TTC – The Complete Guide to Baking Bread

TTC – The Complete Guide to Baking Bread

01: The Ecosystem of Bread
While you’ve used many words to describe bread over your lifetime, you’ve probably never used “ecosystem.” And yet, as Chef Kalanty explains, bread is exactly that—an ecosystem supporting one living organism: single-celled yeast. Learn the appropriate protocol for creating dough and the FATTOM constituents of this environment: food, acid, time, temperature, oxygen, and moisture.
27 min

02: The Chemistry of Gluten
Discover the important role of gluten, the protein that gives the dough its elasticity and shape. Learn how it develops in the dough and what causes dough to become sticky. Experiment with the dough’s moisture content to determine how that affects gluten development and subsequent bread shape and texture.
24 min

03: Fermentation Civilization
Learn about the conditions that cause yeast to start and stop fermentation as part of the organism’s natural life cycle. Discover how yeast creates carbon dioxide and how you can influence that production by using water to change the dough temperature. Chef Kalanty also illustrates how fermentation affects the crumb of the finished product.
21 min

04: Shaping Physics
You’ll be surprised to discover how your posture, table height, and the force you apply to the dough all affect the bread’s gluten elasticity and carbon dioxide content. Follow Chef Kalanty as he shows how to create first-form options and then the final shapes for baguettes, bâtards, dinner rolls, and knots.
28 min

05: Why Do We Proof?
After creating your final shapes, but before baking, the dough is proofed, a resting period during which the yeast is left to create more carbon dioxide. Learn how to develop an appropriate proofing environment in your kitchen using your dishwasher, kitchen cabinet, or second oven as you manage the humidity, temperature, and timing of the yeast environment to create the desired bread structure.
17 min

06: Inside the Bake
Learn about the three stages of baking and why the bread must ripen before eating. Watch Chef Kalanty as he demonstrates how scoring the top of the dough affects the bread’s expansion and ultimate shape as gases escape during the first phase of baking, oven spring.
28 min

07: The Master Recipe
Learn how to make an all-in-one-bucket dough that can stay in your refrigerator for up to two weeks while you cut pieces off to make breads, flatbreads, and dessert rolls. Follow Chef François as she builds the master recipe from the basics: water, salt, yeast, and flour.
17 min

08: Boule Variations and Slow Cooker Bread
Using dough from the master recipe, learn to make a couronne, a traditional circular bread, this time with embedded olives, as well as a delicious cheddar cheese bread. You’ll also experiment with baking bread in a Dutch oven and a slow cooker.
16 min

09: Baguettes
Chef François demonstrates how to make the classic baguette, the long, thin bread of France known for its soft interior and crunchy exterior. Learn how the stretching, relaxing, and shaping of the dough all affect the final product. In addition, you’ll learn to make the traditional epi, using kitchen shears, and wreath bread.
24 min

10: Sandwich Breads, Buns, and Rolls
Learn a simple way to make a tasty sandwich bread with very little dough work. Chef François also demonstrates how to make a sandwich-shaped loaf swirled with apples and cinnamon sugar. For smaller breads, learn how to make individual buns, pull-apart rolls, and crescent rolls.
18 min

11: Pita and Naan
Although naan is traditionally cooked on a tandoor oven, Chef François demonstrates how to make this quick flatbread in a stove-top skillet and on a cooking stone. You’ll also learn how to make pita, both as bread and as a crispy cracker bowl.
18 min

12: Pizza and Focaccia
Learn why pizza chefs twirl dough as Chef François prepares a classic Neapolitan pizza, a cracker-crust pizza, and a Sicilian sheet-pan pizza. You’ll also learn to make focaccia in a round cake pan.
23 min

13: Stuffed Breads
Learn to make spinach-and-feta stuffed bread, sweet pinwheels, cinnamon buns, and caramel rolls using butter, sugar, cheese, and jelly.
28 min

14: Getting Started with Whole Grain Baking
Review key bread ingredients and baking language while making honey whole wheat sandwich bread, focusing on dough temperature and mise en place.
24 min

15: Dough Development and Fermentation
Discover dough hydration, kneading, flavor development through fermentation, and ways to increase bitterness.
23 min

16: Shaping, Proofing, and Baking
Learn loaf pan proofing, final preparation, and how to evaluate a finished loaf.
22 min

17: Raisin Whole Wheat Swirl Bread
Learn ingredient incorporation, rolling techniques, and whole wheat structure.
26 min

18: Rustic Whole Wheat Boule
Soak whole wheat berries, shape a boule, use proofing baskets, and bake on stone.
29 min

19: Multi-Seed Bâtard
Use pre-fermenting, soaked seeds, and a couche for structure and flavor.
37 min

20: Multigrain Boule
Combine soaking, pre-fermentation, and dough development to create a multigrain loaf.
21 min

21: Introduction
Explore sourdough, natural fermentation, and creating a starter.
20 min

22: Making Pain au Levain
Create levain, knead using autolyze, and build strong gluten bonds.
25 min

23: Baking Pain au Levain
Create steam, shape, score, and bake sourdough.
28 min

24: Pain au Levain Variations
Make olive focaccia, rosemary fougasse, and olive fougasse.
14 min

25: Going Whole Grain
Explore hydration, sprouting, and healthier whole grain loaves.
19 min

26: Something’s Gone A-Rye
Discover rye bread and Rugbrød, using a stand mixer and rye-specific techniques.