How You Should Be Adding Water When Baking Bread - Tasting Table (2024)

FAQs

How You Should Be Adding Water When Baking Bread - Tasting Table? ›

Dough with not enough water will not only feel dry to the touch, but will also be difficult to stretch. If that's the case, you'll want to add water before the dough has the chance to proof and damage the gluten. Add the water little by little until the dough is wet, but not sticky.

If you're baking the bread in a Dutch oven, steam from the water in the dough will be sufficient to get a crispy crust. If you're putting the loaf on a baking stone or a steel, put a pan on the bottom of the oven and add a cup of water to it as you put the loaf in the oven.

This may seem obvious, but don't just dump more water into your bread dough. To incorporate more water into the mixture, add only 1 tablespoon of additional liquid at a time, kneading the dough just until it comes together. Too much kneading and the dough might not be dry anymore, but now it's tough.

When placing your baking products into the oven, add 100-200 ml of water (depending on the size of the pan) into the baking pan or baking tray and quickly close the oven. This will create water vapour, which will settle on your baking products and give them the perfect look and crispiness you want.

Method #1: Baking bread with steam using a spray bottle

The simplest method of adding steam to your oven is to spray the loaf with warm water prior to putting it into the oven. Spray the oven once the bread is loaded, and then again about 5 minutes into the bake.

High ratios of water, when combined with active fermentation and good gluten development (through time, mixing, and folds), have the potential to significantly open the crumb (or the “alveolar structure”) of loaves.

Your dough can become sticky when you add too much water or the flour isn't suitable for the type of dough you are making. Over proofing or fermenting the dough can also result in the gluten structure weakening causing sticky dough.

So, 1,000 grams of flour and 750 grams of water will always be 75% hydration; it doesn't matter if the flour is rye, whole wheat, buckwheat, or gluten-free. However, whole-grain flours are “thirstier,” and doughs made with whole-grain flours typically require more water.

In bread baking, hydration level is determined by comparing the amount of flour versus the amount of water (or other liquid) in that dough. What is this? So, if you have a bread dough that uses 1000 grams of flour, and the recipe calls for 600 grams of water, then the dough is a 60% hydration dough.

Wetting the dough causes the surface to steam. Covering it traps the moisture. This partnership stops the bread from drying out on the surface in the hot air of the oven and forming a premature crust. Your bread rises more and produces a richer colour, becoming glossy on the surface.

What kind of water is best for bread baking? ›

Soft water has less than 50 ppm, while hard water has over 200 ppm. Generally, water of medium hardness, with about 100 to 150 ppm of minerals, is best suited to bread baking. The minerals in water provide food for the yeast, and therefore can benefit fermentation.

Pop the loaves into a 375º oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. The loaves should be golden brown. If you want to be sure they're baked through, use your thermometer to check the internal temperature of the bread. You're looking for about 185º.

Cold water simply slows down the rising process needed for bread to develop properly. If water is too warm, over 115 degrees, it will kill yeast and dough will not rise.

Add Milk

To make your bread soft and fluffy, another trick used by commercial bakers is replacing water with milk. Milk has fats which make bread softer.

Yeast is another critical factor in ensuring your loaf doesn't come out dry. As the dough rises and ferments overnight, it will produce carbon dioxide, which helps to expand the dough and give it a more airy texture.

You place the roasting tray in the bottom of the oven and as you load your loaf you pour in a cup of hot water into the roasting tray. This can produce a lot of hot steam so be careful to stay well away to avoid burns. Don't put too much water in. You only want enough for the first 10-20 minutes of the bake.

Water is necessary for yeast fermentation and reproduction; softer doughs will ferment more quickly than dry doughs. Water is responsible for the consistency of bread dough. The temperature of water can be varied in order to obtain dough of the correct temperature.

Steam in the oven and subsequently on the surface of your loaves helps keep that skin pliable and stretchy during baking. If your dough dries and bakes too quickly on the exterior, it can harden off before it rises to its full potential (and you may not see a satisfying gringe, either).

Eggs also add moisture, color, flavor, and nutritional value. Generally, recipes call for large eggs. The most common liquid ingredients in quick breads are milk and water. The liquid moistens the batter, helps activate the gluten in the flour, and dissolves the sugar in the recipe.