Don’t mix salt and yeast!
You’ll usually start making bread by weighing out the ingredients and mixing them together. No problem there you may think. However, this is a crucial stage in your bread making where a simple mistake could waste your efforts and result in a disappointing brick.
Recipes may describe this stage in many ways: Dump all the ingredients in the bread maker (a great way to get the dough made whilst you do other things by the way). Weigh them out into a bowl. Mix the yeast in warm water first.
However, whatever you do, don’t bring the yeast and salt into direct contact.
Why? Because in direct contact, salt can kill the yeast. And then, right from the start, there will be no chance that your dough will rise.
So, to avoid this error, get into the habit of always weighing out your yeast separately to your salt and adding them separately to the bowl. Without water, dried yeast will not absorb the salt, but by developing this habit you’ll ensure you don’t inadvertently kill your yeast when you add in the water.
With instant, dried yeast, add this to one side of the bowl and the salt to the other. With dried yeast, mix it separately with the water and then add this into the flour and salt mixture. With fresh yeast, rub it well into the flour, as you would with butter when making pastry, before adding the salt and water. Once you’ve thoroughly mixed the flour and salt, or the flour, salt and yeast, the flour will act as a buffer between the two and you’re ok to add in the liquid and get on with making bread.
If you’ve enjoyed this blog, or have further breadmaking questions, do let me know in the comments! Or why not check out more breadmaking recipes, hints and tips on the blog.
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I have a question about the “Artisan” bread in which the Dutch oven is used. While it’s very good at first it tends to need to be eaten the first day or two. The problem I have is when baking in the Dutch oven it steams and you get that crust that is beautiful but how do you get a thinner softer crust? This is a No Knead bread so I don’t know what to do. I want that crust but not as much where it is tough.
Bea
Hi Beatrice – great question and one I’d love to tackle in a future blog. In short, there are two things you could try. Firstly, try an enriched dough, one where milk, butter, sugar or eggs (or all of them), are added to the dough. A simple start could be to replace some or all of the water in a recipe with milk. Secondly, try wrapping your baked loaf in a clean, non-fluffy teatowel as soon as it’s out of the oven and leave it like this whilst it cools. Look out for a blog on this soon!
Thank you so much! I am going to start with this today. I can’t wait, I never thought about the enriched dough. Will let you know. I am so excited to get started. Maybe something with Pistachios and Cranberries ?