How to Make Bread | How to Plant Based Ep 1 - Blog Vegan

Welcome to How to Plant Based, where we show you how to use and create Plant Based Basics. Today, it's episode one where we are going to show you how to make delicious vegan bread that is soft and fluffy every single time.

What Type of Flour to Use to Make Bread

If you've ever asked yourself how to make bread, then look no further. 

We're kicking off our new series "How to Plant Based" by teaching you the easiest bread recipe you'll ever make. 

Just 5 Ingredients makes this recipe so simple plus the tips and tricks to get the perfect bread every single time. 

How to Measure Flour

You're going to start by grabbing bread flour. The best thing to do is measure this out by using a scale. However, if you're an American, then that's likely a foreign concept so the least thing you can do is spoon out your flour into a measuring cup.

Bread flour is used for its higher protein content which leads to a lighter and fluffier bread in the end but all-purpose flour can be swapped at a one-to-one ratio.

Can you use Instant Yeast for Bread

We want this to be insanely easy, pretty foolproof recipe for you so we are using an instant yeast instead of active dry so there's no need to activate the yeast first and it can go right in with dry ingredients.

Then, some vegan cane sugar to help with texture specifically the moisture as well as browning and taste and then some salt and whisk that together really well.

Lastly, we're adding in some room temperature water. Again, to make this easy, you don't need to be overly concerned about the temperature.

Just make sure it's not piping hot or you do risk ruining your yeast.

Using a spatula, you're going to combine your dough until you see no more flour bits at the bottom of your bowl and you'll have a pretty shaggy-looking dough bowl at this point.

Lightly flour surface and put some extra flour off to the side. At this stage, you do not want to add anymore than an additional half a cup of flour to your dough.

You could technically not need this recipe and still end up with a delicious dough but we do recommend kneading it for a few minutes just to help those gluten strands develop even more and giving in better bread at the end.

Keep adding a little bit of flour at a time using a bench scraper if you have one to easily get your dough up.

You want this dough to spring back but not be sticking to your hands. Once you're in a good spot, put your dough back into your bowl and cover it in a warm place for 60 to 90 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

Now, the most important part here is that you're not watching the time but watching your dough. Once it's doubled in size, you can move on but depending on your location or house that maybe 50 minutes or it could be a hundred.

Lightly grease and add parchment paper to a standard bread loaf pan, my favorite tip is to use these binder clips to hold down those wings.

Once your dough is doubled in size, punch it down and pull it into a lightly floured surface.

To get the best bread crumb at the end of your product, lightly shape your dough into a rectangle and then roll it up into a tight oval when you have your loaf put it into your prepared pan.

Expert tip here remove those binder clips as soon as you put your loaf in. Do as I say not as I do here. You'll want to re-cover your dough and allow it to rise until it's doming over your pan about an inch or so which will take about another hour. Again watch the dough, not your timer.

When that's ready it's time to bake and your end result is a delicious golden brown loaf.

Bear claw mitts not included. You'll want to rub some non-dairy butter over carefully right after coming out I didn't get to this step immediately because well children but adding the butter here helps with the crust texture making it softer remove your bread from the pan and place it on a cooling rack as tempting as it is you really want to wait at least an hour to cut into your bread ideally a few hours if possible letting it cool completely develops more flavor retains more moisture and gives a better overall texture when you are finally ready to cut it you'll want to use a bread knife with a serrated edge this helps to ensure that the crumb isn't compromised when cutting.

Now, for the fun part, you can slice your bread as thin or thick as you want.

The choice is totally yours. You are left with a delicious, simple bread recipe that is soft, airy, fluffy, has the perfect crumb pockets not to mention an irresistible smell in your house all day long. When you make bread from scratch, you really want to have a good bounce to know just how tender and fluffy it is and you'll get that with this recipe every single time. Seriously, you won't be able to get enough of it.

I do just want to mention that if you slice your bread and you have these pockets, while it can be from a few different reasons.

The biggest is that when shaping your loaf before baking, you didn't fold it tight enough so try not to have it super loose but overall a few here and there isn't a big issue. This bread is absolutely perfect for buttering or spreading jam on two but one of our family's favorite ways to use it is the iconic homemade grilled cheese.

It gets that perfect golden brown hue all over. We won't get into the lack of vegan cheese pull but oh my gosh, you'll want this again and again. I mean, listen to that crunch. It is so good. It is perfectly soft on the inside. Nice little crust on the outside. It is crumbly. It is delicious and you'll have perfect bread every single time. Enjoy..