This is my basic bread recipe, and the one I use to experiment with alternative flours, such as oat flour. Whenever exchanging in a new flour remember that not all flours have the same gluten content, so not all of them will rise very well. Oat flour for example won't hardly rise at all, and needs to be mixed with at least an equal amount of wheat flour or else have gluten added separately.
These photos happen to be of a rare white batch.
2 Tbs yeast1 cup warm water
3 Tbs sugar (the original recipe called for more but I cut it back. I've tried leaving it out and it really seems to feed the yeast and help the whole thing rise--without the sugar I had flat bread--so I have settled on using this amount)
3 cups warm water or milk
4 Tbs oil or melted butter
1 Tbs salt
12 cups flour (white, wheat, or other)
Soften yeast in 1 c water with a little of the sugar. Set aside until it gets frothy (about 5 minutes). Put remaining water/milk, oil, salt, remaining sugar, and 2-3cups of flour in a very large bowl and mix well. Add frothy yeast and mix. Put in remaining flour and mix. Knead until smooth--about 10 minutes (don't short yourself here, a good knead makes a huge difference in the texture of your final outcome!). Grease or lightly flour the bowl, return dough to bowl and cover with a clean towel, and set somewhere warm to rise until double. Punch down the dough, then re-cover and let rise until double again. Divide into 4 parts, shape each into a loaf and place in pans. Cover with a towel and let rise again. (As a tip, whatever height the bread is at when you put it in the oven is roughly what it will be when it comes out of the oven...)
Bake at 400* for 25-30 minutes
See the light fluffy texture? (yes it gets that whether it's white or wheat, it's all about thorough kneading and having enough rise time!)
4 comments:
Oh, that makes the juices flow! It looks scrumptious!!! I want some stat! I love a good homemade bread. Do you ever soak your grains, either whole or the flour? I've been looking into it, but haven't actually done it yet. What (if any) have been your experiences with germinating/soaking your grains?
this is the only soaked one i've done http://brightonkitchen.blogspot.com/2008/08/sue-greggs-soaked-whole-wheat-bread.html I get the idea behind soaking, but I haven't made it a priority yet.
We are making this today. What is the consistency the bread is suppose to be before kneading it? Mine seemed really dry and crumbly. I added a little more water (too much) so added a little more flour.
1 TBS of salt? Just to clarify that seemed like a lot of salt but I am new to making bread.
Does this one rise faster than some? I made bread a couple of weeks ago using a different recipe and rising took so long! This one has only been about 3 hours and it is already ready to punch down. I was surprised.
I am loving this website. Thanks for sharing.
Kimberlee ~
Kneading is the final stage of mixing, when it's just too thick to do it with a spoon. So I find that I usually have a little extra flour hanging around when I start kneading. It does get absorbed into the dough as I moosh it around though. Usually it seems to be part sticky gob and part loose flour...which slowly integrates together as I knead.
Yes, a tablespoon of salt. It helps with the texture of the bread. It's not about taste so much as about texture in yeast breads.
How fast bread rises depends on how warm your rising space is. I usually let this one go a couple of hours per rising, but when I lived in Utah (much warmer than here in AK!) I could leave it just an hour for each, or sometimes even less. That's why the directions say to "rise until double" rather than for a specific time--it will take a different amount of time depending where you are. :)
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