you want to try your hand at baking sourdough bread? The Break Baking Cloche accommodates such hand-shaped round loaves. The ceramic clay it’s made from insulates your bread dough from temperature variations in the oven. The bakeware absorbs the ovens’ heat and sends it back through the dough. Your loaf will rise thoroughly because the thick ceramic base conducts heat slowly and evenly. Most such loaves need steam to rise. But with a covered bread baker, there’s no need to add steam; the lid traps any moisture escaping from the dough. And because the underside of the lid is unglazed, it absorbs steam escaping from the dough to dry out the bread and make it crisp.
If you feel your hand-shaping skills are lacking, look for molded ceramic bakeware. Divots in a roll mold like the Emile Henry Crown Bread Baker help make an attractive presentation regardless of your skills. It would be perfect for making a batch of giftable pumpkin bread or raisin dinner rolls. (Rewarm the rolls before serving and bring them to the table in the baker.) Even hard-to-handle wet dough bakes into a uniform wand shape when using the Emile Henry Baguette Baker. It holds three loaves, enough bread to feed a dozen or more around your holiday table.
Using ceramic bakeware requires few special techniques. A light coating of flour inside the mold helps ensure that your bread dough doesn’t stick. When baking sweet yeast breads especially those packed with raisins and dried fruit, lightly oil the bottom and sides of your ceramic bakeware. This prevents the sugars from crystalizing and sticking to the sides of the loaf mold. And if you want a rustic appearance on your loaves, dust the surface of the dough before baking with flour.
The soul-satisfying taste and smell of fresh bread brings friends and family together. Gather your tools and consider yeast bread baking this holiday season.
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