Homemade Bread

Yes to all of that. Ken Forkish’s basic rustic loaves are easy. Only special equipment needed is a cast iron Dutch oven, 4 or 5 quart. Here’s the recipe for a same day loaf: LINK
You can substitute up to 40% whole wheat for the white flour, just add a little more water (maybe 50-60 grams). In the all white flour version, you can add 375 grams of dry additions (walnuts, pecans, sunflower, flax, chopped olives, etc) after the first stretch and fold is finished.

The resulting loaf has a great, chewy crust, holey crumb, robust texture. It has no oil, fat, butter, eggs, milk, so it’s vegan and not,squishy in the least.

Paul Hollywood’s bloomer recipe is my go to for easy, homemade bread.

Nothing beats your house smelling like flour and yeast.

here are some good sites with recipes:

the perfect loaf

King Arthur recipes

This is a delicious and super easy bread to make: https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/irish-guinness-brown-bread

This is one I've used quite a bit since I grow the herbs in my garden to make it. Not only does the bread baking make the house smell good, but the herbs used in it really kick things up a few notches in the aroma dept.


This is a recipe I've used from the La. cookbook titled "Talk About Good". I did change a couple things by making 2 loaves instead of 1 large one and I also don't use any appliances to mix my dough and prefer to do it by hand.

Herb-Parmesan Bread

2 cups warm water
2 pkg. dry yeast
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. Parmesan Cheese
2 tbsp. herbs of your choice. I find sweet basil and rosemary are great in this recipe.
4 1/4 cups bread flour

Sprinkle yeast over the water in a large bowl. Let stand for a few minutes and stir. Add sugar, salt, butter, 1/2 cup cheese, herbs, 3 cups flour and beat till well blended, then add the rest of the flour and repeat until a smooth ball of dough forms. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.

Grease and flour a couple loaf pans and set the oven at 375 degrees. Beat down the dough and divide into halves. Place the halves in the loaf pans and let rise for 15 minutes, sprinkle the remaining cheese over the loaves and bake for 55 minutes.

The loaves get nice and brown, are firm to the touch and slice easily for making sandwiches, toast, etc.

quote:

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I love a good herb-cheese loaf...but if you use half the amount of yeast and double the rising time, the loaf will taste better & not stale as quickly. Lots of late 20th century American bread recipes used an excessive amount of yeast to get super-fast rising. Try it and see....

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Never a problem with the loaves getting stale since I give one away to a neighbor and the wife and I eat the other one. They don't last long enough to get stale.

I'll give your suggestion a try next time to see how different they turn out.