🍞✨ Stop Following Bread Recipes (Do This Instead) ✨🍞
Bread doesn’t fail because you “can’t bake.”
It fails when we treat dough like a fixed formula instead of a living process. 🌾🫶
In this video, Carolyn from Homesteading Family explains the mindset shift that changes everything: stop reading the recipe… start reading the dough. 👀🥣
🌦️ Why recipes “lie” (even when you follow them perfectly)
📍 Flour needs change depending on:
🌡️ temperature • 💧 humidity • 🏔️ altitude • 🌾 flour type • 🧂 how you measure
So the same recipe can work in one kitchen and flop in another.
🥣 Do this first: “Flour Saturation” (instead of dumping the full flour amount)
✅ Put liquid + all ingredients in the bowl first
➕ Add flour slowly until the dough:
⚪ forms a ball
👌 feels slightly tacky
🚫 not crumbly-dry
🚫 not wet/soupy sticky
🎯 Goal: tacky dough that holds together.
💪 Kneading: most people overdo it
Over-kneading can make bread:
🧱 dense • 🥴 crumbly • 😤 frustrating
Instead of guessing, use…
🪟 The Windowpane Test
🧩 Pull off a small piece (walnut/golf-ball sized)
🤲 Stretch it slowly
✅ If it stretches thin enough to let light through without tearing = done
❌ If it tears fast = knead a few more minutes and test again
⏰ Stop timing rises (the clock is not your boss)
A dough can rise in:
⏱️ 20 minutes in one place
⏱️ 60+ minutes in another
Use…
👉 The Poke Test
👆👆 Poke dough with two fingers and watch:
✅ Ready: dent springs back slowly and stays slightly
❌ Not ready: dent fills in quickly (too elastic)
⚠️ Over-proofed: dent doesn’t bounce back at all and dough feels weak
🌱 The big takeaway
🗣️ Bread is a “feedback loop” skill:
👀 observe → 🛠️ adjust → ✅ better result
Just like gardening, fermenting, and livestock… it’s technique, not talent.