Richard Maggs is our resident cooking doctor in the UK and abroad.
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Aga
Cooking Doctor |
| Q. I have a 2 oven aga and I am having trouble making bread. My problem is that the bread seems to rise unevenly i.e when I place the 2lb loaf tin into the centre of the oven with the grid shelf on the floor the bread rises more on the left as you look into the aga than the right. What am I doing wrong and how can I achive an even rise.
Regards
Andrew
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A. BREAD-MAKING ON THE AGA
I am sorry to hear you are having problems. It sounds to me as though you have the dough too soft and slack, so that it is not able to support its own weight to rise upwards any further without gravity forcing the expanding second proving to go sideways rather than upwards. If your dough is at all sticky by the final stage of being left to prove, that is a good clue that things are too wet. Bread dough is a forgiving medium – you can always work in a little more flour if this is the case and you will soon learn the knack of how to achieve the correct texture or dough. It mustn’t be too dry on the other hand, as then there would be insufficient moisture to allow the gluten strands to stretch as you wish for to get a good rise and nice, open crumb structure. Below are my main bread-making Masterclass points it would be worth working through. If you still have problems, please get back to me.
1. Make sure you use STRONG flour especially ground for baking bread.
2. For speed and ease, I suggest if you are not already using it, use a sachet of all-in-one instant yeast. Inspection of the packet reveals a magic ingredient - ascorbic acid (Vitamin C powder) which causes the yeast to multiply in your bread far faster than normal, giving an excellent rise. Check it is in date.
3. Some salt is needed or your bread will taste dire. Having said that, too much salt kills yeast, so measure accurately.
4. If your recipe doesn't include any fat or oil, add an ounce or 25g as this gives slightly better elasticity and also drastically improves the keeping qualities.
5. Use hand-hot water (50:50 cold from a run tap and from a boiled kettle if you're in doubt).
6. Warm the flour in the bowl on top of the Aga for half an hour before you start to mix the dough.
7. The best way to describe dough that is the correct texture is, silky - neither too dry or too sticky.
8. A decent knead is essential. After human elbow grease, if you have one, a KitchenAid or similar stand mixer with dough hook would be brilliant. If making a smaller amount and you don't have one, but are the owner of a Magimix, check for the maximum size it will cope with, and use the plastic blade for the time given. If you are a fan of the Doris Grant loaf, a school of thought that dispenses with proper kneading, try a conventional recipe.
9. An initial proving and then knocking down and giving a second short knead before shaping into loaves or rolls before a final prove is worth the effort.
10. Prove on a surface next to the Aga, covered with oiled clingfilm each time. Avoid unnecessary draughts in the kitchen but don't become paranoid!
11. If trying to make wholemeal bread a 50:50 mix of wholemeal and white makes a much easier to eat bread. Home-made 100% wholemeal is very close-textured and rather heavy going. I like 1/3 wholemeal to 1/3 mixed grain flour to 1/3 white for a change, by the way.
12. Bread likes a hot oven and an Aga top oven is the finest domestic oven in the world for baking bread. Best to use it for bread when it is at its hottest when you haven't been baking other things, so I suggest you roll up your sleeves after breakfast and bake in the morning until you've got it cracked.
13. For a two oven Aga bake loaves on the grid shelf on the floor of the top oven.
14. Throw in an ice cube before you shut the door. It will melt on the hot oven floor and create a steamy environment which is ideal for that perfect crust.
15. I'm sure you know that to test for whether the bread is cooked you remove from the tins and tap the bases to see if they sound hollow. If you feel they need it, pop back in the oven, upside down, balanced in their tins for a couple of minutes. I hardly ever need to do this with an Aga, but it is worth mentioning.
16. Now an important bit which I hope will improve matters: after the loaves have cooled for a couple of minutes on a wire tray, wrap tightly in a clean tea towel to finish off cooling. It is at this point I think your bread may be drying out and developing the over-hard crust. I even wrap up loaves not for immediate use in cling film and freeze as soon as they are down to blood heat. This keeps the crust nice and soft. The fat or oil should also go a long way to improve matters.
I hope the above helps.
Good luck and don't give up, practice makes perfect and all that!
Best wishes
Richard Maggs
The Aga Cookery Doctor
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