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| You will find our recipes at: Club Paneo And here are some handy tips: |  |
- let all your ingredients settle at room temperature before use;
- water or milk that is too hot will make the dough prove too much during kneading, so that it will not rise enough during the final rising time;
- never add sugar, salt and butter directly to the yeast, because they will hinder fermentation;
- kneading is important and should be done carefully to mix the yeast cells with the flour and liquid. Kneading makes the dough elastic, so that it can hold on well to the gas bubbles produced by the yeast cells;
- never knead the dough again after proving, because this will make it sticky, damage the gluten strands and prevent it from rising any more
- if you use a machine to knead a yeast dough, make sure it is kneaded for long enough: do it once, and slowly;
- always leave yeast dough to rise at room temperature, never on a source of heat. If the temperature is too hot for the final rising, the bread will be crumbly;
- cover the dough during proving and final rising with a dry cloth, perhaps with plastic on top of it;
- for a tasty, crunchy crust, brush the top of the dough with milk or water;
- yeast dough is always baked in a preheated oven, even if it is a fan oven. However you can set a fan oven to 15 degrees cooler than a traditional oven;
- put a cup of water in the oven while you are baking bread. Moist heat is ideal for bread;
- Allow freshly baked bread to release steam and cool on a cake rack, without subjecting it to temperature shocks.
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