Thursday, June 24, 2010

Bread Making Day- Funny Story


Today was my day to make bread. So I was mixing the bread with my hands. Had the phone tucked under my ear, held between my chin and shoulder. Can you see the picture? I'm talking with my mom on the phone and I'm thinking that this is great. I can talk with her and get the bread mixed all at the same time. All of a sudden, the phone pops out of my chin and lands in the dough. Mom's still talking, but I need to tell her I can't hear her because the phone is in the dough. I grab the phone with my doughy hands and get it up to my ear. Now I have dough in my hair and all over my jacket.... Told her I'd call her back. She said she would call me... back in 10 min. Well what a scene that was. Finally got the phone and myself cleaned up and finished kneading the bread. The bread is now in the oven. The smells coming out of the Pantry are awesome. Can you smell it??

Anyway, I thought I would post the recipe for my basic bread recipe. I usually make 7 loaves and have one dough left to make either a pizza crust, rolls or a round bread that I can doctor up for having with Spaghetti or? I have to hurry, for the bread will be ready to take out of the oven in 5 minutes.

Basic Brown Bread Recipe.


16 Cups Whole Grain Flour
3 TB Fast Active Yeast
2 ½ TB Sea Salt
¼ Cup Honey, or ½ Cup Raw Sugar, or ½ Cup Maple Syrup
1/8 Cup Olive Oil

Mix together the above

Then add into the middle of this flour mixture:
8 Cups of warm water.

Mix lightly with your hand the liquid and the flour. When it begins to be harder to mix with your hand, then begin to knead the dry ingredients into the center of the ball. Once the ball gets sticky, I add more dry ingredients around it, with a cup of flour. I keep kneading this into the big ball, until it forms the consistency that I like. Usually your hand doesn’t stick to the big ball and it pulls away from the pan.

I then take the ball of dough out and set it on the counter. I scrape the bowl that I was using to knead the dough in, with the lid of a canning jar. I then toss the scrapings. Line the bowl with margarine and set the dough back into it. Let it rise for an hour in a warm room. Any over-rising will cause your bread to be yeasty tasting.

When the dough has grown to a little more than the bowl size. I take it out and place it on the counter. I cut the dough in 8 sections. I have a small little scale and I make my loaves about a pound and a half each. I always have a little loaf left over. I make some roles or a little loaf out if it.

I punch down each loaf to make sure all of the air is out of it. Place them in Margarine greased bread pans and let them rise for an hour. ( Your bread won’t stick to the pans when you use margarine instead of oil!!

When the bread has risen about an inch higher than the pan, I place them in a pre-heated oven of 325’ I bake them for an hour.


Hope you're have a great day too.
Hugs,
Jan

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