Hi All -
I made some quick homemade bread yesterday that really went great with Betty's veggie soup. I'm a dunker so taking a hot slice of bread with some soy butter and dunking it into the soup broth put me in heaven. If you've never made bread before it's actually pretty simple and a lot less time consuming that you would think. Here's a basic bread recipe. I encourage you to try it. Your family will really love smelling it baking and enjoying it hot out of the oven.
Basic homemade bread (makes two small loafs)
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups warm water
Start by taking one cup of warm water and dissolving 1 table spoon of active bread yeast into the water along with the sugar. Just sprinkle the yeast into the water and let it hang out for about 4-5 min. I think what keeps people away from baking bread is that they get freaked out by using yeast and not knowing what to do. Basically all you need to look for is that the yeast water starts to get milky in color and a little bubbly. Be sure to use warm tap water. If the water is cool to the touch it will be hard to get the yeast going. As long as your yeast gets milky and frothy, it's alive and your bread will rise and be great. If your yeast looks exactly the same as when you dumped it into the water, then your yeast is dead and you need to get some new yeast. Chances are your yeast will be fine. Next add the cup of water with your yeast to your bowl with all the flour and salt in it. The slowly start adding the second cup of warm water to the bowl and begin stirring the whole ting with a wooden spoon. You may need to add a little more water or possibly use a little less. Your looking for a nice ball of dough not too dry but not pancake batter either. Once your dough has come together you want to cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise for about 2-3 hours. The dough will at least double in size. After the dough has risen you want to put the dough on a floured surface and kneed it. Here's where you can add additional flour if the dough is really sticky and wet. You want to kneed the dough for a few minutes until you fell that it's silky to the touch and no longer sticks to the surface your working on. At this point cut the dough in half and shape into two round balls. Place the two loaves on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with a little cooking spray. You can slice a couple of notches in the top of the bread if you like at this point. Cover both loves with a kitchen towel and let hang out and rise a little more for at least another hour. Preheat your over to 350 and bake the bread for 35-45 minutes. That's it! Other than waiting for the bread to rise your actual working time on this is really small and the results will be worth it.
I'm also trying out a no-kneed bread recipe I found online and will let you know how that goes. I'm hoping that this bread will take even less prep time so that it will be even easier to have bread more often - even with a busy schedule. I'll keep you posted on that one.
Take care - Franc
Here's a link to the best type of bread yeast to use and a really good value compared with the small containers at the store.
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