I bake 2 loaves a week, usually sweet white or not so sweet white sandwich bread (which I like to add garlic and italian herbs to). If I'm feeling it, I'll make some raisin cinnamon swirl or poppy seed sweet roll or even artisan loaves.
It takes quite some time to learn to make bread right. How it feels, how it sounds, how it looks...
But well worth the effort. BF complains now if I don't make bread each week.
An easy recipe, you need 2 loaf pans... I have a glass and a cast iron one, both are fine.
In a large bowl:
2/3 cup sugar
1.5 tablespoon active dry yeast
2 cup hot water (not boiling but something you'd like to bathe in)
Let sit until it gets fluffy/foamy and kinda smells like gym socks - about 5 minutes on a normal temp day
Then add 1/4 cup veggie oil, about a teaspoon of salt (I just throw in some kosher out of the big box).
You'll need bread flour (not all purpose, please). You'll need about 6 cups.
I pour the first 2 cups in the mix, then stir. Then do 1 cup at a time until I can't stir anymore (about the 5th cup). Then I dig in with my hands and work the other cup in, pulling from one side of the bowl, smooshing down into the middle and adding flour on top when it's sticky. Continue to do this until the whole thing is like a blob but not a sticky blob.
Pull it out of the bowl, spray the bowl with Pam, throw the blob back in. Wet a dish towel, wring it out, then put over the bowl and let it rise for a couple hours. I'm scientific like this, so I let it rise until I eventually remember that it's on the counter rising, or until it starts to push up my towel. It takes less time to rise in heat/humidity and more in low humidity or winter.
Once it's risen, kinda pull it into 2 equal parts. I throw one on the counter while I take the other and pull the edges over in the bowl until it makes a nice pretty log. If it's sticky, I'll dust some more flour on it. When it's pretty and log shaped I throw it in a baking pan that I've sprayed with Pam. Do this to the other one. Cover with the same damp towel.
Preheat oven to 350.
Let this dough rise again, about an hour or until it peeks up above the loaf pan sides about 3/4 to 1 inch.
Bake 30 minutes until brown on a mid-lower rack.
Enjoy!
This is the easy sweet white bread.
It takes quite some time to learn to make bread right. How it feels, how it sounds, how it looks...
But well worth the effort. BF complains now if I don't make bread each week.
An easy recipe, you need 2 loaf pans... I have a glass and a cast iron one, both are fine.
In a large bowl:
2/3 cup sugar
1.5 tablespoon active dry yeast
2 cup hot water (not boiling but something you'd like to bathe in)
Let sit until it gets fluffy/foamy and kinda smells like gym socks - about 5 minutes on a normal temp day
Then add 1/4 cup veggie oil, about a teaspoon of salt (I just throw in some kosher out of the big box).
You'll need bread flour (not all purpose, please). You'll need about 6 cups.
I pour the first 2 cups in the mix, then stir. Then do 1 cup at a time until I can't stir anymore (about the 5th cup). Then I dig in with my hands and work the other cup in, pulling from one side of the bowl, smooshing down into the middle and adding flour on top when it's sticky. Continue to do this until the whole thing is like a blob but not a sticky blob.
Pull it out of the bowl, spray the bowl with Pam, throw the blob back in. Wet a dish towel, wring it out, then put over the bowl and let it rise for a couple hours. I'm scientific like this, so I let it rise until I eventually remember that it's on the counter rising, or until it starts to push up my towel. It takes less time to rise in heat/humidity and more in low humidity or winter.
Once it's risen, kinda pull it into 2 equal parts. I throw one on the counter while I take the other and pull the edges over in the bowl until it makes a nice pretty log. If it's sticky, I'll dust some more flour on it. When it's pretty and log shaped I throw it in a baking pan that I've sprayed with Pam. Do this to the other one. Cover with the same damp towel.
Preheat oven to 350.
Let this dough rise again, about an hour or until it peeks up above the loaf pan sides about 3/4 to 1 inch.
Bake 30 minutes until brown on a mid-lower rack.
Enjoy!
This is the easy sweet white bread.
have rolls rising in the kitchen have them with chicken and rice tonight
