Homemade Bread

Sorry it has been a while.  There has been much going on in this one's life. 


Bread day!  The first thing I do when I start making bread is pitch my yeast.  This simply means putting the yeast warm water to get it to wake up.  It also ensure you have active live yeast.  If the yeast has gone bad, you do not want to waste all your time and ingredients because of inactive yeast.  To do this take a soup spoon worth of yeast and put in half a cup of warm water.  Stir it up.  In 5-10 minutes, the water should be foamy and smell, well, yeasty.  If it doesnt, you need new yeast.










The basic bread making process involves adding flour, yeast, and water together.  You knead the resulting dough to develop the gluten.  You let it rise to allow the yeast eat the sugars in the flour and release CO2 making air bubbles that are trapped by the gluten proteins.  You may punch it down and let it do it again to develop better flavor.  Then you shape the loaf and bake it. Pretty easy right?  It is.

White bread flour is really good as a base for bread because it is light a airy. Because it is basically sugar (compared to whole grain four) the yeast can eat it really well.  I use about half white bread flour and half something else.

Note: Sourdough requires the use of starter not yeast.  Separate post for that later.

Start with wheat flour and move on to rye or barley or any other that sounds interesting. 

This loaf was rye, wheat, honey, and whole flaxseed.

Basic Recipe

Ingredients:

1.5 Coffee Cup or cup white bread flour
1.5 cup of some other flour(s) - you can use white if you like but it is better for you in taste and actually with others
1 Soup spoonfuls of yeast
1/4 Cup warm water
1 Cup warm milk
2 Soup spoonfuls of kosher salt
2 Soup spoonfuls of honey
2 Soup spoonfuls butter or olive oil

Pitch yeast.  When yeast has been pitched add white bread flour, salt, honey, sugar, warm milk, butter or oil, other flour(s) and mix in bowl with yeast.  Add flour to dough until it is of a consistency that is moist but dry enough for you to work with.  I knead it in the bowl so it is less messy.  Just keep punching it down and reshaping it for 10 minutes.  This is the hard part.  It takes time and effort.  It is the key to delicious bread.  You should notice that the dough changes.  It will become elastic and springy.  If it a'int, than you are needing more kneading.  Cover bowl with wet towel.  Let rise for an hour and a half.





It should have risen to at least double its original size.  If it has not than you need to put it in a warmer place until this has happened.  (The oven on lowest setting for 10 minutes can work sometimes, just keep checking it.)  Punch it down. 






Shape the loaf to the desired shape.  Score it. (Cut down the center or in whatever way you like.)  Let it rise for an hour.  Bake in oven at 350 for 40 minutes or so. A nice trick for the crust is to add some water in a pan at the bottom of the oven for the first 7 or so minutes to get some steam in the oven.  You can also cook the bread on a pizza stone for a nice bottom crust. Let the bread rest for 5 minutes before you cut it.  Enjoy!

My favorite website for bread making tips is located here.