Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Recipe - Homemade Bread Tricks

Last week I decided that I needed to share my secret about making bread:

Find one you like and make it
over and over and over and over again.

I use my bread machine to make the dough and then I bake it in the oven. I taped the recipe to the front of the bread machine and make bread Monday and/or Thursday.

So last week onThursday I made bread. I dumped out the dough on the counter to shape it into a loaf and ummmmm....it was a complete runny disastrous mess. Which I thought was comical since I had just decided to share my secret.

After adding a ton more flour and flopping it into the pan I was sure that it was not going to work at all. Of course I actually needed the bread that night since my family was having sandwiches for dinner at the basketball game.

Thankfully it seemed to turn out fine and nobody complained about the flavor. Here's my real advice:

Just when you think you have THE secret figured out, you might mess up.

I'm fairly certain that I forgot to add the third cup of flour, but I really have no idea what happened. That's okay though, it all worked out in the end.

Here's the recipe that I use:
  • 3/4 c water
  • 1/4 c milk
  • 1 egg (slightly beaten)
  • 2T melted/softened butter
  • 3 cups white flour
  • 1 1/2 t yeast
  • 1 t salt
  • 2 T sugar (I use honey if I have it)
  • Put ingredients into your bread machine according to your bread machine instructions.
  • When done shape the bread and put into a greased bread pan to let rise. I cover my bread with saran wrap sprayed with oil. I've tried a damp towel and it stuck to the dough. Anybody have any tricks on this? I'd like to avoid saran wrap and spray oil.
  • After about 30 minutes, I preheat the oven to 400. Right before I put the bread in, I turn the temp down to 350. I bake my bread for 25 minutes in a glass bread pan.
Notes: Usually I make this bread for sandwiches. If you want more of a sweet bread you'd have to add more sugar. I've tried making bread by hand and in my kitchen aid mixer...I much prefer the taste/texture of it in the bread machine. While I don't believe that anybody needs to eat grains, if you plan to eat them (or your family does), then homemade is best if you have the time to make it. If not, then make sure when you buy bread at the store that it will eventually mold.

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4 comments:

  1. Life has a way of humbling us doesn't it :). I think we could all learn so much more if we didn't have to keep re-figuring out stuff we thought we already knew.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog. I really should make bread more often...my hubby would certainly appreciate it.

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  2. What kind of flour do you use? I have around 50lbs of bread flour, and then I have a white wheat flour. Could I use either of these for this recipe? I love my bread maker, but have never made a loaf of bread in it! I really need to do this, and would like to try your recipe :)

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  3. Sara - I use white flour now, but I am sure that bread flour would work as well.

    You could try 1/2 bread flour and 1/2 white whole wheat, but I'd decrease the flour amount by about 1/4 of a cup becaue wheat flour tends to soak up the liquid a bit more. You can always add more flour if you need to.

    Let me know if it turns out for you. I know that people in different locations don't always have the same luck!

    I loosely followed the recipe from allrecipes:

    http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Challah-I/Detail.aspx

    ReplyDelete

  4. Sorry, I meant to say, I use just regular white flour.

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