Archaeological evidence suggests that Natufian hunter-gatherers were making flatbreads from wild cereals over 12,000 years ago, but baking could have started even earlier. 30,000-year-old grinding stones have been found but no one is sure if they were used for making flour.
Treat it like a science experiment
Follow the instructions
Know your yeast
Yeast is a single-celled organism.
- Bakers use Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which means “sugar-eating fungi.”
- As it eats sugar, it produces carbon dioxide, which helps make the bread light and bubbly.
Go gluten-free
Gluten strands bind things together.
Proving cupboards are over-rated
Proving is when you leave the yeast to work its magic
Next-level bread making
Try sourdough!
- Sourdough bread contains the same four basic ingredients as normal bread – flour, yeast, salt and water – with added bacteria.
- Bakers keep starter cultures of bacteria and yeast which they have to feed and manage.
There is chemistry behind a crusty top
Caused by the Maillard reaction, a chemical reaction between amino acids and sugars, that requires moisture and heat
Keeping it fresh
Bread starts to go off the minute you take it out of the oven because it starts losing moisture.
