Bake This Holiday More Special By Baking Your Own Bread

In a season of giving, baking your own bread can make this holiday season even more delicious and inviting. People love to bake during the holidays. Pies, cakes, cookies, you name it. The holiday season turns into the baking season.

According to one survey, the holiday baking tradition is as essential as decorating the tree, listening to holiday music, and watching holiday movies.

Sugar cookies, carrot cake, and pumpkin pie top most lists of seasonal favorites, though personally, I reach for yellow cake with chocolate icing, cream cheese Danish, and scones.

Baking bread, in many ways, is like chemistry. The measurements must be precise for the bread to come together correctly.

Big box stores and grocers bake and sell bulk bread, meaning there’s little difference between French and Italian bread and rolls.

Unfortunately, those delicious shops are more challenging to find than they used to be, and bulk bread doesn’t appeal to me. That’s why I make my own.

You can use all-purpose flour for any baking. I use it for bread, pasta, pie crusts, etc. Some bread recipes suggest using bread flour, but it’s not necessary. All-purpose flour has between 9 and 11% protein, and bread flour contains as much as 13%.

In short, this means bread flour makes a more dense and chewy loaf. As a home baker, I find all-purpose easier to handle. Besides, I have limited cupboard space and could take up half the kitchen with all the different flours on the market.

Years ago, I made a rookie mistake and tried to make bread using self-rising flour, which was a disaster. Self-rising flour already contains baking soda, a leavening agent. Adding yeast makes the dough rise too fast, and the bread collapses while cooking.

Sugar helps activate the yeast, so adding at least a teaspoon is important because it will assist in the fermentation process.

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In a season of giving, baking your own bread can make this holiday season even more delicious and inviting. People love to bake during the holidays. Pies, cakes, cookies, you name it. The holiday season turns into the baking season.