Bread Basics

ah, the smell of fresh bread.....soon, because there's bread dough rising on my counter. All right, those who know me will call me a liar of sorts because while it's true there is bread resting there - it IS resting in a bread machine. I make bread on a regular basis, not daily but close to it, as a staple food here in our house. We don't buy bread anymore, and haven't in over a year, and we are quite happy with that! I went through piles of recipes before i finally settled on one that is a nice versatile dough that i can use for both buns and loaves, with no off the wall ingredients that i would not normally have in my kitchen. In the future, once we are officially homesteading at Nyn Acres with our first milk cow or two, i plan on searching out a new recipe that would allow us to use up milk, buttermilk, or cream, but for now that stuff costs money and is better used in other dishes. I know lots of people who carve out a day each week to make enough bread to last until the next bread day, usually making 3 to 5 loaves at a time, wrapping the loaves in foil and bagging them in the freezer until ready to use. I tried two loaves once. Without a large capacity stand mixer (or any stand mixer for that matter!) at my disposal it was a chore. I have carpal tunnel and while this didn't debilitate me, later that week hand mixing red dye into fondue for cakes (i will talk about that escapade at another time!) did me in. that was last summer and they are still too weak to mix much more than a single batch of tortilla dough :( I will eventually be forced to mix my bread by hand as we will essentially be roughing in pioneer style for quite some time once we make our move. I am working on some herbal tonics and vitamins to improve my hands but until them i don't want to cripple myself so i use my bread machine. that's my justification :) Once the machine has taken care of the hard part, i shape the dough into a loaf pan (or buns) and take over from there. Since i am home during the day it isn't an inconvenience to start a process that takes close to four hours from start to finish, and when i have plans i make bread the evening before. going to bed with the aroma of fresh bread wafting through the house has its own perks! Now, let's get on to the important stuff here....the bread!!! I will give the recommended information for making bread by hand, mixer, or whatever you are using regardless of how i do it, just to avoid mass confusion and a possible riot.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup warm water (100 degrees or so)
2 TBS honey
2 tsp yeast (i use the active dry yeast because its readily available - keep it in the fridge in an airtight container)
3 cups flour (i use a mix of half unbleached white wheat and half unbleached whole wheat)
1/4 cup oil (i prefer canola, use whatever salad oil you have on hand, other than olive - it lends its own flavor and tends to overpower unless you are planning on that as your flavor i.e. herb bread)
1 tsp salt
1 TBS butter (the REAL stuff)


Start by measuring your water into your mixing bowl or bread machine pan. Add the honey and the yeast. I like to give the bowl a little swirl to spread the yeast evenly around the bowl. Let this sit for about 10 minutes. When the yeast has become puffy (for lack of a better word) add the oil, flour, salt and butter. Start mixing! If you are using a bread machine use the dough cycle - it should be complete in 1 hour and 20 minutes. If you are mixing by hand the recommendation is 300 folds, that means that each time you push your hand into the dough count that as one, and if you are using a mixer on medium speed set your timer for 10 minutes. Once the machine has beeped, you have counted 300 folds, or your timer has gone off, remove the dough onto an oiled surface. I like to simply spray my red and yellow can of spray oil onto the counter when i spray my pan. Don't forget to spray your pan. Then turn the dough edges nice and neatly upwards and to the center of the dough, making an upside down loaf, gently flip it over and into your (sprayed) pan and cover with a towel. Set the pan in a warm place, not the oven and preferably somewhere where you won't forget about it - or set a timer. Anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour later depending on conditions too numerous to go over here, your bread should have risen over the top of the pan by about double. Preheat your oven to 375 (if you are much more competent than i am you did this before the bread was ready to go into the oven) and carefully slide the pan onto the middle rack. i say carefully because you can be too rough with your bread, and if you are too rough with your bread it can collapse. If this happens, bake it anyways...it will make good croutons! Once the bread is in the oven, turn the temp down to 350 and bake for 30 minutes. Here in North Carolina we are at sea level, you may have to adjust baking temp and time for your location. When the bread is done, set the pan on a wire rack for about ten minutes to finish. Then you should be able to turn it over and slide it out of the pan. Cool for a few hours before trying to cut into it or you will squish it! Once you have tasted fresh baked bread, there is no going back! In fact, we use unbleached flours and i had bought a bag of "regular" all purpose flour for some holiday baking. I made bread with this flour and my children complained that it had no taste....WHITE bread had NO taste! and that coming from a bunch of kids! We are hooked on homemade bread, toasted with a fried egg straight from outback cannot be beat!

cheers, Nyn