re: Baking Bread

Crusty Top Bread

I think the trick to baking bread is to never think you have figured it out. Every time I bake bread, I learn new things that make me want to go right back to the kitchen and modify the recipe or baking method. This one is very basic. I know, all bread is very basic, but it seems to work very well and I am pleased with the results. There are a couple of things I would change, but that is another post, for another day.

I wish I had started baking bread years earlier because to me, there are few cooking smells much better than fresh bread in the oven.

This recipe makes a nice Boule (round dome shaped loaf) of white bread with a crunchy crust, a nice soft/tender body and good flavor.

The key to this loaf's crusty exterior is steam. Trapping the moisture in the pan for the initial 25 minutes of the cook time and using high heat for the first part of the bake combine to ensure the exterior develops a nice crust.

Ingredients

1-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1-3/4 cups water, at 70° to 75° F
2- cups Bread flour
1 1/2 cups AP flour plus 1 Tablespoon flour for the top of the loaf
2 - 3 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon cornmeal, for the baking pan

The ingredients for this bread are simple (Yeast, AP and bread flour, water and salt, plus a little cornmeal for the baking pan). After cooking and eating my bread I decided there is no good reason for using bread flour (It alters the texture of the bread – making it more firm) and it could be omitted, replaced by an equal amount of AP flour.



Instructions:

In a measuring cup or small bowl, dissolve the 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant yeast



in 1 3/4 cup of 70° to 75° F water (this is a lot cooler water than you might think)



In a large bowl, mix 2 cups of bread flour with 1 1/2 cups of AP flour and 2-3 teaspoons of salt. I think the bread is better with 3 teaspoons of salt, but the original recipe only calls for 2 teaspoons.



After thoroughly mixing the salt into the flour, Make a depression in the flour



and add the yeast/water mixture. In this recipe, the yeast is not allowed to bloom, only mixed with tap water before adding. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the yeast and water mixture to form a soft, sticky dough. It probably would work just as well to simply add the yeast to the flour, along with the salt and mix all of the dry ingredients before adding the water to make the dough.



Shape the dough into a ball and return it to the bowl. Do not knead the dough at this time.



Cover and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 1 hour, then punch down the dough.



After the initial rise, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface





and pat into a 1/2 inch thick dough round, oval or square.



Fold the dough into thirds, forming a rectangular shape.





Fold the rectangle into thirds, forming a cube/square.



Place the dough folds down in a lightly oiled bowl.



Cover and let the dough rise at room temperature for 1 hour, until almost doubled.





After this second rise, punch down the dough again
and repeat the folding process









Return the dough to the bowl,



cover and refrigerate overnight.



The dough will continue to rise while in the refrigerator.




Second day:

On the second day, line the bottom of a roasting pan with foil and add 2-3 Tablespoons of water to the pan, under the foil. Lightly dust the top of the foil lining with cornmeal.



Turn out the dough onto a floured surface.



If adding other ingredients (see cranberry orange, or cheese, or herb bread suggestions below) – add them now.

Knead the dough gently 6-10 times, then shape it into a round loaf. Place the dough ball in the prepared pan.



Cover the pan and allow the dough to rise at room temperature until dough expands and doubles in size, about 1-1/2 – 2 hours.



Preheat the oven to 500° F. Using a sharp knife or razor, make slashes (1/4-inch deep) across the top of the loaf. Lightly dust the top of the loaf with AP flour. I think the razor slices shown here are too deep as will be evident in the baked loaf photo.



Cover the pan and bake at 500° F on a lower rack, in the bottom half of the oven, for 25 minutes. Reduce oven setting to 400° F. Remove the cover from the pan and continue baking the bread to an internal temperature of 190-200 degrees F and a light golden brown color; 20-30 minutes. My loaf was firm when I removed the roaster pan top after 25 minutes and I believe it would have baked better (the end result) if placed directly on the oven rack for the last 20 - 30 minutes.



Remove the loaf from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool. Store the loaf in a sealed plastic bag. The crust will soften somewhat as time passes. Once cooled, the bread has a nice consistency and soft interior, with a good tooth to the crust.



This bread makes excellent cheese toast, sandwiches and buttered toast, or you can just eat it as is



Recipe Notes

For Cheddar Cheese Bread: Prepare dough as directed. After refrigerating dough overnight, knead in 4 ounces of diced sharp cheddar cheese before shaping.

For Rustic Cranberry & Orange Bread: Prepare dough as directed. After refrigerating dough overnight, knead in 1 cup dried cranberries and 4 teaspoons grated orange peel before shaping.

For Garlic & Oregano Bread: Prepare dough as directed. After refrigerating the dough overnight, microwave 1/2 cup peeled and quartered garlic cloves with 1/4 cup 2% milk on high for 45 seconds. Drain garlic, discarding milk; knead garlic and 2 Tablespoons minced fresh oregano into dough before shaping.

Thanks for looking at my post. God Bless You.

MerdianDog - you inspired me to bake some loaves today. Got them in the final proof, just now pre-heating the oven. Doing a 90%/10% white to wheat. Will update with some pics once they come out.

I'm starting my first sourdough starter today to hopefully try to bake a loaf next weekend. Using a wheat flower for the starter and a strong white flour for the bread.

Wish me luck.

RE: bread flour, I made a wide range of stuff, from rustic loaves full of flax and sunflower seeds, walnuts, to soft sandwich loaves w/oatmeal & honey....I use bread flour for exactly none. Bread flour, I use for NY style thin crust pizza dough. So don’t think you need bread/higher protein flour to get good results.

You’ll get plenty of oven spring if you bake at the right time. High gluten flour leads to a rubbery crumb and tough crust rather than crisp/tender, I make 40-50% whole wheat rustic loaves with AP, not bread flour, and no diminishment of loaf size or oven spring.

I offer this info to encourage ppl to bake even if all they have is AP flour on hand. 25 loaves baked on Friday....not a bit of higher protein (aka bread flour) in sight. King Arthur Sir Galahad is my fave.

Recipe is fine, though not terribly descriptive on important parts like shaping. Feel free to knead in a fat handful of coarsely chopped walnuts to the dough, or sunflower or sesame seeds. Or divide the dough into two and make one plain loaf and one seeded. Also, look up “stretch and fold” as a kneading technique....much easier on the hands and wrists than traditional kneading.

I prefer baking in a Dutch oven to the posted recipe’s Pyrex method....and I’m a recent convert to using a big ol covered old school Granite Ware turkey roaster instead of heavy cast iron.

Starter consistency is entirely dependent on water content. Bakers refer to hydration percentage—you have mixed a 100% hydration starter (equal amounts of flour/water). Keeping it like this makes for easy math. Hydration percentage helps to determine fermentation rate; more liquid mixtures ferment at a faster rate than very dry ones. Depending on whether you are baking daily with the starter & thus keeping it at room temp & feeding it every day; or refrigerating it for long periods between feedings/uses, you may want to keep it in a more dry or more wet consistency.

There are as many preferred starter consistencies as there are bakers. I do equal parts flour (part wheat, part white) and water, mainly ‘cause I’m lazy & it makes for easy calculations.

Young french style levain (very liquid) starters are quite popular these days, thanks in part to Chad Robertson’s Tartine books (and his excellent breads). They’re convenient & easy to maintain, IMHO. I keep my liquid starter in the fridge....refresh it 3-4 days in a row if it’s been sitting dormant for a long time, then use a tablespoon of it to build the levain, which sits for 12-16 hours before I use it in dough.

Adding water won’t make the yeast grow faster.....my poor prior explanation referenced the fermentation activity of a starter inoculated by a mature active culture.
—your new starter may be ready in less than a week. It just depends on how the culture develops, determined by the various yeasts and competing micro organisms present in the particular flour you are using.
—yeast will bud (reproduce) in about four hours, in optimum conditions. so you can feed that culture morning & night if you want to speed things along.
—watch for the culture’s ability to double in size as an indicator of readiness, and give it a sniff: you should smell apples, ethanol, paint thinner, beer....not disgusting awfulness.
—if the culture has ANY colors other than gray (red, pink, green, blue), ditch it and start over. Those are indicators of yuk non yeasts colonizing the batch.
—mark the side of the container when you feed, you will be able to tell how much it has risen that way.
—it takes a few days for the culture to develop enough acidity to favor yeasts over other wee critters...so you might get some bubbling in early days that is not attributable to yeast. Don’t bake with it until it is reliably doubling within 4-8 hrs after a feeding.

Happy baking.....

Good advice, thanks. All my did from day to day two was turn brown on top from the air. Stored right in though easily.

What is the point in discarding hand of it on each day going forward before feeding? Is it just to keep it a manageable size?