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| John's White Bread |
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| Written by Administrator |
| Wednesday, 12 May 2004 11:54 |
Single loaf Recipe, in grams, multiply for multi loaf batches. Increase kneading times by 20% for over a six loaf batch. Generally it is better to not go over six loaves per batch, or to split the batch at kneading time for large batches.
This is my bread recipe. Pretty simple really. It is based on a 60% ratio of flour to water. The yeast amount is not specifically listed. I kind of use my judgment on that. I suppose a single loaf would be about a teaspoon. For the six loaf batch, maybe a tablespoon + a teaspoon. It isn't really critical. In case you don't know generally how to make bread, start with 115 degree water. It can be a little cooler, but can't be very much hotter or it will kill the yeast. Put the water in a bowl, add the sugar and the yeast. Mix it and wait about fifteen minutes up to half an hour. The yeast bowl should be foamy and have quite a lot of foam on the top. This is called “proofing” the yeast. You see the proof that it is the yeast is good. Before we get to it, lets talk about flour. General purpose unbleached flour is about 11% protein. Bread flour is about 16%. I think the perfect mix is to use a 50-50 mix of these two flours. The bread flour really brings out the flavor of the bread, but yet, I have used 100% bread flour and didn't like those loaves at all. If you don't use a mix, you will have to change the amount of water you are putting in from the attached recipe. Bread flour does not soak up near as much water as general purpose. Also, note that you should *never* use a bleached flour for bread. The bleached flour has little bits of bleach still in the flour. This bleach will kill the yeast cells and make flat, heavy bread. Mix the flour, (melted) butter and salt. Pour in the water-sugar-yeast mixture. Kneed either in a mixer or hand kneed. This is really the most important aspect of how your bread is going to turn out. If you want to make good bread, kneed it for ten minutes, if you want to make great bread, kneed it for ten minutes, wait ten minutes allowing the dough to rest, and then kneed it for ten more. What you are doing when you are kneading is stretching the flour particles to form long strands. It is like spinning yarn on the microscopic level. So as you kneed, you are pushing it away and making it stretch across it's length. We bake both the ten minute and twenty minute varieties here at home. The ten minute loaves are heavier and do not rise as high. Note: People who take their bread baking very seriously mix in the butter (un-melted) during the last third of the kneading time. I have done it. It is a total pain in the ass, working this grease into a slimeball of dough. And I can't tell for sure if I can taste the difference in the bread. All the hoity-toity bread baking cookbooks say you should do it this way though so it is method hard to discount. Mechanical kneading is not as good as hand kneading but uses much shorter times. If you want to use your Kitchen Aid to do the kneading, shame on you, but cut the kneading times in half. After the dough has been kneaded, form the dough into a ball and put in a plastic container and cover with plastic so it doesn’t dry out. Put it somewhere warm. 80 degrees and humid is perfect. Allow it to double in size - about an hour and a half on a warm day. Punch the dough down, turn it over. Reform it into a ball stretching the surface tight and recover. For great bread, allow it to double in size again, about 45-60 minutes. This second rise is optional but it will add more flavor to the bread. Sometimes you just don’t have the time for the second rise. Don’t worry you will still have good bread. Form into dough into loaf, (~850 grams/ loaf) and put in pan. Allow to rise until an inch over the pan. The more you allow it to rise, the lighter the bread. However, the more fragile the bubble structure inside. Sometimes if you go too long, you can over-rise bread and then when it gets in the oven the structure gives way and it falls creating a divot in the middle. Not good! Bake for 34 minutes in a 400 degree oven. If you have a heavy fry pan, you can put it into the bottom of the oven and put a cup of water in after you load the oven with your loaves. This steaming will make a french loaf style crispier crust. I don't usually because I forget and because of the kids. They like the softer crust. Take the loaf out. Wait 30 minutes if possible (I know it will be hard!) before you eat it. It will cut better and the flavor blooms more. As far as preferences, I like King Arthur flour. It hard to find in the Chippewa Valley but well worth looking. It is lightly malted before being ground to flour instead of being just plain wheat. I think it has a better flavor, sweeter. It is twice the money though compared to Pillsbury or other more common brands. For yeast, I like the Red Star Active Dry Yeast in the brown glass jar. Don’t buy yeast packets! Active Dry Yeast is not the same as “instant yeast”. Don’t buy instant yeast for good bread! For butter, you should buy unsalted butter. The reason for this is twofold. Unsalted butter goes bad in half the time or less than the salted type. So, the stores have to turn it over faster. So it is fresher. Second, there is an extra protein they have to strip off at the factory in unstalted butter. This makes the butter more clear when you melt it and really should be the only butter you use in any kind of baking.
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