Bread
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Baking your own bread is really satisfying. I almost enjoy more making bread than eating it, though nothing quite compares to fresh warm bread with a little butter or honey or nothing on it. I don't like to get fancy, just flour, salt, yeast and water. The fact that those four ingredients can make bread is still amazing to me. Making your own bread isn't hard, though I'm not going to say it is super easy, because nothing ever is. I use a recipe that is based on an article I read in the New York Times in 2006. That recipe works totally fine, but I think it is overly complicated and makes nice boules, but honestly that isn't very good if you want sandwich loafs which are way more convenient for slicing, toasting, and everything else one does with a loaf of bread. So, I'll share what I've learned over the past 50 or so loafs that I've done over the past few years.
First, you need the right equipment. I suggest that you get a big tupperware, about 6 quarts (liters). This will have enough volume for 2 loafs of dough, doubled in size. Yes, this recipe is for 2 loafs because making one loaf is a waste of energy, effort, and time because your oven is huge and you will eat the first loaf in less than a day anyway. Second, you will need two QUALITY loaf pans. They should be made from aluminum and look like this:
Just look for them wherever you buy stuff, try searching "professional aluminum loaf pan". Just don't get anything that is anodized, has teflon or any silly coatings like that because you will just scrape them off and wish you bought the other ones. You will be making bread that costs like a buck a loaf but tastes like a billion dollars so don't worry about the price. Lastly, you will probably want some parchment paper (NOT WAX PAPER) and plastic wrap, that's it.
Ingredients for 2 2-pound loafs:
9 cups of flour (King Arthur's Bread Flour is the best and should be at least half, the other half can be
whole wheat or I like "white whole wheat")
1 Tablespoon of salt
0.25 teaspoon of yeast (Use Fleischmann's "Bread Machine" yeast NOT Red Star "Active Dry" yeast, yes
they are both dry tiny pellets but they are very different).
4 cups of water max (every flour is different, so here is the "hard" part of making bread. You'll just
have to learn over time how wet the dough should be but 4 cups is about right
2 Tablespoons of honey (optional, but nice to offset bitterness of whole wheat if you are using it)
Some oatmeal or flour for dusting the top
- In the large tupperware, mix the flour, salt and yeast.
- If you are adding honey, dissolve it in the water which should be warm, but not hot.
- Pour water into dry ingredients and mix thoroughly with a spoon, or your hands if you want. The dough should take the form of the container, but not be a total soup
- Put the lid on the tupperware and led it sit at room temp for 12-18 hours. If it is crazy warm then you can put it in the fridge overnight and take it out the next morning. This is the step where the yeast slowly works it's magic. The long time also allows the enzymes to break down the complex carbs to simple sugars which give the bread the great flavors. The dough should double in size.
- Cut some parchment paper and place it on the bottom of your loaf pans, spray some oil on the sides and parchment paper and split the dough between the two pans equally. The dough is sloppy, and just plops into the pan, that is fine and it will turn out don't worry.
- Sprinkle some oats or cornmeal on the tops of the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for about an hour while the oven heats to 450 ºF.
- Put the loafs in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes
- Cool the loafs on a rack for about an hour. Sometimes they will stick to the sides, but it is easy to slide a knife along the edge to free them up. The parchment paper keeps them from sticking to the bottom which is unreachable by knife (learned the hard way).
- What? Just eat it!
Usually what I like to do is wait until they cool, and then slice and freeze in a plastic bag. They will keep a long time that way and you can just pull them out one slice at a time, drop in the toaster and enjoy.
Really it isn't very hard. Mix the ingredients, put them in a sealed container for 12 hours, drop them in some pans and bake. The only thing that can be a bit hard is getting the hydration right and really the best way is totally by feel. Just do it enough times and keep using the same flour and you will figure it out.