Category:Bread and baking

The boulangerie

Bannetons

A selection of grignettes

This category

In this category you will find recipes related to bread, breadmaking and baking in general. Some of the recipes might be strange or unusual but hopefully they will give you some ideas and inspiration.

About bread and baking

This should be obvious, but always use the very best ingredients you can afford.

Flour: You can taste the difference between bread made with high quality organic flour and cheap supermarket own-brand flour. The better quality flour also seems to make a lighter loaf with more air pockets in it. I have found that sifting the flour first seems to make a lighter loaf as well, it takes so little extra time that there is no harm in doing it anyway.

Water: I can't honestly say that I can taste the difference between bread made with pure (bottled) water and tap water, but I can blind-taste the difference between coffee made with tap water and bottled water. As bread uses so little water anyway, it's not going to break the bank to use bottled water.

[Sorry - I am a new Cookipedia user so I don't know how to find out who wrote this and email them, but PLEASE do not use bottled water and add to the plastic bottle water mountain. I have been baking my own bread for 40+ years and have never used bottled water (it did not exist when I started - what a stupid &^$%&^%&% idea!).

Also, bread machines are fine, but you will never get the same quality bread from them - and you don't even get the sensual pleasure of kneading.]

or whey A few of the editors have just started cheese making and one of the by products is whey which is excellent as substitute for water in loaves, especially savoury ones.

Salt: Sea salt or kosher salt is preferable to table salt which usually has a list of additives.

Yeast: I can't really give any advice on yeasts as I can only obtain packet yeasts locally.

[Sorry - see my last entry - who is "I'? I can give advice and so can lots of other people. John Benford.]

Fats: Don't use spreads to replace butter, margarine or shortening in recipes as these often contain less fat and more water.

Bread machines: Totally converted. We have had a Panasonic bread maker for almost two years and as long as we've followed the recipe, we have had perfect bread every time. Bread makers also have the benefit of being able to pre-load the ingredients and bake by timer, so you can wake to the smell of fresh-baked bread. It's also brilliant at making pizza dough.

Moulds: In addition to cheese making, moulds can be used for making artisan bread. I am not sure of they are used very much in the UK, but they certainly are in Spain, Germany and France. The idea is that you place the dough in a mould for its final rising, before putting it in the oven. I think the English term for them is banneton but in Spain they are called banastillos and in Germany, Brotform - the term by which they are generally known. Once it had been turned out onto the baking tray, you can also score it with a grignette, a sort of razor blade attached to the end of a stick. Bannetons and grignettes can be obtained from Bakery Bits.

Bread and baking ingredients in the UK

We have a list of suppliers of bread and baking ingredients.

How much does one cup of breadcrumbs weigh?

Estimated US cup to weight equivalents:

Conversion notes:
Every ingredient has a cups to ounces or grams conversion table. Search for the ingredient, cup to weight conversions are at the end of each ingredient page.

We also have a generic conversion table and a portions per person lookup.