Overview

Professional chefs share the secrets to making exceptional breads from scratch—and you can learn to make them in your own home.

Bread is one of the most popular foods on the planet, baked around the globe and in all cultures—round, knotted, woven, flat, dimpled, sweet, sour, crusty, soft—all of it beginning with the same four ingredients. In The Complete Guide to Baking Bread, you will learn the secrets to making dough and a wide variety of breads in your own kitchen. You’ll follow along at your own pace through four sections, as three renowned chefs demonstrate every step of the way: Zoë François, Michael Kalanty, and Richard Miscovich, all expert bakers, authors, and culinary educators. Their obvious skills and passion for their craft, step-by-step instructions, and ability to clarify the science as well as the art of bread baking will have you making bread in no time.

At its very heart, this course is a practical one. Even though professional chefs are demonstrating these lessons, everything they show you can be done in your own kitchen. They provide alternatives for ingredients, tools, or techniques that can’t be duplicated at home. No matter what your experience has been, what your skill level is at, or even what your kitchen looks like, you can create homemade bread like a professional baker. The Complete Guide to Baking Bread will provide you with detailed ingredients and recipes you need for success!

Course Sections

• The Ecosystem of Bread
  • Duration: 27 min
  • Learn about creating dough and the FATTOM constituents of its environment: food, acid, time, temperature, oxygen, and moisture.

• The Chemistry of Gluten
  • Duration: 24 min
  • Discover the role of gluten in dough elasticity and experiment with moisture content to affect gluten development.

• Fermentation Civilization
  • Duration: 21 min
  • Understand yeast’s role in fermentation and how to influence carbon dioxide production.

• Shaping Physics
  • Duration: 28 min
  • Learn how posture and force affect bread gluten elasticity and carbon dioxide content.

• Why Do We Proof?
  • Duration: 17 min
  • Discover how to create an appropriate proofing environment for yeast.

• Inside the Bake
  • Duration: 28 min
  • Study the stages of baking and how scoring affects bread shape.

• The Master Recipe
  • Duration: 17 min
  • Learn to make an all-in-one-bucket dough for versatile baking.

• Boule Variations and Slow Cooker Bread
  • Duration: 16 min
  • Make a traditional couronne and experiment with cooking methods.

• Baguettes
  • Duration: 24 min
  • Master the classic baguette and learn about variations.

• Sandwich Breads, Buns, and Rolls
  • Duration: 18 min
  • Create a simple sandwich bread and learn to make various smaller breads.

• Pita and Naan
  • Duration: 18 min
  • Cook naan in different settings and make pita bread.

12. Pizza and Focaccia
    • Duration: 23 min
    • Explore pizza making and focaccia in various styles.

13. Stuffed Breads
    • Duration: 28 min
    • Create both savory and sweet stuffed breads.

• Getting Started with Whole Grain Baking
  • Duration: 24 min
  • Review key ingredients for bread and tackle whole wheat baking.

• Dough Development and Fermentation
  • Duration: 23 min
  • Understand hydration and its role in flavor and texture.

• Shaping, Proofing, and Baking
  • Duration: 22 min
  • Explore loaf pans and evaluate finished products.

• Raisin Whole Wheat Swirl Bread
  • Duration: 26 min
  • Incorporate solid ingredients for even baking.

• Rustic Whole Wheat Boule
  • Duration: 29 min
  • Follow steps to create a rustic boule with whole wheat.

• Multi-Seed Bâtard
  • Duration: 37 min
  • Incorporate seeds and pre-ferments into your dough.

• Multigrain Boule
  • Duration: 21 min
  • Use techniques from earlier lessons to guide multigrain baking.

• Introduction
  • Duration: 20 min
  • Learn about sourdough creation and fermentation science.

• Making Pain au Levain
  • Duration: 25 min
  • Create a preferment for sourdough.

• Baking Pain au Levain
  • Duration: 28 min
  • Learn techniques for baking sourdough effectively.

• Pain au Levain Variations
  • Duration: 14 min
  • Experiment with different flavors and variations.

• Going Whole Grain
  • Duration: 19 min
  • Explore how whole grains affect hydration and loaf creation.

• Something’s Gone A-Rye
  • Duration: 24 min
  • Discover techniques unique to rye bread.