A Look Inside: New Techniques
For nearly 4 years, we baked 36,654 loaves, we experimented, and we tested. Over this period of baking and experimenting, we learned a lot. Those tests opened the door to many discoveries, and some of them led to new techniques that are both revolutionary and practical.
A faster panettone. A sweet-and-sour levain. An aha moment that transformed our ryes. Consider high-hydration loaves: they have fantastic crumb, but the dough is very hard to deal with. Is there a way to make high-hydration dough easier to handle? Yes, there is, and the answer is gelatin. Here’s a taste of some of the new techniques in Modernist Bread that will surprise and delight you—and help you make better bread.
- Making good bread with weak flour
- Microwave proofing
- Ascorbic acid for make-ahead dough
- Making dough veneers
- Increasing the volume of ancient grain breads
- Baking at multiple temperatures
- Polydextrose for crispy crust
- Baking bread in a microwave
- Challah braiding made easy
- How to save stale bread
- Our rye revelation
- Pressure-Canned bread
- Pressure-caramelized inclusions
- Hybrid doughs
- How long can you keep preferments frozen?
- Our best 100% whole wheat bread
- Sweet-and-sour (osmotolerant) levain
- Our easy no-compromise brioche
- Second-chance sourdough
- Panettone express
- Hypermixing
- Steam isn’t just for bagels and bao
- Instant mixing with a vacuum
- Pneumatic pizza dough
- When to dip pretzels
- Whipping bagels and pretzels into shape
- How seeds can improve your gluten-free breads
- Microwave whole-grain bread
- Increasing the elasticity of gluten-free breads
- Making high-hydration doughs easy to handle
- The best way to keep seeds on bagels