Peter Reinhart - Lean Bread

I've been baking bread for many years now. Homemade bread is just another joy of life you can't miss. The smell and taste of a fresh loaf of bread is just unbeatable.

In this instructable, I'll explain my way of doing Peter Reinhard - Lean Bread. It's a bit less "formal" and the result is quite good!

This recipe can be found in his book : Artisan breads every day .

Step 1: Ingredients

Bread is not a complex thing to make. You only need 3 or 4 ingredients.

For this particular recipe, you'll need :

- 5 1/3 cups (24oz / 680g) unbleached bread flour
- 2 teaspoons (0.5oz / 14g) salt, or 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons (0.22oz / 6g) instant yeast
- 2 1/4 cups (18oz / 510g) lukewarm water (about 95F or 35C)

Make 2 large loaves.

Comments

[ToniRose]

Nicely done; great pics. But why is it called "lean"?

[andreq]

Hi, thanks for your comment.

I'll have to admit, I don't really know why. My guess, this bread doesnt have any sugar or fat.

Sugar help a lot for rising and flavor and fat act like a preservative for the bread. This bread is still super flavorful and can probably be good 5-6 days.

[arthurkanzler]

Breads really fall into two different categories, lean breads and rich breads. Lean breads are made with out any fats, just as this bread was made. No oil, butter, shortening, lard, i.e. was added. Rich breads, like a brioche or a focaccia have fats added,butter and oil respectively.

[andreq]

That make so much sens! Thanks to you, I've just learn a new thing today :D

[aimeeserene]

Yes, this is absolutely right. Those rich breads are often called "enriched" breads, and they have 20% fat or more. These would usually fall into the category of Viennoiserie, for instance, brioche, panettone, stollen and sweet rolls. Also, pain au lait, to give an example of something incredibly rich but not as sweet.

I don't think that focaccia falls into this category, though. It has some olive oil in it, but definitely never more than 15%.

[faggell]

Beautiful bread! Your recipe and instructions are perfect (and what else matters?) - even if English is not your Mother Tongue! ;) I've been baking bread (a la Richard Bertinet) but have been slowing down in the last several months. Your instructions, up-beat tone and fantastic photos are sending me back to my oven now! Thanks for that. :) Lisa

[bryan3141]

One last bit of grammar: watch the difference between your (possessive) and you're (a contraction of you are). You meant you're in this instance. Don't feel bad, many native English speakers get this one wrong constantly.

Overall, VERY well written and clear instructible! I'm off to make some bread, thank you!

[BobQ]

This is the best instructable ever !!
Hope it will win the bread contest !!

[serjinio]

Thank you for this recipe, in baked, it's very good, but i sometimes confuse,i think your good recipe has no synchronized between text and photos,thank you.

[mémé lulu]

Your grandmother would be so proud of you.

[Remag1234]

If proofing in the refrigerator it will take a lot longer. Bagel bakeries call their walk-in boxes [refrigerator] Retarders as it retards the proofing process. Commercial Italian bakeries proof at room temperature and in long wooden trays that are covered with more wooden trays [4 high]. Trays are approximately 6'. Everything else is fine, I only have a comment on the proofing process.

[andreq]

You can make that bread in 3-4h if you like.

Cold proofing is used here to enhance flavor. You can proof it for up to 4 days in the refrigerator. The bread will can lots of flavor after 4 days fermentation.

[andreq]

Thanks for reading my instructable!

Let me know if you see any error in the text as English isn't my maiden language.

[erehwon]

I think you probably want to use "native language" rather than "maiden language". Maiden language doesn't make sense, unless you're a woman and you learned it before you got married. And even then it doesn't make a lot of sense.

[andreq]

I've heard that sometime ago... tough it was the good way to say it.

I just read that "mother tongue" or "first language" is more appropriate.

Thanks for the info anyway :)

[bryan3141]

and, more grammar: "Separate it 2 equal part" should be "separate it into two equal parts" .

[andreq]

Thanks for all your comments! It's fixed now.

[bryan3141]

yet more grammar:

"Scores the dough..." this is a command, so scores should be score since the implied subject is "you".

"As of me..." this is not a usual construction, "As for me, " is preferred.

" bad job at scoring" again, not a usual construction, "...bad job OF scoring..." is preferred.

[bryan3141]

More grammar as per your request:

" the dough hold a decent shape." Again, agreement in number. The dough is singular so hold should be holds. Likewise, "When it feel less tacky " feel should be feels. And " but it help a lot if you.." help should be helps.

[bryan3141]

more grammar, but, again, only because you asked:

"Too hot water will kill the yeast and too cold will make mixing and proof a lot longer." This is generally clear, but you need to make the verbs agree with each other as well: "Too hot water will kill the yeast and too cold will make mixing and proofing a lot longer." It's still not proper formally, but would be good enough for an instructible. The more formal way of putting it would be "If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast, if it is too cold, it will make mixing and proofing take a lot longer."

[bryan3141]

I would normally feel nit-picky talking about grammar in an instructable...especially one as good as this one is, but you asked so:

Please pay attention to agreement in number. eg:"you will need some simple cooking tool..." some implies more than one, so make tool become tools. "bowl scraper are perfect!" are is a plural verb, so you need to either change scraper to scrapers, or you need to change it to "A bowl scraper is perfect!"

"it just make it easier" make is a plural verb, you either need to change it to "they just make it easier" (thus making the subject plural) or "it makes it easier" (thus making the verb singular).

[JBZG]

You can add ice cubes to a pan in the bottom of the oven to give you the 'mist' to improve the crust

[star folder]

I keep an old cast iron skillet in the bottom of the oven, so it heats up with the oven and after the bread in on the shelf above, a bit of water quickly gives steam. I even leave the skillet in through the self-cleaning of the oven, as I also leave in the stones. So far, no breakage.

[Dave Kruschke]

I've always wondered about what the salt does in a bread dough? Is this essential or is this only for taste? More people these days are concerned about reducing salt in their diet. Less or no salt might be an improvement for these people...

[aimeeserene]

In addition, salt also controls the rate which yeast eats the sugars (both added sugars, as well as the sugar from flour starches). In other words, it slows and normalizes fermentation activity.

[the.fee.fairy]

Salt is needed to break down the gluten and make the bread more doughy and less stodgy. It makes the gluten strands stretchy so that the dough stretches as it rises, lessening the chances of big air bubbles in the bread.

The amount of salt in a home baked loaf of bread is negligible in terms of health and cutting down.

See Heston Blumenthal's Kitchen Chemistry: Salt for a better explanation of why salt is important!

[cozza!!!]

Salt actually helps develop and strengthen gluten, resulting in a tougher dough. You will find that sugars will weaken the gluten.

Whenever I make bread at home I like to make a pre-ferment dough and rest it overnioght, then use thios in a larger amount instead of adding yeast. It results in much nicer carachteristics and a very nice flavour that will make it a tasty treat by itself or a great accompanyment to many meals.

[Craigen]

Adjusting salt and sugar is a balancing act. On one hand salt will make the dough stretchy and chewy, on the other too much salt kills yeast. Sugar will feed the yeast and make your dough nice and airy, but will weaken the gluten strands creating a weak dough.

[lunitick]

have you ever tried using yeast for beer or wine making? I add sugar when I do it.