Baking Bread: An Art And A Science - DeLonghi AUTOMATIC BREAD MAKER Instructions For Use Manual

When it stops, use oven gloves to lift the pan and remove it from the chamber. Leave the bread to cool in the
pan for 10 minutes before removing it. Turn the pan upside down and shake until the bread comes out. If
necessary use a plastic spatula to detach the bread from the sides of the pan. Place the bread to cool on a
wire rack. For optimum consistency and easy slicing, you should leave the bread to cool for 15 minutes.
After using the appliance
Unplug the appliance and leave to cool for 30 minutes before starting another programme.
If the appliance is reused too soon, it may emit a beep and "E:01" is displayed, indicating that it is not cool
enough. Wait for the appliance to cool down then press .

BAKING BREAD: AN ART AND A SCIENCE

Baking bread is both an art and a science. The appliance does most of the work, but there are some things
you need to know about each of the basic ingredients and the bread baking process. The ingredients of clas-
sical bread are the simplest: flour, sugar, salt, liquid (water or milk), possibly a fat (butter or oil) and yeast.
Each of these ingredients has a particular function and gives a particular taste to the end product.
It is therefore important to use the right ingredients in exactly the right proportions to guarantee the best
results.
Yeast
Yeast is genuine "active" microorganism.
Put simply, bread will not rise without yeast. Once moistened with the liquid, fed by the sugar and warmed
to the right level, yeast produces the gases which cause the dough to rise. If the temperature is too low, the
yeast is not activated. If it is too hot, it dies. The appliance takes this into consideration and maintains the
correct temperature in the baking chamber at all times. You should therefore use dry active yeast only,
verifying the "Use by" date of the product because after this, the yeast will not leaven the bread.
You should make a small hollow in the top of the dry mixture for the yeast. This will make sure it is activated
when it comes in contact with the liquid and sugar during kneading.
If you want to use cubes of fresh yeast, use a fork to mash it into the water in the pan.
Flour
You must use a good quality flour before the "Use by" date.
In order for the bread to rise, the flour must have quite a high protein content.
You should therefore use flour suitable for bread making. Unlike white flour, wholemeal flour contains bran
or wheat germ which are heavy and impede leavening. Wholemeal bread therefore tends to be denser and
smaller. You can obtain a larger lighter loaf by using a mixture of wholemeal flour and white flour in whole-
meal bread recipes. It is important to weigh the flour required for each recipe to take account of the air natu-
rally incorporated in the flour. This guarantees perfectly baked bread. You can use packs containing large
quantities of flour, but the result may vary. The consistency and height of the loaf will be variable if the flour
is kept for long periods in inappropriate conditions.
Only buy packs of large quantities of flour if you are baking regularly.
Sugar
Sugar sweetens the bread, makes the crust darker and gives it a softer consistency by feeding the yeast.
You can use equivalent quantities of white or brown sugar, treacle, maple syrup, honey or other sweetener.
You can also use equivalent quantities of artificial sweeteners, but the taste and consistency of the bread will
be different.
Liquids
When the liquids are mixed with the flour protein, they form gluten, necessary to leaven the bread.
The majority of recipes use water, but other liquids can be used such as milk or fruit juices.
You should therefore experiment with the amount of these liquids needed to obtain optimum results as a reci-
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