A little bit about me
Welcome to All You Knead Is Bread! I am Maria and now that you’re here I’d like to tell you a little bit about me.
I’m originally from Spain, and I came to North Carolina 4 years ago to pursue my Ph.D. in Food Engineering. I’m enjoying the Grad School experience, I love living here and I’ve met wonderful people along the way. I pretty much feel like home, except for that one thing… yeah, bread! 😊
In Spain, bread is part of almost every meal, something we buy every day at the bakery, and something that I had taken so much for granted! I never realized how much I relied on it until I couldn’t find the type I liked. For those who don’t know, Spanish bread is like French or Italian bread, crunchy outside and soft inside… yummy!
What you’re going to find in this blog
Chances are that you won’t make it to the end of this post, so let me get a bit ahead of myself and start from the end.
Because most of my frustration came from trusting too much on recipes that weren’t accurate, here you’ll find:
- Real and clear recipes: real because I want you to succeed on your baking, no skipping ingredients or tips that will help you. Clear because all my recipes have many steps. Not because they’re difficult but because I want everyone to be able to follow up.
- Variety: people have different needs and preferences, some might want more fiber, some might prefer vegan options, dairy free etc. I try my best to have a little bit of everything. Also, every culture in this world has their own type of bread. Isn’t it amazing? I’m always looking for new recipes, new techniques, and new flavor combinations. We can travel around the world without leaving our homes!
- Honesty: my main goal is to be honest about everything. I’m not looking for thousands of likes and shares. I want you to stop being scared of making bread and to never let a YouTube recipe intimidate you. You can do it too, with some science and practice! 😉
How I became the bread lady
When I started my program, I was working on some type of starch modification to make starchy foods healthier. But things never go the way we plan, and one day my advisor talked to me and told me he wanted me to work on something different.
I promise you when I hear the word “change” my mind stopped working. What?? After all the time I put into that project? I couldn’t believe I had to start all over again. Search research articles (and read them!), find out what has been done, what hasn’t, the problems other scientists were having… I was overwhelmed, to say the least.
I didn’t have a choice so, I started the new project… the BREAD project. That’s right! I was going to start to study bread and different ways to make it healthier. In my lab we work with functional food, basically, we try to introduce ingredients with potential health benefits into common food. And the new product must be more nutritious and taste, look and smell good. Not as easy as it sounds!
When I started the bread project I knew almost nothing about the science of bread. I had just started to make bread at home, and by “make” I mean try my best. It was a hobby and a way to somehow satisfy my bread cravings. But… working on bread every day seemed… boring?. Well, it didn’t take me long to realize that my advisor did THE BEST thing for me!
My learning journey
This new project was giving me the opportunity to understand how a mixture of flour, water, yeast, and salt can become an amazing, aromatic loaf of bread! The science behind it caught my attention right away. I was amazed to know how everything worked. I had been making some (very simple) bread at home, yeah. But I was so oblivious to what was really happening!
So, I started to learn about gluten, and how the network was made, the hydration of the dough, things that affect the dough, the staling of bread… The more I learned, the more I wanted to try new recipes. And just like that, I decided to move onto enriched doughs.
I wanted to replicate those Hawaiian rolls that my roommate used to buy and we’d eat within a day. My first attempt, before switching projects, went… okay. The rolls were good while they were warm, but the next day you could play baseball with those rocks! Once I knew a bit more about bread dough, I decided to try again.
Meh… the rolls were still dry. I kept trying.
And trying…
And trying some more…
And my best friend, who was my roommate at that time, became my “lab rat” and ate all the rolls LOL (Thank you, Beatrice, for your sincere opinions 😊)
What was the problem?
My learning experience in the lab was going great, but things weren’t going so well in my kitchen. When I thought I knew something new that could improve my recipe, another batch of dry Hawaiian rolls proved me wrong.
It was so frustrating! I was following the recipes step by step! What was going on? Why were my rolls so dry? Why was the crumb so dense? Why was the dough stickier than the one in the YouTube video I was following?
And one day I realized why, the answer was right in front of me, literally, because I had a bunch of scientific articles waiting to be read 😀
The problem was that I wasn’t paying attention to the science behind, nor were the recipes I was trying to follow! Yet, because of my inexperience, I thought the problem was mine, and not the recipes or the method.
Now I know that you can’t knead a batch of brioche for just “5 to 7 minutes” and expect a fluffy crumb, I also know that you can’t always “let the dough rise until it doubles in size” because it might not be enough, or it might be too much.
It all boils down to the gluten network. The ingredients that you have, how much you knead or how long you let the dough ferment will affect that network and the final result.
Anyways, let’s go back to my Hawaiian rolls.
I decided to stick to what I knew: science. I’d do my research and read scientific papers to understand the role of each ingredient. As I was reading, I realized the mistakes I was making. And I set up my own home experiment.
I created my own base recipe and started baking changing one thing each time to compare the results. And guys… I baked SO.MANY.ROLLS until I finally came up with a recipe I was satisfied with.
I started to feel more and more confident and I started to enjoy the baking process a lot more. I tried different types of bread, I bought my pizza stone and became so eager to know more and more about bread.
I found my passion. The whole process of baking takes my mind off everything and I find it extremely relaxing! Not to mention the goodies we get to eat at home! 😊
My “All you knead is bread” moment
With every new idea came a new technique that I had to practice; until one day, on my way back home, I had my “All you knead is bread” moment. I was already taking pictures of my achievements and failures to send to my friends, so the idea of an Instagram page wasn’t all that crazy.
But I knew I wanted to do more. I wanted to post my recipes and tell the world why bread happens, why the process of bread making is so amazing! So, I thought that a blog was a good idea to write my recipes along with some explanations or tips that might help other bakers.
What you’re going to find in this blog
Thank you if you made it this far, since I’m going to repeat this part (because it’s important) you can skip to the next point.
- Real and clear recipes: Real because I want you to succeed on your baking, no skipping ingredients or tips that will help you. Clear because all my recipes have many steps. Not because they’re difficult but because I want everyone to be able to follow up.
- Variety: People have different needs and preferences, some might want more fiber, some might prefer vegan options, dairy free etc. I try my best to have a little bit of everything. Also, every culture in this world has their own type of bread. Isn’t it amazing? I’m always looking for new recipes, new techniques, and new flavor combinations. We can travel around the world without leaving our homes!
- Honesty: my main goal is to be honest about everything. I’m not looking for thousands of likes and shares. I want you to stop being scared of making bread and to never let a YouTube recipe intimidate you. You can do it too, with some science and practice! 😉
We’re in this together
This is also my learning journey. I am always open to suggestions and some recipes might not look as perfect as those Pinterest posts (nothing wrong with them, I might just be a liiiittle jealous hehe). I’m a new blogger, a new food photographer (Please don’t judge me, I’m trying!) and a home baker struggling in graduate school. I’m just trying my best to find a balance 😊
Note: I take all of my pictures, all the content in this blog is my own creation.
Turn those ovens on and happy baking!
