Bread Recipes - Yeast, French, White & More | Taste of Home (2024)

FAQs

What gives French bread its taste? ›

One of the secrets of a great baguette is to start with a sponge (a mix of flour, water, and yeast), which gives the yeast time to mature and combine with the other ingredients, creating the mildly sour and nutty flavors and chewy texture.

Besides the obvious fact that French bread is typically longer and thinner than regular loaves, it tends to be less sweet and has a crispier crust. French bread is usually also made with very simple ingredients instead of sandwich bread, which can have many different additives.

If you're looking to ramp up the taste of your favorite bread recipe, we recommend adding a bit of fat. A fat like butter, olive oil or coconut oil in small quantities will help your bread achieve a higher rise and it will also boost its flavor by tenfold.

Allow the bread to rise in a draft-free 80°F to 90°F area away from a heat source. If the area is too warm, bread will rise too fast and begin cooking before the yeast has finished acting. This will impart a "yeasty" taste to the dough that will be transferred to the finished baked loaf.

Your bland bread could be the result of rushing the process. Try a slow overnight rise in the refrigerator. Plan ahead to proof your loaf overnight. This hands-off time in the icebox will slow the fermentation process in your dough and result in a complex-flavored loaf.

Typically, French flour for breadmaking is Type 55 or T55. The higher the number, the more of the whole grain it contains. The type number refers to the amount mineral content.

In France, bakers pay careful attention to where their flour is made and which grains are used in the milling process. The result is usually softer, heartier, and tastier bread than can be found in other parts of the world. French flour tends to be made with a lower ash content than the flour from other countries.

Are baguettes healthier than bread? Baguettes are similar in nutritional value to traditional white bread. Both baguettes and white bread are high in calories and carbohydrates while remaining low in fat content. Baguettes tend to contain more protein and sodium than white bread.

Luckily, their tricks are possible to replicate at home. The real make-or-break factor is the cooking method and the butter used. A generous layer is what gives the restaurant variety that savory, crunchy-but-moist quality. The way you toast the bread is also a game-changer.

Butter (or another fat) can also be added to a bread dough in smaller quantities to aid in extensibility, yielding a larger volume, not to mention more richness, than a lean dough. As fat inhibits starch recrystallization, bread that includes butter will stay soft longer, increasing the loaf's shelf life.

Does sugar make bread taste better? ›

Flavor: Sugar adds sweetness to the bread, which can help balance out the flavors of other ingredients in the dough. The type and amount of sugar used can also affect the overall flavor profile of the bread. Color: Sugar can help bread develop a golden-brown color as it bakes.

Problem: Your bread has a fermented, alcoholic smell or taste to it. Causes: Too much yeast. Over-proofed.

If your bread has a sour, yeasty flavour and smells of alcohol then you have either used too much yeast.or you may have use stale yeast or creamed fresh yeast with sugar.

This can affect the bread by adding a "yeasty" taste if you put too much into the dough. General amounts of yeast are around 1 - 2 % of the flour, by weight. Too much yeast could cause the dough to go flat by releasing gas before the flour is ready to expand.

In France, bakers pay careful attention to where their flour is made and which grains are used in the milling process. The result is usually softer, heartier, and tastier bread than can be found in other parts of the world. French flour tends to be made with a lower ash content than the flour from other countries.

Two aspects of New Orleans French bread are distinctive. The first is its lightness. The interior often has large gaps and bubbles, and the crumb in general is quite airy. The other hallmark is the thinness and brittleness of the crust.

The biggest difference between American breads versus European breads is the quality of the ingredients used in each bread. Standard, store-bought American bread contains many preservatives and fillers that are banned in European countries.