Ready for the Oven
Wow; Let's see, it is the last day of the month, and this is only the second blog. I must say it was a busy month, the first one of the year and all. Yesterday, I tilled the garden spot. We're in what seems like an Indian Summer. The weather is mild, and really nice out, but winter is not over yet. As you know from the last couple of blogs that I have always wanted to bake bread. Those blogs show that even if you don't know what you are doing, you can still eat the bread. So far the only bread the birds and squirrels got was the Jumbo Soft Pretzels the next day. They were good the night I baked them, but the next day not so good. I used to much XVOO and didn't have pretzel salt.
In today's blog I'm going to let you know this, there has been something wrong with every bread I've baked. I have not yet been able to cut the top of the loaf with a razor, that it hasn't fell. Painting the egg wash on too, has made it fall. So even after a month, I'm still learning about yeast, water temperatures, and the chemistry of bread making. I can say I have confidence in the kitchen, while making the breads, because they have all tasted good. Whether you are making pizza or an olive loaf, you will enjoy what comes out of the oven. I even saw on the Fleischmann's web site, a great video making bread with kids. It is all mixed in a freezer bag, and if kids can do it so can the rest of us.
When it comes to bread rising, that is the yeast. Louie Pasture I thought just gave us penicillin but he also gave us baker's yeast. I started reading about sourdough, and by the way that is where I have got some great recipes. More about that later, but sourdough is basically yeast. To make sourdough is easy, yeast is in the air just like the mold on your bread, and so is the yeast. Get some water about 100 degrees and flour and in 12 hours it will double in size. In 12 hours or twice a day add flour for the yeast to feed on and in a week it will fill a swimming pool. To keep the sourdough for baking, every time you add a cup of flour you take a cup of dough starter to bake with.
To me, I don't plan to bake a couple of loafs of bread every day, and 2 cups of flour to be thrown away seems like a waste. That is how friendship breads get started, but I don't have that many friends, so in come baker's yeast. When I first started I bought a jar of the bread machine yeast. I've gone threw 2 jars, and every thing has been fine. I bake breads where the recipe calls to have water at 120 to 130 degrees. Then recipes that say anything over 100 degrees kills the yeast. Then I have recipes that say make a yeast sponge, or to proof the yeast.
Well, as you can see it all gets confusing. Next after it is mixed with one recipe you let to bread rise for an hour in an oiled bowl for an hour, and in the next recipe you let it sit for 10 minutes before shaping into a loaf, then that rises for an hour. What's more is breads don't have eggs, the a recipe has an egg. Another recipe has 2 eggs, and even another recipe had 5 eggs and 12 egg yokes. OK, I'm going to take all that out. We here at Charles Kenneth's Corner we keep things simple. When I bought my 3rd jar of yeast it said Active Dry, not Bread Machine Rapid Rise. When I looked up the difference in them, I got a small incite.
Bread machine yeast you let sit 10 minutes, then shape into loaf, let rise till double ( about an hour) then bake. Active Dry, or baker's yeast you need to proof, or make a sponge. To proof you put yeast in a bowl with 100 degree water. To make a sponge just add flour. This you let sit until rises double or 1 hour. This part I have done with both yeast and it works just fine. At this point you have the start of your bread. Whether a sourdough recipe, bread machine recipe, or a recipe for yeast bread. I do not have a bread machine nor do I want one. I wanted to learn to make bread, not have a machine do it for me.
The part about the 15 eggs, turns out that was for, 4 loaves of a Jewish bread and the egg yokes give it a nice yellow color. So what I have done in the breads I bake, is reduce them to just 1 or 2 loaves of bread. Now I'm going to leave you with a 100% Whole Wheat Recipe for one loaf of bread in a loaf pan.
2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
Yeast (2 1/4 tsp or 1 packet)
1 tlb sugar
2 tlb honey (does not have to be exact)
1 tsp salt
1 cup water ( 100 degrees)
1/4 cup milk warm
1 tlb butter ( margarine, vegetable oil, EVOO)
Using the water, 1cup of flour, and yeast make your sponge and let sit for about 1 hour.
In a small pot put milk, honey, and butter. Warm to melt butter no hotter than 100 degrees.
Combine these ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding 1/2 cup flour sugar and salt. Mix on low speed for 4 minutes. Take out and add flour mixing with spoon, until it starts to thicken. Flour a spot for kneading, sprinkle the top with flour, and pour out on counter. Start kneading by taking the heel of your hand pushing down into the dough and away from your body. Spinning it as you knead and adding sprinkles of flour.
With vegetable spray, spray a bowl and place dough ball into bowl, and lightly spray the top, cover with plastic rap, and sit for 1 hour. After it has risen punch it down a couple times letting the gases out, knead lightly again and place in baking loaf pan that has been sprayed, cover and let rise a second time. After an hour it has risen double, place in pre-heated oven at 375 degree. After baking for 10 minutes cover the top with tinfoil. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes total. Check with tooth pick to see if done
Now, if you replace the 100% whole wheat flour, with all-purpose flour you get french bread, dinner rolls, or a wonderful loaf of white bread.
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