The difference between the medium, soup and direct methods - bread making method detailed approach ?

Several common methods of bread making

From the big direction, bread making mainly includes direct method, medium seed method, soup seed method of three categories, and then one of them will be subdivided into a lot of branches, such as 100% medium seed, refrigerated medium seed, 65 degrees soup seed and so on. The following are detailed explanations for you respectively.

Direct method

This is the most traditional and common method of bread making, mixing all the ingredients completely, kneading out the gluten, and then baking the bread with only one fermentation, which is called the direct method of bread making.

Direct Method Bread

Advantages:

Easy and quick to make, short time consuming

Disadvantages:

The bread made by this method will not be very fluffy and will have a shorter shelf-life because of the small water content. And because it only goes through one fermentation, the bread will have a slightly less malty flavor.

Note:

Bread made by bread machine is basically all this direct method, so sometimes we wonder why bread made by bread machine is not as good as handmade bread. The reason is here. Of course, if you really don't have the time, a lazy bread maker is also a good choice~

This direct method of bread is suitable for making small meal packs or seasoned breads and other such breads that have a slightly rough texture on their own.

Mid-growth method

The so-called mid-growth method is to divide the ingredients of the bread into two parts, one of which is the mid-growth dough and the other is the main dough. The center dough ingredients are first mixed and kneaded into a dough, and then the first fermentation takes place. After the fermentation, it is mixed with the main dough ingredients, kneaded to create a ribbed surface, shaped, and then fermented for 2 times, and finally baked. The bread made in this way is called medium-raised bread.

Middle Grown Toast

Advantages:

Because the middle grown method allows the yeast to ferment well in the first middle grown dough, so that the water penetrates completely into the flour, thus increasing the moisture content, and then after the second kneading, it kneads the dough, knocking all the air bubbles out, so that the organization achieves a soft and delicate effect, so that the finished bread will have a very fluffy texture. Moreover, the middle kind of dough adopts the second fermentation, which can make the dough produce the characteristic fermentation flavor and make the bread taste better.

Disadvantages:

Slightly complicated and time-consuming

Branches of the medium-range method:

The medium-range method can be subdivided into three categories: regular medium-range, refrigerated medium-range, and 100% medium-range.

Generally speaking, the regular medium-range method is to mix 70% of the flour in the bread ingredients with a mixture of flour. In general, the "normal medium" method involves mixing 70% of the flour with yeast and slowly adding water to form a medium dough. The first fermentation takes place at room temperature of about 25 degrees Celsius and lasts for 3-4 hours.

Based on this, in order to prolong the fermentation time and increase the flavor of the bread, the baking masters improved the "refrigerated medium seed method", that is, the medium seed dough is placed in the refrigerator, fermented at about 2-5 degrees in the environment of 16-17 hours. The longer fermentation time at lower temperatures resulted in a more delicate dough with a higher moisture content.

The "100% Medium Dough" method was later developed, in which all the flour is used to make the medium dough and no flour is added to the main dough. This gives the bread an extreme moisture content, which makes the dough very moist and the resulting toast very, very fluffy. However, due to the high water content, it is difficult to shape the bread, so it is basically limited to bread that does not require much shaping, such as toast.

Note:

The medium dough does not need to be kneaded, just roughly kneaded. Therefore, when adding yeast, it is best to dissolve the yeast in warm water in advance, because dry yeast put directly into the dough without being kneaded well may not blend well with the dough, so when making medium-grain dough, the yeast must be dissolved in water in advance.

Additionally, the refrigerated medium-type dough does not need to be warmed up after it is taken out of the refrigerator, so it can be torn into small pieces and mixed with the main dough ingredients directly.

The soup method

is also an evolution of the direct method. Since the softness of bread is directly related to the water content of the dough, people have been working on the water content of the dough in order to make soft, cloud-like bread. Soup seeds are made by mixing some flour with water and then heating it to make a starch paste, and this paste is called soup seeds. Then when the soup seed is cooled, the remaining bread ingredients are added, kneaded to create a gluten, and then fermented and shaped and baked; the bread made in this way is called soup seed bread.

Soup seed

Advantages:

Because the starch can absorb more water when it is pasted, the water content of the dough increases. One makes the bread fluffy and soft, and the other slows down the water loss process of the bread, prolonging the shelf life.

Disadvantages:

The temperature of soup seed heating is not easy to control, the operation is difficult.

Soup seed method explained:

The most classic soup seed production method is "65 degrees soup seed", that is, using a thermometer to measure, will be heated to 65 degrees soup seed, this time the soup seed is the best both in terms of color and effect, the temperature is too high, will make the soup seed color gray, make the bread is not white. If the temperature is too low, the flour will not be well pasturized and absorbent, so 65 degrees is the best condition for both color and effect. Of course, if you don't have a thermometer, you can also use your intuition. When you stir the batter with your chopsticks, and the batter becomes white and slightly transparent, it means the soup has been made successfully.

The heating method can be either direct fire (small fire) slowly heating, or heat through hot water. Some people also use microwave heating, personally I think it is not very easy to control.

In fact, the soup seeding method should be modified from the "hot seeding method", hot seeding is to use hot water to directly boil the flour, and then added to the bread dough kneading. It also plays a role in keeping the water. Of course, nowadays we basically use the soup seed production method.

Note:

Whether the bread is made by the direct method, the medium-seeded method or the soup-seeded method, it should be baked at a high temperature and fast, in order to maximize the retention of water in the dough, so that the bread will remain fluffy and tasty.

Note that the stock should not exceed 25% of the overall weight of the dough, as too much will affect the appearance of the bread after molding.

If you don't use up all the soup stock, you can seal it and store it in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. If the soup stock appears gray, it means that the soup stock has deteriorated and can't be used anymore.

The old-flour method

The old-flour method is not used much now, but it was a very common way to make bread in the past. It means that you make a piece of dough that has already been fermented once, and this dough, because it has been fermented for a long time, will completely release the wheat flavor in the dough, and the resulting bread will have a very strong wheat aroma.

Older seeds can usually be made in larger quantities. After fermentation, wrap them individually into small portions and store them in the freezer, preferably for no more than 2 months (otherwise the dough will dry out and crack, etc.). Just thaw it at room temperature before use, then tear it into small pieces and add to the dough.