Welcome to Bread with Spuos, SDF's most trusted source on all things  Doughy
come back soon, this page is under construction! 

	Bread making is simple and can be done with a few basic ingredients, and
the best way to learn is to try it! Start out with a basic bread recipe, 
and see for yourself! I've personally discovered that all forms of bread 
tend to be formed of a few specific elements: fats, wets, oils, protein and carbs.
Together they are the building blocks  of any good bread. 
You don't really even need all of that, depending on the bread, but overall they
are found in pretty much any common bread.
 
Protein
	Starting out simple, we have the mighty protein. While your flour of
choice may have some on its own, your bread may or need more. Protein holds
your bread together, gives you a crispier loaf, and much more. 
Protein is very important for bread, because it gives your dough the ability 
to stretch,thickens your dough, and holds the air inside your bread. 
You want air in your bread, because without it, your bread is at best a dense,
dry rubber and at worst, a rock theorized to have nutritional value.
One of the most available sources of protein would be eggs, 
though nuts, seeds, and the like are sometimes seen. 

Flour 
	
	Your flour makes up the bulk of your bread, and depending on the source
will give you varying textures, flavors, and your dough's consistency. 
Wheat flour is  normally used, but flour comes in many different forms.
Normally, Wheat flour is what is used in many recipes because of its ubiquity,
and because of its gluten. Gluten is a giant protein found in wheat flour that
is incredibly good at holding bread together and when it thickens the bread,
its large shape and special composition makes excel at trapping gas inside
your bread. If you're a poor soul who due to dietary restrictions finds
themselves unable to eat gluten, have no fear, This page will be updated with
advice at a later date! Knowing people with such problems, I found ways to make
bread without gluten that isn't dry or flimsy. Once I was messing around and
discovered a recipe for a perfect gluten-free english muffin, that tasted and
felt exactly like a normal english muffin. I didn't write that one down but I
know with enough patience, you too can find it!  When it comes to wheat flour,
you have several types. I'll go over some of the basic kinds you might find: 


	All-purpose flour: good for... all purposes. It has a good blend of gluten and
carbs, suitable for bread, cakes, and anything else bread flour: has a higher
gluten content than other flours. If you're making a bread that needs a lot of
kneading and rising, this is your flour of choice

	cake flour: don't use this for bread unless you're following a recipe, It has
the least amount of gluten compared to any other readily available wheat flour.
Compared to other flours, cake flour will make a very delicate dough that will
struggle to rise when making a traditional yeast bread. If you wish to use cake
flour, you will need to make your bread like a cake. 

	Whole wheat: the healthier option of flour, it creates a denser bread and yeast
makes it rise slower. It has different properties, but will make a great bread,
so it is highly recommended 

	High Gluten flour: great for chewy, dense, and slow things like pizza crust,
bagels, and those bread loaves you are always looking at in the bakery. A great
flour for bread, but your end result will be drier, so make sure to add extra
liquids to your bread. 

	overall, the more you plan on working the bread, the more you want protein and
gluten. 
Any bread you plan on working a lot needs a lot of stuff to keep it strong, so you
want more flour and more gluten. The bread gets dry from this, but you can
balance that out by adding fat, water, or oil, as explained later. 




Have something to add? email spuos@sdf.org with the subject "Bread"