I love to cook...I've loved to cook for a long time, but there are certain recipes or types of food that I have stayed away from because of the intimidation factor. Bread is one of those types of food. Don't get me wrong, I love bread! I am not a huge fan of the multi-grain, eating twigs in the forest types of breads that are out there, but give me a nice soft french baguette with a crunch crust smeared with a dollop of butter and I'm your girl!!
I typically buy my bread at the grocery store, but due to health and weight concerns, I am becoming more and more aware of the additives, preservatives, and chemicals in the foods available at the store. I am attempting to make more than I buy of certain products and I've decided that bread is one of those things that I am capable of mastering.
I started easy...I found a basic French bread recipe; kind of like Bread making for Idiots (Is there a book with that title? If not, there should be!) I had a bit of trial and error, but the final product turned out great!!
Here is the recipe I made for my "first time":
French Bread
1 Cup warm water
1 Tbl honey
1 envelope yeast
1 teas. salt
3 Cups Bread Flour (you may have to use a bit less)
Stir water, honey and yeast together in bowl of stand mixer. Let proof for 5 minutes.
In a separate bowl, sift together 2 cups of the flour and salt and add this to the water/yeast mixture in 1/2 cup increments. Slowly add the remaining 1 cup of flour until dough is pliable and well mixed, but NOT too dry. Mix on level 2 for about 5 minutes until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball.
Grease a bowl and let the dough sit. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour.
Punch it down and divide the dough into two pieces. Shape each piece into a loaf or baguette and place on baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for an additional 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400. Remove plastic from baking sheet(s) and reduce oven temp to 350. Bake 20 minutes or until bread is a light golden color.
Let cool 10-15 minutes before slicing.
As I said, this recipe turned out well (the second time I made it). The first time, I added all 3 cups of the flour without checking to see how wet or dry the dough was becoming. It was so dry I couldn't even incorporate all of the flour and when I baked it, it was hard and unpleasantly chewy. Adding the 2 cups of flour with the salt first and then adding only what is needed of the last cup of flour made a HUGE difference in the way the bread turned out.
A few years ago I was at my dad's house and was served English Muffin bread to use as my toast. It was in a word FANTASTIC! Imagine my disappointment when I came home and discovered that the grocery stores in Hot Springs, AR don't carry it. I recently came upon a blog www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com that had a recipe for English muffin bread. I made it and, again, I was happy with how easy and delicious it was! Here is that recipe:
Carole's English Muffin Bread
5 1/2 Cups warm water
3 packages yeast
2 Tbl. salt
3 Tbl. sugar
11 Cups bread flour (all-purpose flour can be used also)
Mix all ingredients together until just combined ( DON'T over mix) and let rise until doubled. Spoon mixture into 4 well greased loaf pans. Let rise in pans until dough reaches the top of the pan.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Start checking it after 30 minutes because depending on your oven, it might need more or less baking time. 10 minutes before it is done, brush the tops of the loaves with melted butter.
Bread will be moist at first. Allow to cool COMPLETELY before slicing it.
I actually cut this recipe in half when I made it and I purchased the foil loaf pans from the grocery store which are a bit smaller than a standard loaf pan. It yielded 3 beautiful loaves and was a lot easier to mix using my stand mixer! Again, I want to give credit where credit is due: www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com
This is absolutely fantastic and when sliced it has all the nooks and crannies that you'd expect from an English muffin.
I have a couple of new recipes that I am going to try next...one for a simple one-hour white bread and the other for Brioche (Yum!!!). Wish me luck! I'll post photos of my next attempts!!!
