Breads

Don’t put them in the oven without this!

We're talking more than two weeks of fresh slices.

They're color-coded for a very important reason.

How many can you name off the top of your head?

Store-bought frozen puff pastry is a lifesaver any time of year, but especially as we move into the busy holiday season. With a package or two stashed in the freezer, I know a quick baked brie for visiting guests or plate of mini-quiche appetizers for a potluck is only a few steps away — and the empty, crumb-filled plates at the end of the night speak for themselves. If you’ve never used frozen puff pastry before, let me assure you that it couldn’t be easier.

There's actually a much tastier way to use everyone's favorite muffin mix.

You might be familiar with matzo ball soup and see the packages of matzo around your grocery store, but many people don’t know what matzo really is or why it’s eaten. Here’s a quick introduction to the star of the Seder!

The best method yielded beautiful, fluffy results!

It's possible to freeze carbs and enjoy them later in a not-rock-hard state.

I recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Baker and Doughpuncher David Norman. David is a true artisan when it comes to baking breads, working each batch of dough carefully to achieve the consistency and quality he desires. I asked him about common misconceptions the public may have when it comes to baking and storing bread, and it turns out we may have been doing a few things wrong.

Not to be dramatic, but the results were kind of mind-blowing.

No awkwardly cut foil strips required.

Use this clever folding trick to get the parchment paper just right.

The only thing you need is already in your refrigerator!

Here's why it's such a smart tip.

It can be hard to get homemade whole wheat bread as soft and fluffy as the loaves we see at the grocery store. All too often, our loaves end up like dense heavy bricks. But there is hope! A few baking tricks can help us get much closer to the pillowy whole wheat loaves we crave. The reason why whole wheat loaves end up so dense is because whole wheat flour has very little gluten as compared to white all-purpose flour.

It’s unfair. Fresh, hot, from-scratch cinnamon buns are a beloved treat, especially for tasty Christmas breakfast. Who doesn’t want to wake up to the smell of cinnamon and caramelizing sugar, or stumble down to the kitchen to find fresh-from-the-oven, slathered-in-icing cinnamon buns, just waiting for you to dive in?

Q: When dredging chicken cutlets, do you the use flour, buttermilk, and eggs before coating in breadcrumbs? Sent by Phyllis Editor: Each element in the breading process has a purpose. When you know what each does, it’s easy to remember what order to use when breading chicken (or whatever protein you’re using). This will also help you out with substitutions when you need them. Here’s the basic method to remember: wet → dry → wet → dry.

While both flours are 100 percent whole wheat, the difference is in the variety of whole wheat.

It doesn’t matter if they’re sweet or savory — homemade muffins are a timeless and comforting breakfast. (Especially when your morning involves grabbing a breakfast sandwich or quick bite as you dash out the door.) Fill them with fruit or veggies for a healthier spin, or go for something more indulgent. Either way, fresh-baked muffins are a total treat. As you crank up your oven for your next batch of muffins, be sure you’re not making any one of these muffin missteps.

Panko and breadcrumbs are the pantry staples we reach for to add a crunchy topping to baked casseroles, and to make a super crisp breaded coating for fried and baked foods. They’re pretty similar, but do you know what sets them apart? It comes down to this: Breadcrumbs is a broad term, and there is more than one variety, one of which is panko. What sets these two pantry staples apart is their texture and how they’re made. Panko is a type of flaky breadcrumb.

It's time to step up your bread-and-butter game.

If you've never worked with yeast before or, like me, haven't been successful in proofing your yeast, here's everything you need to know about getting started with dry yeast.

Knowing when you can stop kneading the dough is among the more mysterious aspects of baking bread. Sure, it’s no longer a wobbly mess of bubble-gummy dough, but is it really done? To find out, there are ways to tell whether the dough is ready after kneading it for 10-12 minutes by hand or 8-10 minutes in a mixer. Here are a few clues to look for. The point of kneading dough is to strengthen the gluten, which are the stringy bands of proteins that give bread its structure and texture.

Prettier loaves ahead!

The answer depends on how long your summer rolls need storing.

I don’t bake with yeast all that often, but I always reach for the packets of dry yeast when I do. But what about those little cakes of fresh yeast, the ones professional bakers are always talking about? It was time to find out more about fresh (or cake) yeast, and see what the fuss was all about. How is it different from dried yeast, is it easy to use, and would breads made from fresh yeast taste better?

Fresh biscuits like our Bacon-Cheddar Biscuits are so easy to pull together and take so little time to bake, they make an ideal component to a weeknight meal. In fact, we’ve been known to make them the centerpiece of the meal. Here are a few of our favorite excuses.1. Topped with Sauce – Many of the same sauces we put over pasta are fantastic over biscuits as well. We particularly love creamy ones like this Mushroom Sauce.2.

Ah, gluten. Bread bakers love it and pastry chefs keep it at a respectful distance. So what’s the deal with gluten and what can we oh-so-humble home cooks do about it?All flour contains a certain percentage of protein, ranging from 8% for cake flour to around 13% for durum semolina (pasta) flour. When activated, these proteins cling together to form strands of gluten.

Q: Why does pita bread mold so quickly? I love pitas for sandwiches, dipping, chips, etc. but every time I buy some it molds in my cupboard or on my shelf within a day or two (long before I can eat it all). I hate to stick it in the freezer immediately because that takes away its fluffiness and freshness.My other breads don’t mold this quickly. What’s the deal? And, is there any way to avoid pita molding?!

You likely already everything you need.

You'll be blown away by this one.

You'll wish you knew this one sooner.

This might become your new favorite way of making garlic bread.

We promise, this trick won't get stale!

Stuffed bagels? Sign us up!

Waking up super early for work can be challenging, especially if you don't have a delicious breakfast planned. This buttery muffin trick fixes all of that!

This trick for making soup toppers is so unbelievably easy!

Shannon Sharna explains how to braid challah bread in four different styles.

It’s the easiest way to get flavor into *all* the nooks and crannies.

It works with chocolate chips, too.

Get that professional-looking split top.

An overnight rest is good for more than just no-knead bread!

As bread bakers, the differences between these four breads has been a real source of confusion for us. They often seem to be used interchangeably in restaurants, bakeries, and even some cookbooks. It’s quite distressing to expect one kind of bread and wind up with something completely different, we think! So is there a difference?We would argue that, yes, there is definitely a difference. Or at least there should be!

The Internet’s latest “this-or-that” posts compare baby rolls to bread rolls. Can you tell which is which? Parents in Japan are using this Twitter hashtag to show the striking similarities between their babies’ roly-poly arms and a pull-apart snack bread from 7-Eleven. It’s a little different from the this-or-that posts we’ve seen before, but I think this is the best yet. It’s certainly the cutest, at the very least.

As if you need another reason to use a muffin pan besides, well, just making muffins! That should be good enough, we know. But we like it when our kitchen tools do double duty, and it turns out, the ol’ muffin pan is quite versatile! Here are 10 other ways you can put it to good use in your kitchen: Use it to serve oysters, shown above. Via à la mode. Make giant ice cubes. Freeze single servings of soup. Blend and freeze smoothie ingredients.

Take a break from baking bread while the weather is hot!

Homemade English muffins are one of those things we whip out whenever we want something extra special in the morning – a birthday brunch, in-laws are in town, you name it! One guest recently asked about the difference between crumpets and English muffins, and we were honestly stumped…with good reason, it turns out!One thing that all the blogs, websites, and cookbooks seem to agree upon is that crumpets and English muffins are two different creatures.

I've been doing this for 15 years.

Our team is all-in on sourdough. Want to join us? It's the best baking adventure of all, and everything you need to get started is right here.

Chapati [chuh-pah-tee] noun: Pan-grilled unleavened flatbread eaten in India, East Africa, and most of South Asia.Chapati is ubiquitous in Kenya; big golden wedges of this flat, chewy bread were served at almost every meal. We loved it; the fried golden taste is so delicious, and it’s handy for sopping up extra meat and sauce. We were already familiar, too, with chapati from Indian cuisine.

We here at The Kitchn are firm believers that the more you can do ahead of your dinner party, the less stress you’ll have at your dinner party. Dinner rolls fall squarely in that make-ahead category. In fact, dinner rolls are such a flexible and accommodating kind of recipe that there are multiple points in the process when you can stop, put the rolls on pause, and pick them up again when you want to — whether that’s a whole month from now or just a day.

Brioche is great, but not when I'm cooking for a crowd.

Looking back over this week’s content, we seem to be having something of an Oprah moment. It’s bread for days at The Kitchn — specifically Easter bread. Of course we have other ideas, too (you have to try this honey-glazed pork tenderloin, for starters), but bread is stealing the show.

When it comes to baking bread, you’ve got a few different flour options. In addition to the regular suspects on your grocery store shelves — notably all-purpose and bread flours — the recent renaissance of stone-milled flours has added greater choice and complexity to this essential bread decision. And if you opt for the stone-milled stuff, or any whole-wheat flour, different rules of storage and shelf-life apply.

When people who know about bread talk about bread, they often talk about ratios. A common ratio for bread is five to three, which importantly refers to weight (not cup) measurements — so 500 grams of flour to 300 grams of water, for example. But according to Adam Leonti, baker-in-chief at Brooklyn Bread Lab, less flour is more, or rather more water is more, if your goal is to make bread with big, beautiful holes.

You know that George Harrison song I’ve Got My Mind Set on You? It goes something like, “It’s gonna take time, a whole lot of precious time / It’s gonna take patience and time / To do it, to do it, to do it right.” I may have left out a few “to do its,” but you get the idea. The point is: Harrison may as well have been singing about bread. So how long should bread take?

If puff pastry isn't working for you, it may not be properly thawed.

Goodbye banana bread, hello sour cherry chocolate chunk bread!

A plain loaf of brioche is wonderful, but sometimes it’s fun to put in a little extra effort to make it extraordinary. The classic braid makes an excellent sliceable loaf with flair, while the star and bouquet options are eager to offer their pull-apart charms to a brunch near you. I know this all looks like a ton of work, but I promise it’s not! With these three easy-to-memorize techniques, you’ll take your brioche game to a level that’ll make even your grandma jealous.