An ear on bread is when the score or cut is wide open and one side is curled back and deeply toasted on the edge. Ears are neat and actually pretty easy to achieve if you’re using a stronger flour. In this post we explain how an ear is formed and detail multiple techniques for making sure your artisan loaf will not end up hard of hearing.
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How to get an “ear” on artisan style bread
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Sourdough Starter Management: A Zero-Discard Method
There are many effective ways to manage your sourdough starter and the best one for you is the one that best fits your particular needs and desires. Here we describe a method of starter management that involves little or no discarding of old starter.
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Beginner All Purpose Yeast Bread
Here’s a recipe for fresh baked bread using simple ingredients and gear that you probably already have in your kitchen. The time commitment is minimal and a shaping video and before-and-after dough photos will guide you through the parts of the process that are tricky for beginners.
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Storing, Freezing, and Mailing Bread
Some basic ideas and guidelines on how to store home baked bread, along with a few practical tips on mailing bread.
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Bread Baking Tools for Beginners
Here’s a list of the basic equipment needed for baking artisan bread at home. For many of these items you may be able to repurpose things you already have in your kitchen, and other items you might want to invest in.
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Newbie’s Guide to Flour for Bread Baking
Understanding the differences between the various types of flour that are used to bake bread can mean the difference between an airy, lofty loaf of bread and a dense, un-risen “frisbee”.
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Gluten Development for Artisan Bread
Dough with gluten development can hold more and bigger air bubbles without them popping and collapsing. It can be easier to shape and have more oven spring, and gluten development can result in a more chewy and pliable crumb.
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How to Shape Dough
Six videos showing how to shape boules, bâtards, oblong loaves, baguettes, and sandwich loaves.
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Bread Baking and Flour Substitution Tips
A lot of people are baking sourdough bread for the first time because of Covid-19 stay-at-home orders. Meanwhile, near-empty baking aisles in grocery stores are giving new and experienced bakers alike the challenge of substituting different flours into recipes they want to follow. Here are some tips and tricks for new and not-so-new bread bakers.
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How to Score Bread
Decorative scoring of your artisan bread can really enhance its appearance and make a loaf look and feel special. We’ve compiled some scoring tips and tricks along with video demonstrations.
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Demystifying Sourdough Bread Baking
One baker’s attempt to take some of the mystery out of sourdough bread baking.
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Eric’s Easy Bake Series – Episode 1
My easy bake series attempts to distill bread baking to its bare essentials and focus on what I think is all you really need to know to make good bread for you and your family.
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No Knead Sourdough Bread
Our original contribution to the no-knead bread revolution: substitute live sourdough starter for instant yeast to create the ultimate no knead artisan bread loaf.
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How To Make Sourdough Starter
Making your own sourdough starter is easy and it’s the first step in baking delicious artisan bread. Here is the Breadtopia video tutorial and recipe for creating your own wild yeast sourdough.
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Managing Your Sourdough Starter
More than you need to know about keeping your sourdough starter happy, healthy, and ready to bake with.
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No Knead Bread
The Breadtopia no-knead bread baking recipe and video tutorial. Create an artisan loaf of bread at home from four ingredients with about ten minutes work.
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