WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS MATH.

There is little doubt in saying that bread was the first food made by man.

It is said that when the Neanderthal man baked the bread, he became civilized. The main ingredient was flour, since the grains had been cultivated since 10,000 B.C. in the Tigris river valley, in Assyria, and Mesopotamia. The Neolithic man made his bread by crushing the cereals that he later cooked on top of hot stones; then, he began to crush these cereals between two stones, one big and flat where the cereal grains were put, and another small round stone with which they crushed them. He then added water, and thus, bread was invented.

It is also said that in  9,000 B.C, the Neanderthal Karen began to ask whether there was a gluten-free option.

Ever since then, bread has become a staple of world cuisine. Found in about every culture, for its soft, delicious nothingness, it is hard to find something as beloved by everyone as the trusty bread.

It is, however, harder to find in a less metaphorical sense as humanity has found itself eating it's own tail. With things like restaurants and bakeries a thing of the past, we, the apocalyptic chefs, have to pick up the slack and create our own bread.

But where to begin? Bread is one of those products that due to its diversity adapts to all the demands of the people who consume it. The composition of the bread depends on the flour used, the fat, raw materials sugars, etc. Sliced ​​bread, wholemeal bread, egg bread. It also depends on other ingredients, such as spices or aromatic herbs: garlic bread, onion bread, cumin, of olives. Its manufacture depends on the baking methods, sourdough, yeast, and also depends on the speed of the kneading or the fermentation time.

There are millions of factors that go into making bread, so much so that we could make an entirely different guide on bread and not cover even half of it. I don't know about you, but we don't have much time to get to the subtle nuances of ideation by altitude and region of the world. We need bread to stuff in our gullets as we travel the wasteland. Work smarter, not harder.

Bread 101

T

o make bread, in a nutshell, you need three key ingredients:  flour, salt, and water. As long as you have those three, you have bread. Ideally combined, that is.

Other secondary ingredients that are not needed, but encouraged, are yeast, sugar, milk, eggs, grease, and herbs. These have different use, some more important than others. But the three main ingredients are the same. You should have them all in bulk in your bunker and spice rack, but if you don't, then good luck trying to sneak into the former husk of a bakery to try and wrestle some flours from the rat king. You're better off trying to negotiate with the democratically elect rat prime minister, but be aware that there is a lot of red tape with this method.

Flour:

Technically, flour is the powdery product obtained by gradual milling wheat grains of the species triticum aestivum, after separating the impurities and washing to a certain degree of extraction (78%). This is fancy for grain that has been very much smashed by a rock.

Proteins contained in it define different types of flour in quality and end-use. Some are thicc, some are slim, and some are in between.

The proteins of the flour mixed with the water from the gluten, which forms the structure of the dough, retaining all the gas produced, and will form the final volume of the bread.

The quantity and quality of the proteins in the flour depend on the variety of the wheat, the average rainfall during harvest, soil fertility, and geographic area in which wheat is grown. A flour with protein content from 10 to 13%, is classified as hard flour and is used for the production of bread.

Flours with a protein content of 7.5 to 10% are special for the production of cookies and cakes, are the weak or soft flours, also known as all-purpose flour.

Hard flours, due to their relatively high percentage of protein, form a tenacious gluten and elasticity, as it has good gas holding properties and its easy to bake and turn into bread with good volume and texture. These flours need a relatively large quantity of water to make a dough of good consistency, therefore they need more time for mixing and kneading, and have good tolerance to fermentation.

Soft or weak flours contain less protein and form soft gluten, weak, and without elasticity, which does not retain gas well. It has little capacity to absorb water and need less time for work and kneading.

Some hard flours we can use to make bread are: Bread flour, whole-grain flour, oatmeal flour, cornmeal, gluten flour, rye flour, rice flour, and barley flour.

Water:

Chances are, you are a being made of water. Unless the apocalypse has somehow altered your DNA to make chocolate run through your veins, in which case, consider me a vampire.

Water holds you together, keeps you fresh, and gives your skin elasticity. You have consumed water your whole life, so you might be an expert by now. But did you know that there are different types of water?

Soft water: that which is free of minerals, such as rainwater.

Hard Water: one that has a large amount of mineral salts.

Saline water: that which contains sodium chloride, such as seawater.

The most recommended water for baking is hard, since it has enough mineral to reinforce the gluten and thus serve as food for the yeast. If you ever thought about making bread with seawater, then please, go seek help. Your soul has been tainted.

Functions of water in baking:

1. It makes possible the formation of the dough and development of gluten.

2. Dissolve the dry ingredients and yeast, distributing them in the dough.

3. It helps to control the temperature of the dough.

4. Determine the consistency of the dough.

4.5. Say Dough like three more times. It sounds hella weird.

5. Creates the right environment to produce the fermentation.

6. It helps the final growth of the bread in the oven.

7. Hydrates the starch and allows its gelatinization.

8. Determine the shelf life of the bread.

Yeast:

We already touched on some of the properties of the yeast when making our...Homunculus. I hope you are feeding him properly. He gets cranky if you don't. I won't get too much into the details here, but we need to tackle dry yeast, as opposed to the sourdough starter.

Dry yeast needs food and temperature to bloom, or activate.

To carry the temperature, we use water, and to carry food, sugar. As long as it is warm enough, and enough sugar to feed, your dry yeast will come to life to create that delicious gas. The ideal temperature of the water is 25°C/77°F. If it goes above 55°C/131°F, the yeast will die. Add salt, and the yeast will die as well.

As long as it is warm, and with enough sugar, it will live. Yeast is like a 4 y/o child.

Salt:

Flour, as it turns out, tastes like the color gray. Water's taste is its temperature. With it, salt comes to the fray to heighten the natural sugars of fermentation, and to make you taste...something.

Salt also kills yeast, which is why you need to put it in LAST. If you want your dough to rise, salt is last.

Sugar:

Feeds the yeast and gives the bread its signature brown color. Sugar also makes the drought softer, if sugary.

Milk and Eggs:

There are used to enrich the dough, meaning, they add proteins and nutrients that simple water doesn't add. They also add both body and color to the bread, since they have sugars in them. Look, do I have to tell you why eggs and milk are tasty?

Greases and Fats:

Fat is the most important enriching ingredient in dough, as it lubricates, it softens, and makes the product more appetizing.

Most, if not all bakery breads, use lard to keep the bread softer and tastier for longer. To that, I say that it is a good thing they all disappeared.

Herbs and aromatics:

Hey, remember when you built your spice empire? Guess who's back! You can use the same properties of those here to add different flavors and delicious, delicious aromatics. Oregano is a favorite, but you can use just about everything. What are you doing with that rock? You can't grate a rock! Have you been drinking seawater again?

Baker's %:

I sure as hell hope I don't have to remind you to have everything on hand before starting to make anything. But how much do you use to make a bread?

See, unlike regular cooking, which is an art, baking is a science. Everything about baking, from temperature, to measurements, is a fine balance. One grain over the limit and you will have a clusterfuck. Those are not tasty.

There is perhaps no greatest balance an apocalyptic baker has to strike that of the water and flour. Too much water, and you will have a sticky mess. Too little, and you will have a rock — fine for throwing at enemies, but not for eating. It's impossible to find a dentist these days.

To best know how to strike a balance between flour and water, we have to understand the banker's percentage.

Baker's percentage is a notation method indicating the proportion of an ingredient relative to the flour used in a recipe when making breads, cakes, muffins, and other baked goods.

If we take flour as our 100% base, let's say that its 100 gr/3.5 oz, we will, for example, add 2% yeast, 2 gr/0.07 oz, based on that weight.

Hydration is one of the most important factors in mixing, and in the final appearance of the product since the hydration level helps the baker predict the texture of the crumb. Liquid ingredients also include water, milk, alcohol, and juice. It is also important to take into consideration the type of flour used in the formula. Different millers have different gluten levels in their flour, and if a different type of flour is used, the water baker’s % will likely change. For example, most dry dough such as bagels and pretzels are 50-57 baker’s %  water, while most bread is 58-65 baker’s % water.

To calculate the hydration level of a conventional recipe, first weigh the flour and water or other liquid. Divide the weight of the water by the weight of the flour and then multiply the result by 100. For example, a recipe containing 1 1/4 cups of water (10 ounces) and 3 cups of all-purpose flour (15 ounces) will have a 67 percent (10/15 x 100 = 67) hydration level, indicating a moderately airy crumb.

The percent hydration of dough can also be calculated according to its percentage.

U

sing a French bread formula as an example, and using 100 gr as a base, the hydration of the dough is 60% since that’s the percentage of water in the formula:

Flour 100% — 100 gr.

Water 60% — 60 ml.

Yeast 2% — 2 gr.

Salt 2% — 2 gr.

Hydration affects the process of bread building and the nature of the final result. Generally speaking, the more water in the dough, the more open the final bread's crumb. Bread can also be classified according to three categories based on hydration: stiff, standard or rustic. 

Stiff: 50 to 57% hydration. Yields dense crumb in breads such as bagels, pretzels

Bagels (50 to 57% hydration) are one of the least hydrated doughs and are extremely stiff. This means that they need a ton of kneading to get all the flour incorporated and gluten developed; it also means that they are not sticky at all in dough form.

Standard: 58 to 65% hydration. Yields a denser, closed crumb, in breads such as sandwich bread, rolls, French and other European breads

Many formulas, such as white sandwich bread, French bread, and challah, use around 57 to 65% hydration. The dough starts to be a bit tackier, but also more extensible. These doughs can hold their shape well, but also allow for a greater volume in rising.

Rustic: 65 to 80% hydration. Yields an airy crumb and large, irregular holes, in breads such as ciabatta, focaccia, pizza

On the higher end of the spectrum you have breads like focaccia and ciabatta, which could be 65 to 80% or more hydrated. These doughs are extremely sticky. Kneading does not usually work on these doughs, and instead techniques used are folding, or just letting the dough develop the gluten over a long period of time on its own (no kneading).

Fermentation:

The grain of wheat does not contain as many "wild yeasts" as it is. However, it can be estimated that the flour extracted from wheat contains 30,000 cells of yeast per kg. If we place a piece of dough made of flour and water in a hot and humid place, We will see how it swells slightly 24 hours later. What happens? The yeasts in the flour have degraded the sugars contained in this flour (remember that the flour contains between 1 and 2% of sugars) in carbon dioxide and alcohol, accompanied by acids.

In this case, the dough is not a liquid element but elastic and impermeable, therefore the gas carbon dioxide cannot cross it and remains inside it in the form of small bubbles, therefore the dough swells. Look at it like the yeast is a very flatulent man, with the dough being the Dutch oven of farts that never lets it escape.

From its interior, an acid smell is evoked, caused by alcohol and acids produced in fermentation. What must the baker do to "conduct" the fermentation? As we have just seen in our starter guide, flour contains few wild yeasts, which are insufficient to "lift" the dough, so it is necessary to add others, 1 gr of yeast, which contains 10 to 12 million cells. These have the same role as those contained in flour, that is, gaseous production, the formation of ethyl alcohol and acids (lactic and acetic).

What are these yeasts nourished from? In order to produce carbon dioxide and alcohol, these yeasts must degrade a certain amount of sugar from starch particles during grinding.

How is starch transformed into sugars? Flour contains a variable number of enzymes called amylases; they have the power to transform the starch into sugars. The elasticity of the dough is due to a component of the flour called glute, or as we call it, one asscheek. During this time, the yeast mainly produces alcohol and a little carbon dioxide. Alcohol is accompanied by acids, which are fixed in the glute and give it tenacity. This tenacity results in gas tightness and waterproofing carbonic (if we bite a lemon we will feel the same effect, as our the jaw muscles contract under the effect of citric acid).

The second stage of fermentation is taking volume, which is produced under the action of carbon dioxide produced by yeast. Why this quick volume boost? During the second part of the fermentation, the roles are reversed, the yeast produces less alcohol, but more carbon dioxide gas that is trapped in the form of bubbles by the gluteal fibrils that constitute a true waterproof fabric. The Gluten's ability to retain carbon dioxide is called gaseous retention.

As to how to knead, or bake, or implement everything we have learned, we will make some bread. But for now, I have taken enough of your time. Breathe, move around, and be careful not being followed, for we are going to be making glorious bread, three ways!