This is a place for bread and bread accessories. I plan to post more recipes from my notes on bread (Like Irish Soda Bread and Beer Bread) and add pictures as well. If you've got ideas or a recipe or some critique or questions, g'head.
Keep in mind, please, that bread is not an exacting science. It is the opposite. It is a capricious notion that likes to let you think you know what you're doing (until you run outside to smoke for five minutes) and then turn into a heap of mess that looks like a brick factory caught fire and tastes like a shoe. There is an art to it as much as a science.
- Tom's Anti-Temporal Loaf of Floofy Goodness
(quick, simple, light bread)
ETA: ~1 hour
Ingredients:
Bread Flour - ~5-1/2 cups
Water (Baby bath warm ~100F) - 1-3/4 cup
Honey - 1 Tbsp
Olive Oil - 1 Tbsp
Fast rising active dry yeast - 1-1/2 Tbsp
Salt - 2 Tsp
[insert random spice] - 1/2 Tsp (I generally use pepper or paprika if I'm pairing the bread with something savory. For sweet pairings, lean toward something like cinnamon or clove with a powerful basic flavor. You may omit this ingredient)
Instructions:
Grab a large mixing bowl and put 4 cups of your flour into it. Save the other cup and a half in a separate bowl for later. You will need a surface for kneading and rising.
Mix the dry ingredients together in your bowl with whatever implement makes you comfortable. Form a well in the center of the mixture with your implement.
Add the honey and the olive oil to the well in the center.
Begin to pour the water slowly into the mix as you stir, incorporating more flower from the sides of the well that you formed until the mixture begins to pull from the sides. If needed, add more flour from what you have stored off to the side.
Now's when the other flour comes in: Dust your kneading surface with it and coat your hands up to about your wrist. Scrape that shit in the bowl out onto the table and pour the rest of the flour on top and around the dough. Knead it 'til it sticks to itself and not the table, incorporating more of the flour on the table as needed. You may need more. (I don't ever put the container away until the bread is in the oven; I also don't usually measure, so feel free to improvise. I always do.)
Wash your fucking hands. It's important. Dry them on a kitchen towel. Put that slightly damp towel over your loaf and let it sit for about 20- 30 minutes- until its doubled in volume.
Now is the time to preheat the oven to 375F.
When it's done rising, shape it however you like. Make rolls, use it as pizza dough (if you coat a pan in Crisco, it turns into Pizza Hut pizza crust), or make a loaf of French Bread. This is the recipe I use for meat bread and homemade hot pockets. Throw that bitch in the oven and cook it til it looks like something you would want to eat. (~20 minutes) Golden brown on the top and bottom and light and floofy on the inside.
As with all bread, cool for at least 10 minutes on a wire rack or something similar before slicing or trying to eat it. I usually turn over some mini-muffin tins for this as I'm too cheap to purchase a kitchen utensil with only one purpose.
BONUS: Pads of butter placed on top of this bread before it's stuck in the oven only ever make it better.
Keep in mind, please, that bread is not an exacting science. It is the opposite. It is a capricious notion that likes to let you think you know what you're doing (until you run outside to smoke for five minutes) and then turn into a heap of mess that looks like a brick factory caught fire and tastes like a shoe. There is an art to it as much as a science.
- Tom's Anti-Temporal Loaf of Floofy Goodness
(quick, simple, light bread)
ETA: ~1 hour
Ingredients:
Bread Flour - ~5-1/2 cups
Water (Baby bath warm ~100F) - 1-3/4 cup
Honey - 1 Tbsp
Olive Oil - 1 Tbsp
Fast rising active dry yeast - 1-1/2 Tbsp
Salt - 2 Tsp
[insert random spice] - 1/2 Tsp (I generally use pepper or paprika if I'm pairing the bread with something savory. For sweet pairings, lean toward something like cinnamon or clove with a powerful basic flavor. You may omit this ingredient)
Instructions:
Grab a large mixing bowl and put 4 cups of your flour into it. Save the other cup and a half in a separate bowl for later. You will need a surface for kneading and rising.
Mix the dry ingredients together in your bowl with whatever implement makes you comfortable. Form a well in the center of the mixture with your implement.
Add the honey and the olive oil to the well in the center.
Begin to pour the water slowly into the mix as you stir, incorporating more flower from the sides of the well that you formed until the mixture begins to pull from the sides. If needed, add more flour from what you have stored off to the side.
Now's when the other flour comes in: Dust your kneading surface with it and coat your hands up to about your wrist. Scrape that shit in the bowl out onto the table and pour the rest of the flour on top and around the dough. Knead it 'til it sticks to itself and not the table, incorporating more of the flour on the table as needed. You may need more. (I don't ever put the container away until the bread is in the oven; I also don't usually measure, so feel free to improvise. I always do.)
Wash your fucking hands. It's important. Dry them on a kitchen towel. Put that slightly damp towel over your loaf and let it sit for about 20- 30 minutes- until its doubled in volume.
Now is the time to preheat the oven to 375F.
When it's done rising, shape it however you like. Make rolls, use it as pizza dough (if you coat a pan in Crisco, it turns into Pizza Hut pizza crust), or make a loaf of French Bread. This is the recipe I use for meat bread and homemade hot pockets. Throw that bitch in the oven and cook it til it looks like something you would want to eat. (~20 minutes) Golden brown on the top and bottom and light and floofy on the inside.
As with all bread, cool for at least 10 minutes on a wire rack or something similar before slicing or trying to eat it. I usually turn over some mini-muffin tins for this as I'm too cheap to purchase a kitchen utensil with only one purpose.
BONUS: Pads of butter placed on top of this bread before it's stuck in the oven only ever make it better.