Bread Baking for the Holidays from Emile Henry
November 19 2018 - 2:10PM
Want to let your bread making skills shine and enjoy the
holidays? Making crusty artisan-style breads can be daunting
for home bakers as well as for professionals. But with the right
tools and a little practice, gift-worthy results are within your
reach.
The magic of bread baking tastes place in the oven. That is
where what stars as a sticky lump of flour and water turns into an
aromatic loaf. Professionals bake bread in brick-lined hearth
ovens. The even intense heat these ovens produce guarantees billowy
and crisp loaves. Steam injected into the ovens during baking keeps
the surface of bread dough moist so that it can rise. Home ovens
just can’t compete. They produce heat unevenly, often burning one
side of a loaf before it cooks through. And adding steam to a home
oven is a juggling act. You can spray water on your bread before it
bakes. But this produces inconsistent results. You can toss water
into a pan placed on the bottom of your oven. But you had better
act quickly and jump back to avoid being burned.
Covered ceramic bakeware from Emile Henry helps you create the
kind of bread found at a quality bakeshop. And it takes away
the frustration of inconsistent results. Are you considering making
a rustic multigrain loaf for a holiday buffet? Or maybe you want to
try your hand at baking sourdough bread? The Break Baking
Cloche accommodates such hand-shaped round loaves. The
ceramic clay it’s made from insulates your bread dough from
temperature variations in the oven. The bakeware absorbs the
ovens’ heat and sends it back through the dough. Your loaf will
rise thoroughly because the thick ceramic base conducts heat slowly
and evenly. Most such loaves need steam to rise. But with a covered
bread baker, there’s no need to add steam; the lid traps any
moisture escaping from the dough. And because the underside of the
lid is unglazed, it absorbs steam escaping from the dough to dry
out the bread and make it crisp.
If you feel your hand-shaping skills are lacking, look for
molded ceramic bakeware. Divots in a roll mold like the Emile
Henry Crown Bread Baker help make an attractive presentation
regardless of your skills. It would be perfect for making a batch
of giftable pumpkin bread or raisin dinner rolls. (Rewarm the rolls
before serving and bring them to the table in the baker.) Even
hard-to-handle wet dough bakes into a uniform wand shape when using
the Emile Henry Baguette Baker. It holds three loaves, enough bread
to feed a dozen or more around your holiday table.
Using ceramic bakeware requires few special techniques. A light
coating of flour inside the mold helps ensure that your bread dough
doesn’t stick. When baking sweet yeast breads especially those
packed with raisins and dried fruit, lightly oil the bottom and
sides of your ceramic bakeware. This prevents the sugars from
crystalizing and sticking to the sides of the loaf mold. And if you
want a rustic appearance on your loaves, dust the surface of the
dough before baking with flour.
The soul-satisfying taste and smell of fresh bread brings
friends and family together. Gather your tools and consider yeast
bread baking this holiday season.
- EH Holiday Boule vertical 3
- EH Cinnamon Babka vertical 3
Susan Jardina
Emile Henry
917-825-0466
susan@jardinacommunications.com