Fear of Yeast

Not to sound like a broken record (hmm, maybe that phrase should be updated to “a broken CD”), but I was reading my food forum and there was a discussion on...

...the mediocrity of store-bought pizza dough. No, I am not talking about the dough already formed into large disks or (shudder) already topped, but the kind of dough available at “upscale” markets such as Trader Joe’s or Wegmans. It comes as a little blob in a bag and it is up to the consumer to stretch it, top it and bake it.

Frankly, this idea drives me nuts!!! (Even more than the thought of spending $$$ for those meringue cookies at Trader Joe’s and I know that many of you have heard me rant on and on about that topic, so I’ll drop it… for now.)

Flour, water, yeast and salt (and possibly a little oil in there too). People are buying a simple mixture of flour, water, yeast and salt. If you have the flour, water, yeast and salt, a bowl, a spoon and a little arm strength, there is no reason why you cannot make a superior product to pre-made dough you can buy.

Although many folks have a hard time believing this, there really is no magic involved in making bread. No special skills, no ritualistic sacrifices to the gods of baking, not even any essential special equipment (not that you can’t use special equipment, my pantry is testimony to that). The toppings for pizza are more of a cooking challenge than the crust!

So for the record, here are my basics of bread:

-- Yeast. Do not be afraid. Go to the grocery store and buy the little packets of yeast that are located in the baking aisle. The brand and type (rapid-rise, instant or regular) are not that important at this point. But be sure to check the back of the envelope to see that the yeast is not past the expiration date. And under no condition buy the cakes of fresh yeast in the refrigerated section. While fresh yeast can be wonderful, more often, it is simply dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead yeast will do nothing for you or your bread.

-- Flour. Buy unbleached. Save the bleached flour for your biscuits, cookies and pie crusts. Buy King Arthur brand if you can find it (many Safeway's carry it now). Gold Medal is my second choice, but most any unbleached flour will work. Like the various types of yeast, specialty flours (such as bread flour) are for when you are more experienced. And when you are ready to get into that level of baking, you’ll know it, so don’t give it another thought for now.

-- Water. Out of the tap. Don’t worry about the chlorine content – the yeast are much tougher than many make them out to be. If you are mixing the water with just yeast, it should be warm. If you are adding the water to a yeast/flour mixture, it should be as hot out of the tap as possible.

-- Salt. Table salt, iodized salt, non-iodized salt, kosher salt, sea salt, gourmet salt hand-harvested under a full summer moon by a guy named Pierre from a pristine ¼ mile stretch of coast in Brittany… It does not matter that much. The only point of concern is that the large-grained salts do not measure the same as a small-grained salt. Generally the volume given in most recipes is geared toward small-grained table salt, so if you use kosher salt, you might need a little more. But, frankly, you probably won't be able to tell anyway. Just don’t forget the salt. Unsalted bread is definitely an acquired taste.

-- Other ingredients. Oil, butter, eggs, sugar, nuts, fruits, vegetables, meats, flavorings, other grains and specialty flours. All can be added in various amounts, but I suggest avoiding them until you get a feel for basic dough. A surprising amount of flavor can be obtained just from flour, water, yeast and salt.

-- Proofing the yeast. Don’t. Really. Unless the yeast is beyond the expiration date marked on the package it will be alive. Trust me. This is the 21st century. We have the technology. (And many rapid-rise yeasts are so speedy they can easily starve to death in ten minutes in a pool of warm water containing only a teaspoon or so of sugar or flour. Don’t be that cruel!)

-- Mixing. Unless you are looking to get things up and running really, really quickly (and this exception is used in the recipe below), mix one half of the total amount of flour and the rest of the dry ingredients together and then dump in the wet ingredients. Mix with a stand mixer or by hand with a strong spoon.

-- Kneading. How much kneading depends on what you want in your final product. In fact, some gluten (the stuff that makes dough stretchy and able to rise) will form on its own without any help from you at all. Use the recipe as a guide and trust what you feel. The only advantage to hand kneading over kneading with a mixer is that when you knead by hand you cannot help but notice when the dough has had enough.

-- Consistency. How much flour to add while kneading… err of the side of too little. This is the point were most people get themselves into trouble. Some of the best breads come from the wettest doughs. If using a pan with sides and with enough time in the oven, pretty much any dough firmer than a milkshake consistency can be made into a bread. Free-form loaves obviously need a bit more body. But while your first attempts may not be pretty and tall, any free-form bread will be edible as long as it does not run off the baking stone and burn on the bottom of the oven. A rule of thumb is to never make your dough firmer than the consistency of playdough (the commercial kind, not the really soft homemade kind my mother made for me).

-- Rising. Long rises, short rises, one rise, multiple rises, cool rises, warm rises, cold rises, no rise! A myriad of options. All will affect the texture and taste. Warmer = Faster. Cooler = Slower + More Flavor. Experiment. Have fun. This stage is pretty difficult mess up.

-- Forming and Proofing. Stretching the top of the surface of the formed loaf will make it look nicer, but will not really affect the taste. So don’t stress out about this step. Worry more about the proofing (the final rise before baking). If the formed dough is over-proofed, it can deflate in the oven, or even worse to witness, as you are carrying it to the oven. Don’t let any dough proof more than double in size, and most doughs don’t even need that much of an increase (and a few are not proofed at all). And remember, you can almost always take over-proofed dough (before it is baked) and reform it and start the proofing step over.

-- Baking. Buy a baking stone. Or better yet, two. Put one on the lowest rack in your oven and the other on the highest rack. Preheat your oven at least 45 minutes before you bake with the stone(s) in the oven so they are nice and hot. Bake your breads on the lower stone with the upper stone as close above as possible without touching the baking loaves (take into account the bread might also rise some during baking). Bake your loaves until they are well-browned (short of burning it, it is hard to over-bake bread) and loaf-shaped breads should sound a bit hollow when tapped on the bottom (you’ll need to tip them out of the pan to check if they are not free-form loaves.)

And that is it. Yes, it looks like a lot of steps, but it is really a simple and, more importantly, a forgiving process. Keep in mind that it is only flour, water, yeast and salt. If things go horribly wrong, toss it and start over (although I’ve never made a bread that could not be eaten in some form – turn a dense loaf into bread crumbs, make croutons, strata, bread pudding…). Experimentation is the real key to becoming a good baker, so have good time, go wild. Get flour all over yourself and your kitchen. Bread baking is kitchen chemistry at its most fun. Overcome that fear of yeast!

And for all of you who are buying pizza dough, please, please, please try this recipe:

QUICK & EASY PIZZA DOUGH
Makes one large pizza

2 cups water, warm
2 teaspoons dry yeast (this will be a partial envelope)
2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

In a large bowl (or bowl of mixer), sprinkle the yeast over the water and stir until it dissolves. Stir in the 2 cups of flour and the salt and stir briskly until smooth, ~2 minutes (~30 seconds if using the flat beater in a mixer). Mix in the remaining 2 cups flour and stir ~2 minutes longer (~1 minute if using a mixer). Stir just until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and the flour is incorporated. The dough will be fairly wet and sticky.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until doubled in volume, 30 to 40 minutes. (Or, for more flavor, cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight. Remove the dough 2 hours before shaping and let it sit, covered, before proceeding with the recipe.)

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. If you have a pizza stone put it on the bottom rack of the oven (and if using a stone, preheat the oven ~1 hour before baking).

Oil a half-sheet or pizza pan generously with the olive oil (for ease in removal of the baked pizza, I like to line the pan with a piece of parchment paper and lightly oil the parchment). Pour the dough onto the pan, scraping it from the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula or flexible dough scraper. Liberally oil your hands and the surface of the dough with olive oil and gently press and stretch the dough with your fingertips until it covers the whole pan.

Immediately, place the plain crust (without toppings) in the oven (on top of the baking stone if you are using one) and reduce the oven temperature to 450 degrees. Bake for ~20 until the crust just starts to color. Remove from the oven, top with your desired toppings and bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes until the toppings are heated through and the cheese is lightly browned.

(Adapted from a recipe in No Need To Knead by Suzanne Dunaway)