Bread making: yeast breads, lean and enriched doughs, shaping, baking and cooling
What this domain tests
This domain tests the bread-making chain: formula balance, gluten strength, shaping, proofing, baking and cooling. Expect lean doughs such as baguette and boule, enriched doughs such as sandwich loaves and buns, and faults such as collapse or dense crumb.
Core rules
- Lean dough contains flour, water, yeast and salt; enriched dough adds sugar, fat, milk or eggs. Enrichment weakens gluten and slows fermentation, so enriched dough usually needs more mixing and longer proofing.
- Shaping creates surface tension. Use minimal dusting flour; too much flour gives dry, tight seams.
- Score just before baking to control expansion. Steam in the first minutes improves crust and oven spring for lean breads.
- Bake lean breads hot, often around 220-240°C, then finish at a lower temperature. Enriched breads usually bake lower, around 180-190°C, to avoid over-brown crust before the centre cooks.
- An internal temperature of about 96-99°C indicates a baked lean loaf. Cool on a rack so steam escapes; do not bag warm bread.
Worked example
A lean formula uses 500 g flour, 68% water, 2% salt, 1% yeast and 3% sugar. Water = 340 g, salt = 10 g, yeast = 5 g, sugar = 15 g. Total = 870 g. Divide into two 435 g pieces. Bake at 230°C with steam for 10 minutes, then 200°C until the base sounds hollow and the centre reaches about 97°C.
Traps
Adding flour during shaping instead of resting; cutting hot bread; under-proofing enriched dough; baking enriched dough at lean-bread temperature; cooling in a sealed container.