Yahoo News Nigella Lawson shares simple and efficient bread baking hack
Nigella Lawson has delighted fans on Twitter by sharing a top tip for all of our home bread baking needs.
Many of us have been honing our baking or cookery skills as we spend most of our time indoors to stop the spread of coronavirus, and Nigella is helping us keep it simple and seamless with some pointers on social media.
"Quick message to all those making bread at the moment," the food writer and cook tweeted. "Keep the water you've cooked potatoes or pasta in. It will help the bread's texture and rise."
She then added: "Taste it before adding though. If very salty, dilute it with fresh water and, obviously, leave any salt in recipe out."
"That is a cracking tip - thank you," former Bake Off star Sue Perkins replied.
When asked by one follower what the chemical explanation of this could be, Nigella replied: "I think of it like a tang Zhong or water roux starter on the hoof."
Which is the most Nigella thing Nigella may have ever said, and we just can't get enough.
When some fans asked what to do if they are unable to get hold of yeast as some shoppers continue to stockpile and panic buy, Nigella suggested making soda bread instead.
"You can certainly make soda bread. Or embark on sourdough. I don’t unfortunately have recipes online but here is @BootstrapCook's https://cookingonabootstrap.com/tag/soda-bread/," she tweeted.
Meanwhile, Good Housekeeping's Lifestyle Cookery Director Meike Beck has shared some of her top tips for making bread and why starchy water can work wonders.
"There is a saying with the making of bread dough: 'the wetter the better', so the starch in the potato water, in its super-hydrated, gelatinous state (starch is very absorbent), allows the flour in the bread recipe to relatively take on more water," Meike explains.
"This in turn makes for a dough with a higher hydration, which produces a better texture. In short, you can get more liquid into the bread flour by using potato water, than normal water. As the starch, in its suspension, has already absorbed liquid before its addition to the flour."
Meike stipulates that you can also make fantastic bread without it.
The Good Housekeeping Cookery team has also the shared the best ingredients to use to make bread.
Fat (e.g. oil, butter egg yolk): Inhibits gluten development, but adds flavour, keeps the bread crumb tender and helps improve the shelf life of the loaf.
Whole eggs: Will help the bread rise and the fat in the yolk helps with crumb and shelf life.
Sugar: A pinch to any basic recipe gives the yeast some food. But adding more sugar than the yeast can eat, unsurprisingly will give the finished loaf sweetness as well as keeping the crumb fine and helping the shelf life. But be careful, as a high ratio of sugar can also make the loaf burn before its cooked through.
Milk: As there is fat in milk, replacing the water as the liquid volume with milk will give your bread a more tender crumb (and as a result soften the crust). You’ll also end up with a slightly sweeter loaf because of the sugars in milk, so watch the loaf as it will brown more quickly too.
Happy baking!
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