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The 8 High Spots In Bread Baking
Measuring Flour: Measure flour without sifting. Level off top of cup with straight knife or fill to degree indicated in the recipe.
Making Homemade Bread
Testing For Lukewarm: Put a drop of liquid on inside of wrist over heavy veins. If liquid feels neutral–neither warm nor cold–it is lukewarm. Make this test several times to be sure.
Softening Yeast: Place lukewarm water in bowl and dissolve the required amount of sugar (recipe will state how much water and sugar). Sprinkle the fast-rising dry yeast over the top. Allow to stand 10 to 15 minutes and then stir. If compressed yeast is used, crumble cakes into the lukewarm water and blend.
Mixing Dough In Bowl: After adding the first half of flour to lukewarm milk-mixture, beat until smooth and elastic. Work in additional flour to make a soft dough. As the dough thickens mix it in the bowl with one hand, using a swinging rotary motion. If dough remains sticky after 5 minutes mixing, add a little more flour.
Kneading: To knead dough, fold the outside edge over on itself toward you, and push dough away from you, using the heels of your hands. Turn dough quarter way around, fold over, push, using heels of hands. Repeat and continue using steady rhythm. If dough should stick a little, grease board again. Knead until smooth and elastic.
Rising Of Dough Until Doubled In Volume: Sufficient rise in dough is important. To test whether dough is light, dent it gently with finger. If the dent remains, the dough is light and ready to punch down.
Punching Down Dough: Punch down dough in bowl using fist. Plunge hand into dough several times in center to let gas escape. Fold dough from the outside to the center punching down until dough is its original size.
Source: Vintage booklet, Robin Hood Breads & Rolls
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Milk does not need to be scalded anymore when baking bread. This was needed in case raw milk was being used; as raw milk has enzymes that will kill the yeast. So unless you are using raw milk, lukewarm milk is fine to use.
Scalding milk may not be necessary but it’s debatable how important it is. If you’re a scalding-milk believer, it’s a vital step. Some choose to do so still because of how they believe it affects/benefits the baked loaf:
“Since pasteurization, scalding milk is no longer necessary, but many people continue to do so. I do for yeast breads. For one, it’s an old habit and old habits die hard. Secondly, after cooling to 110 degrees, it creates a nice warm environment for the yeast. And thirdly, it helps break down the serum protein in milk that can adversely affect the bread’s structure.”
Copied from here: Do You Still Scald Milk in Recipes? (About.com).
I personally can go either way, some recipes though do benefit from milk being scalded first (IMHO).
“Punching” down dough is really more like “patting” down dough.
I haven’t used milk in bread for a long time, I bake bread with yogurt. My breads are typically 100% whole wheat, and my experience is that the more sour the liquid, the better the bread.
Just a brief comment re: the need to scald milk in bread making. At one time this was necessary but now milk has already been pasturized so this step can be skipped!
Your elbow is actually more sensitive to water temperature than your wrist!