Easy and yummy homemade bread recipe?

[Dianne-TX]

Our boys are hunting this weekend and dd has been asking to make homemade bread for a long time, so I thought I would surprise her this weekend and make some with her. Any easy and good recipes for a novice bread maker? I mean easy. :) Thanks.

[coffeefreak]

:lurk5:

[MomOfOneFunOne]

this is a cannot fail recipe! turbinado is just sugar -- you could use anything. I use an equal amount of honey with ww flour. If you check out the recipe, scroll down and look at the reviews.

 

really, it's easy and delicious. I hope you try it!

 

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=5716.0

 

the recipe says that kneading isn't necessary but I do kneed it. I've never tried it w/o but several reviewers have and still love it!. I think my point is that, b/c kneading isn't really necessary, if your daughter doesn't get the technique down perfectly, it will still turn out!

Edited November 7, 2009 by MomOfOneFunOne

[sunshine]

I google quick breads sometimes. I have a beer bread recipe if you want it. Pm or better yet email me and I will send it. I am too tired tonight to get it out of the cookbook.

 

I love KingArthurs.com Oatmeal Bread and it is super easy.

[Tammyla]

The Master Recipe: Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf)

 

Makes four 1-pound loaves. The recipe is easily doubled or halved.

 

3 cups lukewarm water

1 ½ tablespoons granulated yeast (1 ½ packets)

1 ½ tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt

6 ½ cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method

Cornmeal for pizza peel

 

1. Warm the water lightly: It should feel just a little warmer than body temperature, about 100’ F. Warm water will rise the dough to the right point for storage in about 2 hours.

2. Add yeast and salt to the water:

3. Mix in the flour—kneading is unnecessary: Add all of the flour at once, measuring it in with dry-ingredient measuring cups, by gently scooping up the flour, then sweeping the top level with a knife or spatula. Mix with a wooden spoon or in mixer. Don’t knead! This step is done in minutes and will yield dough that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of the container.

4. Allow to rise: Cover with a lid (not airtight) that fits well to the container you’re using. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse or at least flattens on the top. Approximately 2 hours, depending on the room’s temperature and the initial water temperature. Longer rising times, up to about 5 hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and is easier to work with than room temperature dough. So, the first time you try our method, it’s best to refrigerate the dough overnight or at least 3 hours, before shaping a loaf.

5. Baking day! The gluten cloak: don’t knead, just “cloak†and shape a loaf in 30 to 60 seconds. First, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal or whatever your recipe calls for to prevent your loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven. Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1 pound grapefruit-size piece of dough, using a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it’s not intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 30 to 60 seconds.

6. Rest the loaf and let it rise on a pizza peel: Place the shaped ball on the cornmeal-covered pizza peel. Allow the loaf to rest on the peel for about 40 minutes it doesn’t need to be covered during the rest period. Depending on the age of the dough, you may not see much rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking “oven springâ€.

7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450’ F, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising bread.

8. Dust and slash: Unless otherwise indicated in a specific recipe, dust the top of the loaf liberal with flour, which will allow the slashing knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1/4 inch deep cross, “scallop†or tick tic toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife.

9. Baking with steam: After a 20minute preheat, you’re ready to bake, even thought your oven temp isn’t up to full temp. With a quick jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the preheated baking stone. Quickly buy carefully pour about 1 cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust in nicely browned and firm to the touch. Because you’ve used well dough, there is little risk of drying out the interior despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or “sent†when initially exposed to room temp. Allow to cool completely preferable on a wire cooling rack, for best flavor, texture and slicing.

10. Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next 14 days: You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. Refrigerate unused dough in a lidded storage container.

Variation: Herb Bread. Add 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves or 2 fresh and ½ teaspoon dried rosemary to the warm water mixture.

Amaze your friends with the “6-3-3-13†rule: If you want to store enough for eight one-pound loaves herer’s a simple mnemonic for the recipe: 6,3,3, and 13. It’s 6 cups water, 3 tablespoons salt, 3 tablespoons yeast and then add 13 cups of flour. Store in 10 quart lidded container.

 

Lazy Sourdough shortcut: When your dough bucket is empty, don’t wash it! Immediately re-mix another batch in the same container. In addition to saving clean up, the aged dough stuck to the sides of the container will give your new batch a head start on sourdough flavor. Just scrape it down and it will hydrate and incorporate into the new dough.

 

 

 

Baguette

Makes 1 large or 2 small baguettes

1 pound Boule dough

Whole wheat flour for the pizza peel

1. Preheat the oven to 450’F with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising b read.

2. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1 pound piece. Dust the piece with more flour and shape into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Once it’s cohesive, begin to stretch a d elongate the dough, dusting with additional flour as necessary. You may find it helpful to roll it back and forth with your hands on a flour-dusted surface. Form a cylinder approximately 2 inches in diameter. If the loaf won’t fit on your pizza peel or stone, cut it in half to make two smaller baguettes. Place the loaf/loaves on a pizza peel covered with whole wheat flour and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

3. After the dough has rested, paint water over the surface of the loaf using a pastry brush. The water prevents the knife from sticking in the wet dough, and an authentic baguette isn’t flour-dusted on the top crust. Slash the loaf with longitudinal cuts that move diagonally across the loaf, using a serrated bread knife.

4. Slide the loaf directly onto the hot stone. Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, and quickly close the oven door. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until deeply browned and firm to the touch.

5. Allow to cool on a rack before cutting or eating.

[Tammyla]

Wanted to add that the above loaf is very flexible. I've used a wheat combo, bread flour etc and I tweaked the baking to fit my dd's needs with braces. No pizza stone, and I bake in a Pyrex dish with a lid for 15 minutes then take the lid off for the remainder keeping the dish with water in the stove to keep the crust from getting to hard.

 

 

 

Lyn, gave me the tip of using the dough for rolls and pizza crust..Thanks both turned out well.

[chiguirre]

:iagree: with Tammy.

 

That Artisan Bread recipe is great. In fact, the whole book is great. This is another of those great tips I'd have never found without the WTM boards.