Bread Making
Senior 2 · Home Science
Bread Making
Lesson 4 of 4
25 min
Let's begin
Once you know the stages, you can make almost any bread from a few basic recipes. A school Home Science room with one oven can make a loaf or a tray of rolls in a double lesson, and chapati needs only a frying pan and a gas or charcoal stove.
In this lesson you will follow three basic recipes, learn to use baker's percentages to check and scale a recipe, and cost a batch of rolls for sale.
Ingredients: 500 g strong white flour; 7 g instant dry yeast (1 sachet); 15 g sugar; 8 g salt; 20 g margarine; 320 ml warm water (about 35 to 40 °C).
Method:
Make the loaf dough up to the end of the first rise. The dough weighs about 870 g, so divide it into 12 pieces of about 72 g each. Roll each piece into a smooth ball, place them 3 cm apart on a greased tray, cover and prove for 25 to 30 minutes, then bake at 200 °C for 15 to 20 minutes. Rolls bake faster than a loaf because each piece is small and heat reaches the centre quickly.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour; 5 g salt (1 teaspoon); 2 tablespoons oil, plus a little for cooking; about 270 ml warm water.
Method: mix the flour and salt; add the oil and enough water to make a soft dough; knead for 5 to 10 minutes; cover and rest for 30 minutes (resting relaxes the gluten so the dough rolls out easily without shrinking back). Divide into 8 balls and roll each into a thin circle about 20 cm across. Cook on a hot, dry frying pan for about 1 minute until bubbles appear, turn, brush with a little oil and cook until golden patches form on both sides. Stack under a clean cloth to keep soft.
Bakers express every ingredient as a percentage of the flour weight, which is always 100%. This makes it easy to compare and scale recipes.
Worked example 1
For the loaf, water = 320 ÷ 500 × 100 = 64%; yeast = 7 ÷ 500 × 100 = 1.4%; salt = 8 ÷ 500 × 100 = 1.6%; sugar = 15 ÷ 500 × 100 = 3%; fat = 20 ÷ 500 × 100 = 4%. A water percentage of about 60 to 65% gives a dough that is easy to handle.
Worked example 2
, scaling: A class will bake with 1.5 kg of flour. Scale factor = 1 500 ÷ 500 = 3. Yeast 7 × 3 = 21 g; sugar 15 × 3 = 45 g; salt 8 × 3 = 24 g; margarine 20 × 3 = 60 g; water 320 × 3 = 960 ml (check: 64% of 1 500 = 960). The dough weighs 870 × 3 = 2 610 g, enough for 36 rolls of about 72 g.
Tip
Memory hook: "flour is always 100". Every other ingredient is a percentage of the flour, so to scale a recipe, change the flour and multiply every percentage by the new flour weight.
Exam technique: show the formula (ingredient ÷ flour × 100), convert kilograms to grams first, and check the water with its percentage as a second method.
A recipe uses 800 g flour and 496 ml water. What is the water as a baker's percentage?
Solution: 496 ÷ 800 × 100 = 62%.
Using the loaf recipe, how much salt is needed for 1 kg of flour?
Solution: Scale factor = 1 000 ÷ 500 = 2; salt = 8 × 2 = 16 g.
A batch of 12 rolls costs 1 800 Frw in ingredients and fuel. The class wants a profit of 50 Frw per roll. What price should each roll sell for?
Solution: Cost per roll = 1 800 ÷ 12 = 150 Frw. Selling price = 150 + 50 = 200 Frw.
Why is chapati dough rested for 30 minutes before rolling?
Solution: Resting relaxes the gluten developed during kneading, so the dough rolls out thinly without springing back.
Summary
Sources and credits
The loaf recipe is adapted from the Wikibooks White Bread recipe: Ganzaa scaled it to 500 g flour, raised the salt from a pinch to 1.6% and adjusted the baking time for a smaller loaf. The roll and chapati recipes, baker's-percentage examples and practice questions are written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
