Homemade Bread
- Minutes to Prepare:
- Minutes to Cook:
- Number of Servings: 30
Ingredients
So here’s the deal…. Making bread from scratch used to terrify me, just thinking about it. My husband would be all upset about it, and all I could think was, yeah your butts the not the one in the kitchen whipping this together in FIVE HOURS! So looking at time and panicking about whether I’d have the muscles to knead all this fabulous dough, I just said to heck with it and pulled out a ceramic or plastic bowl and wooden or plastic spoon (this is important info, pay attention lol) the flour, yeast, sugar, canola oil, and salt; and said, YUP time to make homemade bread! My mother made it seem like it took forever and then there was the kneading, oh my goodness, I thought she was going to pass out, turns out to be not the case. Also, remember earlier when I said, pay attention? It turns out there’s this great debate going around about whether or not it’s wise to use metal while making bread. Purportedly metal does not let the yeast work as well as it should. I will tell you I’ve done my own testing in this great debate, and it’s true. I used a metal bowl with a wooden spoon, and yes the “proofing” or “starter” dough did rise, as did the bread when ready to bake, however, it wasn’t very high and it was a denser (yet still good tasting) bread. Using a ceramic or plastic bowl with a metal spoon yielded somewhat better results in both the “proofing” and the “starter” dough, but the rising for ready to bake, well that was about the same. The best result, this past Saturday’s (September 20th, 2014) result, was ABSOLUTELY the best. I used a ceramic bowl with a wooden spoon. It had great rise, and I even “proofed” it 4 times, like wow, didn’t need the 4th time, just thought I’d try it and see. It was wonderful, the height and fluffiness of the bread, yet had no air pockets (solid) was really phenomenal. Now I’m not tooting my own horn, as much as it sounds as though I am, I have little to do with the bread turning out good or bad. It all has to do with how your yeast feels that day! So, hopefully, my yeast will feel as good today as it did on Saturday.There are two other things that are absolutely vital to making a really awesome loaf of bread. That’s the ingredients in which you use. I have, again, tested this out, so please know I went through the trouble for everyone who’s going to try this recipe. Flour: I have used Pillsbury Self-Rising, Gold Medal Self-Rising, Great Value All Purpose Flour (Walmart’s brand), and King Arthur’s Bread Flour ($3.64 @ Walmart for 5lb bag *price may vary where you are). King Arthur’s Bread Flour by far out did the rest! I mean to say there is NO comparison. The other ingredient is yeast. I used Fleishman’s Yeast (just regular .25 ounce packaged yeast), Fleishman’s Yeast (in glass jar), and last but certainly NOT least Red Star Quick Rise Yeast (glass jar). Red Star Quick Rise Yeast is going to give you the best result, and SAVE you on time, and lots of it!Let’s talk about “starter” and “proofing”. The “starter” is the base of the bread; it’s your first introduction for yeast and flour together basically. It’s the foundation of your bread. You’ve heard the phrase “the proof is in the pudding”? Well, for this instance it’s the truth! Proofing is the extent to which the starter rises. A good starter should proof up to 2-3 times the starting amount, sometimes if your yeast is in a particularly good mood, you can quadruple your original starter! Yeast is a live culture. It flourishes under warm moist conditions. It reproduces, and I don’t know about you but when I’m reproducing I like privacy, well the same goes for yeast, you want to have a kitchen towel; one that you can completely wet and wring out very well, to cover up the bowl and let the fun begin!Here’s the best I can give you, I hope it takes the scariness out of it!!Bread Recipe w/ Step-by-Step Instructions1 ½ Cups of hot tap water (I use hot water out of the tap, it is important it is hot, but not so hot you can’t touch it. Anything over 135° will kill the yeast)2 tbs Red Star Quick Rise yeast½ Cup Sugar¼ Cup oil3 Cups Flour
Start with the very hot water and the yeast add the sugar and oil, add 1 cup of flour stir slightly; it does not need to be all incorporated. You need to cover this with a kitchen towel and let “proof” or rise. This becomes your “starter” or the pot to which we add everything to boil…..so to speak. If you feel your bowl after 15 minutes or so you’ll feel the yeast working, becoming warm.
After your starter has risen is where this gets to be a little trickier, NOT SCARY, just a little more instinct driven, and after you’ve done it the first time correctly, you’re going to know and remember, and this is that time!
We now are going to add 2 cups of flour and the 1 tbs of salt. You’re going to mix this fairly well into the starter.
On the cupboard you’re going to spread out about ½ cup of flour, just throw it on the counter and spread it around, draw in it…. Makes it more fun!
Then take the stuff inside the bowl and pour it out onto the flour, start shaping it with your hands, push it down with your palms, is it real sticky still? Pour about ½ cup more flour in; put some on your hands too. Keep pushing and turning it, this is kneading it, keep turning and pushing. Is it still sticking to your hands a little? Put another bit of flour in, maybe ¼ cup, or less depending on how bad it’s sticking to you, only you can judge this, if it’s a lot, use more flour, if it’s not too much then use less flour, what you’re going for is a nice smooth (or smooth(ish)) ball of dough.
When you’ve reached nirvana, you’ll want to use your canola oil and oil your bowl, yes the same one you just took all of this out of, put the dough ball back in the bowl, and then turn it over, there should be just a thin layer of oil on the top now.
(When you put the oil in the bowl, roll it around on the bottom then just pop the ball in and turn it over)
Good, now using hot water out of the tap, completely wet your kitchen towel, wring it out really well; now lay the towel over the top of the bowl and let sit for about half an hour to an hour. Your ball of dough should now be risen pretty good, at least 2-3 times the size it started out at. Beautiful isn’t it? Take a moment to admire your work, and then punch it, yes you heard right, punch it down, deflate it until almost flat, you need to keep pushing it down. Now put the towel over the top.
Let it rise again double or triple the size. And punch it down again.
While letting that rest grease your two loaf pans and then start separating your dough, there’s no magic and it doesn’t need to be perfectly even, in fact, they will NOT be even.
At this point you can separate and put into two nicely greased bread pans after shaping them into loaves that just means you roll it into an oblong shape, it doesn’t need to be exact...
Put that into the nicely greased pans; cover and let rise again, double to triple the size.
Put into preheated 350˚ oven for 30-35 minutes or until you tap the top and it sounds hollow. Don’t let it sit in the pans for long; take them out to cool on a rack; otherwise they’ll get sweaty and kind of soggy if you let them in the pan too long. Now after it’s cooled on the rack for about 15-20 minutes, cut off a slice for yourself… before the rest of the family gets there, and enjoy a nice slice with a little bit of butter.
Serving Size: 2 Regular Loaves
Number of Servings: 30
Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user LAURAREICHARTZ.
After your starter has risen is where this gets to be a little trickier, NOT SCARY, just a little more instinct driven, and after you’ve done it the first time correctly, you’re going to know and remember, and this is that time!
We now are going to add 2 cups of flour and the 1 tbs of salt. You’re going to mix this fairly well into the starter.
On the cupboard you’re going to spread out about ½ cup of flour, just throw it on the counter and spread it around, draw in it…. Makes it more fun!
Then take the stuff inside the bowl and pour it out onto the flour, start shaping it with your hands, push it down with your palms, is it real sticky still? Pour about ½ cup more flour in; put some on your hands too. Keep pushing and turning it, this is kneading it, keep turning and pushing. Is it still sticking to your hands a little? Put another bit of flour in, maybe ¼ cup, or less depending on how bad it’s sticking to you, only you can judge this, if it’s a lot, use more flour, if it’s not too much then use less flour, what you’re going for is a nice smooth (or smooth(ish)) ball of dough.
When you’ve reached nirvana, you’ll want to use your canola oil and oil your bowl, yes the same one you just took all of this out of, put the dough ball back in the bowl, and then turn it over, there should be just a thin layer of oil on the top now.
(When you put the oil in the bowl, roll it around on the bottom then just pop the ball in and turn it over)
Good, now using hot water out of the tap, completely wet your kitchen towel, wring it out really well; now lay the towel over the top of the bowl and let sit for about half an hour to an hour. Your ball of dough should now be risen pretty good, at least 2-3 times the size it started out at. Beautiful isn’t it? Take a moment to admire your work, and then punch it, yes you heard right, punch it down, deflate it until almost flat, you need to keep pushing it down. Now put the towel over the top.
Let it rise again double or triple the size. And punch it down again.
While letting that rest grease your two loaf pans and then start separating your dough, there’s no magic and it doesn’t need to be perfectly even, in fact, they will NOT be even.
At this point you can separate and put into two nicely greased bread pans after shaping them into loaves that just means you roll it into an oblong shape, it doesn’t need to be exact...
Put that into the nicely greased pans; cover and let rise again, double to triple the size.
Put into preheated 350˚ oven for 30-35 minutes or until you tap the top and it sounds hollow. Don’t let it sit in the pans for long; take them out to cool on a rack; otherwise they’ll get sweaty and kind of soggy if you let them in the pan too long. Now after it’s cooled on the rack for about 15-20 minutes, cut off a slice for yourself… before the rest of the family gets there, and enjoy a nice slice with a little bit of butter.
Serving Size: 2 Regular Loaves
Number of Servings: 30
Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user LAURAREICHARTZ.
Nutritional Info Amount Per Serving
- Calories: 60.1
- Total Fat: 1.8 g
- Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
- Sodium: 232.8 mg
- Total Carbs: 8.8 g
- Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g
- Protein: 1.6 g
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