Create Your Own Bread Food

BASIC HOMEMADE BREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and 1/2 teaspoon sugar in warm water; let stand until bubbles form on surface. Whisk together remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, salt and 3 cups flour. Stir oil into yeast mixture; pour into flour mixture and beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, to form a soft dough. , Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 8-10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 1-1/2 to 2 hours., Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide dough in half. Shape each into a loaf. Place in 2 greased 9x5-in. loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, 1 to 1-1/2 hours., Bake at 375° until golden brown and bread sounds hollow when tapped or has reached an internal temperature of 200°, 30-35 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

CREATE-YOUR-OWN BREAD

Steps:

• Pour 2 c liquid into large mixing bowl. I usually make use of anything I want to use up: --the tail end of a container of milk or chocolate milk or hot cocoa or soy milk or rice milk (milk makes a soft tender bread, especially nice in whole grain breads; a bit of chocolate gives it a darker look), --the end of a container of yogurt (I don't use fruit-flavored, but plain or sweetened is OK), --the end of can of beer (you won't taste it, but it produces a bread that won't mold), --the last bit of coffee in the pot (Gives the bread a darker look. Pumpernickel recipes are sometimes darkened with some coffee or cocoa), --potato-cooking water (whenever I boil peeled potatoes, I save the water for bread-baking, because it makes such a light dough). I use a two cup measure, pour in anything I want to use up, and then fill to the two cup mark with water if needed. If I'm out of milk, but want the richness of milk (say in a whole grain or squash bread) I sometimes add milk powder.
• If you want the bread to rise quickly, heat the liquid to lukewarm. If you have time to wait for a slow rise, cold is fine, too. Professional bakeries use a slow rise, which yields a wonderful texture.
• Stir in up to 1 c of cooked oatmeal, rice, cream of wheat, grits, wheat berries, millet, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed squash, etc. Cooked grains give texture. Mashed potatoes make a light, high-rising bread. Sweet potatoes or squash yield a lovely yellow color. You can combine more than one of these, but I don't recommend more than a cup total. I don't take time to prepare these ingredients especially for bread-making, but include them when I have leftovers I want to use up.
• It's OK to whisk in an egg or two. When I baking for vegetarians, and want to kick up the protein, I'll do that. Or when I've made French toast for breakfast, and have a little of the egg-milk mixture left over, I'll include that in the day's bread rather than throw it away.
• Stir in 2 T sugar, honey, molasses, brown sugar, sorghum, etc. Up to 4 T works fine, or you can leave it out entirely. Honey creates a wonderful aroma when the bread comes out of the oven. Molasses makes a darker bread.
• Stir in 2 T olive oil or melted butter or lard or bacon grease or other fat. You can leave the fat out entirely if you plan to eat the bread the first day--fat-free bread is quickly stale. Four T fat makes a nice rich bread. Butter is my own favorite--it works best if you have lukewarm liquid; with cold liquid it turns to lumps.
• Whisk in 2 T yeast for a quick process. Or use just 2 t yeast and allow time for a long sponge phase (described below). It is up to you and the time you have.
• Whisk in 2 t salt. (My family is happy with just about any variety of bread I make, except on those occasions when I forget to add the salt!)
• Whisk in 2 c flour: I like to use whole wheat or rye, but white is fine. And I often use up to 1/2 c of some other grain--cornmeal or buckwheat or soy flour or whatever. But these flours don't contain gluten, and are best used in small amounts.
• At this point, you have a sponge. You can set it aside for a while, to let the gluten develop, and the yeast to begin its bubbling. If you use cold water and a small amount of yeast, you can let the sponge sit all day while you are at work, or overnight. If you use warm liquid and the full 2T yeast, the sponge will start bubbling within a few minutes. Once you have a nice bubbly sponge, you can go on to the next step.
• Stir in chopped nuts or dried fruits. I rarely do this, because it's not very popular at my house, but like the texture of 2 T sunflower seeds on occasion, or the sweet bursts from a handful of raisins, especially in dark breads.
• Stir in 2 c flour. I normally use white flour at this stage. If you used milk for the liquid, and included 2-4 T fat, whole wheat or rye flour can also work well.
• Add the last 2 c white flour gradually, stirring and then kneading to form soft dough. Knead several minutes. Since the amount of liquid in the recipe may vary, you may need to use additional flour. This yields larger loaves.
• Allow dough to rise in bowl until double. (It will rise faster in a warm place.).
• Punch down and allow to rise a second time. (If I had a long sponge phase, I skip the second rise.).
• Grease 2 bread pans; divide dough in half; shape two loaves and place in pans. Preheat oven to 350.
• When dough no longer bounces back when lightly touched with a fingertip, bake the loaves 1 hour.

YOUR OWN CRUSTY FRENCH BREAD

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in very warm water.
• Stir well.
• Let proof for 10 minutes.
• Stir in 2 cups of the flour, sugar and salt until mixture is smooth; gradually beat in enough of the remaining 5 cups flour to make stiff dough.
• (Kitchen Aid is perfect for this).
• Turn out onto lightly floured pastry cloth or board and knead 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic, adding only enough more flour to keep dough from sticking.
• Return to bowl; brush top with soft shortening or oil and cover with clean towel or plastic wrap.
• Let rise till double in bulk in warm place away drafts (approximately 45-60 minutes).
• Punch dough down; cover; let rise again for 30 minutes (again in warm place away from drafts) or until double in bulk.
• While dough rises, make boat shaped baking pans as follows:.
• Tear off 3 twenty-inch-long sheets of heavy aluminum foil.
• Fold in sides of foil approximately 1"-1 1/2" on all 4 sides to form baking pan, this will allow the bread to rise up and not spread out into a flat shaped loaf by folding the short ends together to seal, pressing thumb inside to round slightly (shape into boat)with shortest ends slightly rounded.
• Spray with PAM and sprinkle lightly with corn meal.
• Punch dough down, knead 1 minute on lightly floured pastry cloth or board.
• Divide dough into thirds.
• Roll out with the palm of your hands to a rope approximately 18 inches long; place in prepared foil pan.
• Repeat with remaining two-thirds dough.
• Make 3-4 evenly spaced shallow cuts diagonally in the top of each loaf; brush with warm water and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Cover with clean towel and let rise in warm place away from drafts till double in bulk (approx. 30 min).
• Preheat oven to 450º.
• Place dish (I use an old aluminum pie plate) on lower shelf of oven and fill half way with hot tap water.
• Slide loaves on shelf above water.
• Bake for 15 minutes in 450º oven; reduce heat to 350º and bake 30 minutes longer.
• Bread is done when tapped and gives a hollow sound.
• Remove immediately from pans and let cool on cooling racks.
• Slice bread- spread each side with garlic butter- reassemble bread loaf and return to foil pans.
• Unfold edges to cover and warm in low oven (325º) till butter melts into bread.
• Serve warm.