If you’ve ever tried melting cheese for mac and cheese and ended up with a greasy, clumpy mess instead of a velvety sauce, you’re not alone. Traditional fixes like flour or cornstarch often dull the flavor and weigh the dish down with a pasty texture. Fortunately, there’s a better way, and it starts with a […]
Neapolitan pizza is a popular style and it’s easy to see why that is. With its signature charred bubbles (called leoparding) and soft yet airy crust, this pizza is baked in a scorching-hot oven at 840–900°F, ensuring a crisp bite and quick bake in just 60–90 seconds. But what makes this pizza so special, and […]
When you “score” dough, you’re creating a slit (or slits) in the top of the loaf before baking. Scoring is a crucial step for most doughs because it facilitates the necessary expansion of a loaf. Not all doughs need scoring, and it can sometimes be just for aesthetic purposes depending on the bread type. We […]
You’ve mixed your dough, let it rise through bulk fermentation, divided and shaped it, proofed it, and scored or otherwise finished it. It’s ready for the oven, where it will transform into bread. Our Favorite Way To Bake Bread at Home Home ovens can be finicky. Our favorite way to create steam in a home […]
Cheese comes in many shapes, textures, colors, and flavors. While many cheeses melt exceedingly well and brown slightly as pizza dough bakes, others either do not melt at all or melt with noticeable fat separation. A good melt is achieved with the right combination of moisture content, fat content, and acidity in the cheese. When […]
Yeast is the engine of bread making. It is important for leavening the bread and also affects the flavor and smell of bread. The longer the period of fermentation, the more pronounced the yeast flavors become because the microbes have more time to produce aromatic compounds. Yeast also contributes to the crust’s color by releasing compounds critical to the […]
Sourdough starter, which we refer to as levain, is made by mixing flour and water, then leaving the mixture to sit, uncovered, at room temperature until the microscopic yeast cells and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) that are present in the flour begin feeding. Within days, you will see signs of fermentation. (You can also start […]
Sourdough is arguably the oldest form of leavened bread. The first loaves were sourdoughs, and levain was also the first leavening agent. Travel to bakeries and kitchens in any corner of the world, and you’ll likely find some form of sourdough bread. Sourdoughs are as diverse in flavor, texture, and volume as the cultures in […]
Without consistent feeding, sourdough starters get tired pretty quickly. We were surprised at how disappointing a sourdough bread made with even a 3-day-old starter (which we refer to as levain) turned out. There was uneven leavening, and while the loaf looked fine on the outside, the inside revealed a tight crumb with a handful of […]
Flour is probably one of the first ingredients that comes to mind when you consider making bread. Flour is the core matter of bread and provides the main structure that anchors the other ingredients in the baked loaf in part because its largest component is starch. From a bread-making perspective, there are two main types […]