I have cried so many times over bread. Not in a “this crumb is so ethereal it’s bringing me to tears” sort of way. Rather in an “I just spent three days making this and it’s flat as a pancake sort of way.” If you can relate, I’ve been speaking with bakers around Pittsburgh to get their advice on bread tips for baking at home.

“You will probably make some bad loaves in the beginning.”

Third Space Bakery is a new worker-owned cooperative in the Garfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh serving up beautiful breads and pastries as well as classes for those curious to learn. I spoke with Chloe Newman, their self-described “head bread-head” for her tips on bread baking. First, she advises to start with quality ingredients. At Third Space, they use locally grown organic grains. Even if you aren’t accessing local grain, Chloe says to keep things fresh. “If there’s a bag of bread flour that’s been sitting in your pantry for over a year, it’s time to compost it.” She also says whole wheat flours should be stored in the fridge or freezer.

If you are baking sourdough bread like Chloe does, the quality of those ingredients will translate into an effective sourdough starter. (For a full look at how make a sourdough starter, visit King Arthur Baking’s website). The starter is the basis for your bread, so mastering this is really the first step. Chloe recommends feeding your starter with a least a small amount of whole grain flour, “which brings more nutrients for the microbial culture to feed on and grow.”

Once you have a healthy and active starter, you’re ready to begin making bread. For a classic sourdough ,The Perfect Loaf has a straightforward Best Sourdough Recipe. “You will probably make some bad loaves in the beginning” says Driftwood Oven’s head baker Alaina Philips. That being said, she doesn’t want home bakers to be intimidated by sourdough. Her first tip is to make the timing work for you rather than the other way around.

“Every professional bread baker I’ve ever worked with has been like less is more.”

Many people think they have to follow specific timing when working with bread, so their loaves are not under- or over-proofed. While this is an important consideration to make, Aliana says that  that with sourdough, time is your friend. Make that time work for you, rather than feeling like you need to be tied to the kitchen all day. If the recipe you are following gives a specific schedule, you don’t have to feel tied to it. She says to let the bread proof overnight if that is what works with your schedule. Alaina acknowledges that there are different types of bakers. “Touch, taste, see, that is the kind of baker that I am.” But she knows other people may want to be more meticulous. Just know that it’s ok to leave your bread at home if you need to run an errand.

Grayson Skupin, former pastry chef and Food Studies masters student at Chatham University advises to keep things simple. “Every professional bread baker I’ve ever worked with has been like less is more. You don’t need fancy shaping. They’re beautiful and if that’s what you’re into that’s cool, but it’s not necessary.” They told me, even if you think you’ve messed things up, to bake it anyway. “You never know how something’s going to turn out.”

“Touch, Taste, See”

And if those loaves don’t turn out perfectly the first, second, or third time, “it’s just more bread to eat, you know?” Alaina advises not to give up. Those first few loaves are how you will learn the “touch, taste, see” that you need to be able to understand when your dough is ready to bake. Both Aliana and Chloe emphasized that they have baked many “bad” loaves while learning to make great ones.

Just because your loaves aren’t picture perfect doesn’t mean they’re not delicious. Both bakers also caution in their bread making tips against comparing yourself to others on social media while you’re learning. “It doesn’t have to be that Instagram worthy, you know. Is it worthy for your family? Is it worthy for your friends?” Ultimately, it’s not about perfection. It’s about sharing and growing and personally I think that is worth making time for.

If sourdough isn’t your thing or isn’t where you want to start your bread baking journey, these bakers want you to know that it’s not the only option. “There is nothing wrong with using commercial yeast,” Grayson says. Chloe hopes bakers explore the ever-expanding options available to bread bakers. “Instagram and TikTok will tell you that bread is only worth making if it has a big white web of gluten on the inside, with a crackly golden crust. There are so many other more nutritious and tastier ways to make bread with other grains, from different cultures, with different stories and uses in the kitchen. Find a recipe you are excited to make, and then just go for it.” If you are looking for some easy, accessible recipes to get started, check out 6 Easy Bread Recipes for Bakers of All Levels for some ideas.

But what do I do with all this bread?

But what do I do with all this bread? Ok, so you’re practicing and maybe your loaves aren’t the best. Or maybe you’ve gotten the hang of it and now you have more bread than you can eat! I asked the bakers for tips on how to store or use up that extra bread. For keeping bread fresh, they say not to slice the whole loaf at once and to store in the freezer if you know you won’t use it all at once. For those less than perfect loaves, “breadcrumbs are always a good idea. You know, if it’s really tight and really bad.” For bread that might be going stale they recommend bread pudding, a panzanella salad, French toast, or savory strata.

But what Alaina really wants people to know is that you can revive bread that is stale. “Just give it a shower!” she says. Alaina explains that if you have a loaf of bread that has become hard and stale, you can revive it by running the whole loaf under water from the sink then putting it in the oven to bake. This tip she says will bring a stale loaf back to that fresh bread taste and texture we all crave.

Speaking with these bakers, I wished I had any one of them guiding me on my initial sourdough journey. Perhaps the knowledge that bread baking is a journey filled with pancake loaves and dense crumb would have saved me some tears. But that initial heartache gave me knowledge to use for a lifetime. While I may not have the prettiest loaves on the internet, cutting into a fresh loaf with my family standing by always seems to fill their faces with anticipation and delight.

Story by Kirsten Chervenak / Photo courtesy of Monika Grabkowska via Unsplash

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