A Baker's Day
Cooking Skills: Bread 1
Chapter 8 · A Baker's Day
Skill goal
Run a bake day, read a loaf to find what went wrong, and write your own recipe.
Shopping list for this chapter
The basics
Over seven chapters you have learned what bread is, how to knead and prove, how to shape and bake, flatbreads, wet doughs and overnight bread, fillings and glazes, and using bread up. Now put it together: plan a bake day, diagnose a failure and write your own loaf.
Planning a bake day
- Work backwards from when you want to eat.
- Start the slowest dough first.
- Overlap the rises: knead one dough while another rises.
- Make a plan on paper and tick off each step.
- Preheat in time: the oven needs 20 to 30 minutes, and a pot or tray longer.
- Plan for leftovers: freeze what you won't eat in 2 days.
Your skills table
| Skill | Chapter | Best for | My top tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingredients and weighing | Bread 1, chapter 1 | Every loaf | Weigh flour and water |
| Kneading and proving | Bread 1, chapter 2 | Yeast loaves | Windowpane test and the poke test |
| Shaping and baking | Bread 1, chapter 3 | Loaves, sticks, plaits, rolls | Shape tight; score; steam; tap the base |
| Flatbreads | Bread 1, chapter 4 | Quick breads, wraps and dipping | Very hot pan, even rolling, keep soft |
| No-knead and overnight | Bread 1, chapter 5 | Little effort, big flavour | Wet hands, time and a hot pot |
| Rolls, buns and fillings | Bread 1, chapter 6 | Parties, lunches and soup | Weigh pieces; fold fillings in late |
| Using up bread | Bread 1, chapter 7 | Reducing waste | Freeze slices; don't use the fridge |
Fill in your own tips below.
| What I tried | Method or amount | What I saw | What I thought | Will I do it again? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| My easiest loaf | ||||
| My best crust | ||||
| My best crumb | ||||
| My favourite flatbread | ||||
| My best roll | ||||
| My best way to use stale bread |
Try it
Level 1 · Start here
A bake-day plan: a loaf and eight rolls
A bake day is mostly about order. Start the slow dough first, overlap the rising times and keep the oven busy. Write the plan down and tick it off.
Ingredients (12 portions)
- 1 batch white tin loaf dough (Cooking Skills: Bread 1, chapter 1): 500 g flour, 7 g yeast, 10 g salt, 320 ml water, 1 tbsp oil
- 1 batch soft roll dough (Cooking Skills: Bread 1, chapter 6), scaled to 8 rolls
- 1 egg for glazing
- 1 tbsp extra flour for dusting
- 0:00 Mix and knead the loaf dough (20 minutes). Put it to prove.
- 0:15 Mix and knead the roll dough (20 minutes). Put it to prove. Both doughs now rise for about an hour.
- 1:25 Shape the loaf into its tin. Then 1:35 shape the rolls onto a tray. Let both prove for 30 to 40 minutes.
- 1:50 Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Glaze the rolls.
- 2:15 Bake the loaf for about 35 minutes. Add the rolls at 2:30 (they bake in 15 to 18 minutes at the same temperature; keep an eye on them).
- 2:50 Cool on racks for 30 minutes before slicing.
Flour, heat and allergens
Raw flour: flour is a raw ingredient and can carry bacteria such as E. coli, which are killed only by baking or cooking. Don't taste raw dough, don't let children eat or play with it, and wash your hands, bowls and surfaces after handling flour and dough.Hot ovens, trays and steam: use dry oven gloves, pull the shelf out rather than reaching in, and put hot trays and tins on a heatproof surface. If you put a tray of boiling water in the oven for steam, pour it carefully with the oven door open a little and your face well back: the steam is far hotter than the water.
Allergens: bread contains wheat (gluten). Check the recipe for milk, butter, egg, sesame and other seeds, and nuts, and label them if you share the bread. Gluten-free bread uses different flours and methods and isn't covered in this course.
Level 2 · Diagnose
A fault-finding clinic
Every baker produces bad loaves. The skill is working out why. Take a loaf that didn't work and use the questions below.
Ingredients (1 portion)
- 3 loaves or batches from earlier chapters that went wrong (or deliberately make them wrong)
- 1 notebook and pen
- Look at the outside: pale crust (cool oven, no steam, too little time), burnt base (tray too low), burst side (under-proved or not scored), flat spread loaf (over-proved or too wet).
- Cut it open: dense, heavy crumb (under-proved, too little yeast or too little water), big holes under the crust (not knocked back or shaped tightly), gummy streaks (cut too soon or under-baked), crumbly (too much flour or over-baked).
- Taste it: bland (not enough salt, or too fast a rise), too salty (salt measured wrongly), yeasty or boozy smell (over-proved), sour (a long rise, which may be what you want).
- Check the notes: what did you weigh, how long was the rise, how hot was the oven? Change one thing and bake it again.
One change at a time
If you change flour, water, rising time and oven temperature at once, you won't know which one worked. Change one thing, write it down and compare.
Level 3 · Create
Your signature loaf
Now write your own. Choose a flour mix, a hydration, a rise (same day or overnight), a shape and one flavour, then bake it and write it up.
Ingredients (12 portions)
- 500 g your choice of flours: strong white, wholemeal, or both, plus up to 100 g of rye or spelt
- 1 sachet (7 g) sachet fast-action dried yeast
- 10 g fine salt
- 340 ml lukewarm water (adjust by feel)
- 1 up to 100 g of an extra: cheese, seeds, olives, nuts, dried fruit or herbs
- Choose the flour: all white for lightness, half wholemeal for flavour, with 100 g of rye or spelt for character. Wholemeal, rye and spelt absorb more water, so add about 20 ml per 100 g swapped.
- Choose the rise: same day (1 hour plus 45 minutes) or overnight in the fridge (8 to 16 hours).
- Choose the shape and bake: tin, cob, plait or rolls, using the times in Cooking Skills: Bread 1, chapter 3.
- Add one flavour: cheese, seeds, olives or herbs, folded in late (see chapter 6).
- Write it up: ingredients by weight, the method, the time and temperature, and what you would change. That is your first original recipe.
Allergens and sharing
Allergens: bread contains wheat (gluten). Check the recipe for milk, butter, egg, sesame and other seeds, and nuts, and label them if you share the bread. Gluten-free bread uses different flours and methods and isn't covered in this course.
Experiments
Experiment
A timed bake day
One day, two breads.
- Write a plan for a loaf and one other bread (a flatbread or focaccia) and bake both. Note the time each step actually took.
Look for: Compare your plan with what happened. The usual mistakes are starting the second dough too late and forgetting to preheat. Fix the plan and keep it.
Experiment
Swap one flour
One change.
- Bake your white loaf recipe twice: once as written and once with 100 g of the flour swapped for wholemeal, rye or spelt (and about 20 ml more water).
Look for: The swapped loaf is darker, denser and nuttier. Note which you prefer and how the dough felt.
Experiment
Your own recipe
Write it, bake it, improve it.
- Bake your signature loaf. Change one thing the second time (more water, a longer rise, a different shape) and compare.
Look for: Write down the difference. This is how every baker builds a recipe.
Tasting notes
| What I tried | Method or amount | What I saw | What I thought | Will I do it again? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bake-day plan | ||||
| Fault-finding clinic | ||||
| Signature loaf | ||||
| Timed bake day | ||||
| Swapped flour | ||||
| Second version of my recipe |
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Everything ready at once or not at all | No plan | Write a timeline and work back from when you want to eat |
| Second dough over-proves | Left too long while waiting for the oven | Put it in the fridge to slow it, or shape and bake sooner |
| Oven not free | Two items need different temperatures | Bake at a compromise temperature or one after another |
| Can't tell what went wrong | Changed too many things | Change one thing at a time and write it down |
| Loaf different every time | Not weighing | Weigh flour and water; note the rise time and oven |
| Too much bread | Baking more than you can eat | Freeze slices; make rolls and share |
Bake-day safety
Raw flour: flour is a raw ingredient and can carry bacteria such as E. coli, which are killed only by baking or cooking. Don't taste raw dough, don't let children eat or play with it, and wash your hands, bowls and surfaces after handling flour and dough.Hot ovens, trays and steam: use dry oven gloves, pull the shelf out rather than reaching in, and put hot trays and tins on a heatproof surface. If you put a tray of boiling water in the oven for steam, pour it carefully with the oven door open a little and your face well back: the steam is far hotter than the water.
Allergens: bread contains wheat (gluten). Check the recipe for milk, butter, egg, sesame and other seeds, and nuts, and label them if you share the bread. Gluten-free bread uses different flours and methods and isn't covered in this course.
Mould: if bread has mould on it, throw the whole loaf away: the spores spread through the soft crumb where you can't see them. Don't sniff it. Keep bread in a bread bin or freeze slices to avoid waste.
Checkpoint: can you do this now?
- I can plan and run a bake day.
- I can look at a loaf and work out what went wrong.
- I can write down a recipe by weight.
- I change one thing at a time when I improve a recipe.
- I freeze what I won't eat.
Next chapter
Cooking Skills: Bread 1 is complete. Cooking Skills: Bread 2 (enriched doughs, sourdough, pizza and laminated breads) is planned, and so is Cooking Skills: Pastry 1.