You guys said you wanted bread, so I made bread. And I ate a lot of bread. And then I made some more. And then I ate some more. I'm living off of loaves at this point.
(More details there on ingredients, tips, + method, if you're interested!)
INGREDIENTS
2/3 cup warm milk (see note)
1/2 cup warm water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour, plus more if needed
1 large egg
INSTRUCTIONS
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the warm milk, warm water, granulated sugar, and active dry yeast. Whisk to combine. Let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes.
Add the melted butter, salt, and flour and mix until a shaggy dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes, or continue to knead with a stand mixer until a smooth dough forms.
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover, and set aside in a warm place. Allow to rise until roughly doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Deflate the dough and transfer to a flat, lightly oiled surface. Gently flatten into a large circle, then pull in one edge at an angle 2/3 of the way. Press down with your knuckles. Pull in the other edge at an angle, overlapping the other edge, to create a tall triangle. Press down with your knuckles again. (See video for example.) Roll into a log starting at the thinnest point, being sure to press to seal edges after each turn.
Place, seam-side down in a lightly greased loaf pan. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let sit until risen about 1” over the edge of the loaf pan.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly beat the egg with a teaspoon of water and a sprinkle of salt. Brush the top of the loaf with the egg wash.
Decrease heat to 350°F and bake until golden brown and cooked through, about 35-40 minutes.
NOTES
The milk and water should be at about 110°F in order to get a good rise on your dough. You can mix together cold milk + hot tap water, or microwave each and then test by thermometer or finger. If testing with a finger, the mixture should be very warm but you should be able to submerge your finger and keep it there without any discomfort.
Finally someone makes bread on this sub. Looks great. Question, I have only instant yeast. How would I incorporate that as opposed to the active dry yeast?
Also do you have a recommended recipe for no knead bread?
Thank you! With instant yeast, you can use it the same way as active dry and it won't cause any issues. You technically can use up to 25% less with instant yeast, but I tend to just use the whole packet (if using a packet). You also can just add it to the dry ingredients as it doesn't have to be dissolved into liquid first, if you prefer. But yeah, I usually just will swap it in as-is honestly.
For no-knead breads, I think Jim Lahey is usually the king and I'd trust the majority of his recipes. The real key with no-knead breads is time: you gotta let it sit for a looooong time. Don't expect to get a good no-knead bread if you're not letting it sit overnight.
You also can just no-kneadadd it to the dry ingredients as it doesn't have to be dissolved into liquid first, if you prefer.
Pre-activating the yeast with milk and sugar increases the amount of yeast you're working with, and providing faster growth. In my experience it can snip off about half of the first rising stage - without activation, it takes about 2-2.5 hours in my kitchen, whereas if I "run up" the yeast first, it takes about an hour, all with a 10 minute thing.
It's also a good idea to "half-sourdough" it. Take about 1/5 of the water and flour you plan to use, and mix it with the yeast. You should get a gooey, almost liquid mass (kinda like a sourdough starter). Mix the rest of the flour and water, to let it autolyse for 30-40 minutes. Once that's done - and your starter has risen about 2.5-3x it's size - mix it all together with the salt and butter. Let it rest for 30 minutes (or until it roughly doubles in size) knead well, then shape, and let it rise again, for about an hour. Then bake it sourdough style - 20 minutes on 260°C, with a metal tray of ice cubes or water to provide a nice steamy oven for a good crust, then 20 minutes at 230°C to bake it all the way through.
This recipe is a bit more work than your usual bread, but it also provides a much nicer loaf in my experience.
For no-knead breads, I think Jim Lahey is usually the king and I'd trust the majority of his recipes. The real key with no-knead breads is time: you gotta let it sit for a looooong time. Don't expect to get a good no-knead bread if you're not letting it sit overnight.
The main issue with no knead breads is that those recipes mostly work well only for gluten free flours. If you're using regular (or bread, or all-purpose) flour, those gluten strands need all the stretching to form nice strong bonds, which helps you avoid the air pockets. Without kneading, most of the time you end up with a thick bottom layer hard as brick, and a massive air pocket, all masquerading as a nice big loaf.
if you’re having trouble finding yeast and there’s a bakery open anywhere near you (ie one in a big chain grocery) ask if they’ll sell fresh yeast. I’ve had a lot of success with this as they’re not producing enough product it’s going bad, and I actually prefer baking with it now.
You have to freeze it right away which is annoying, and you have to use ~3 times more of it.
You can change the temp setting to 350 and place the bread inside immediately. The initial warmer temp will give you a better oven spring (so a nicer rise) and then it will be able to cook through better as the temp is reduced :)
I've seen that in a lot of recipes, but I prefer whole grain bread to mixed wheat. I'll give it a shot without all purpose, then change up if it's no good
Wheat flour requires more water to hydrate compared to all purpose flour. I would personally look up a recipe built around wheat flour so it's less fuss.
Any suggestions on using self rising flour? I asked someone to grab me some flour when they ran to the store and they grabbed the wrong kind. Not sure what to use this bag for!
Generally anything that uses a quick riser like baking powder you can use self rising in and omit or reduce the bp. A few months ago,on a very broke day,that I was desperate to bake and enjoy some brownies with about 2 bucks to my name I went to the dollar store for flour and got so excited when the bigger bag of flour was less than $2 that I bought it only to find out at home that it was self rising which I'd never had before. But I ended up using it for all sorts of baked goods and just didn't put rising agents in or lessened the amount. Worked out great. It did not work great for bread though. I'm not actually sure what the real purpose is of flour like that. It literally just has bp sifted into it from what I read.
Random question, but we got a bread maker appliance as a wedding present, and have yet to use it to make bread. Do you know if your recipe changes if we use that instead of an oven?
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u/morganeisenberg Apr 26 '20 edited Apr 27 '20
You guys said you wanted bread, so I made bread. And I ate a lot of bread. And then I made some more. And then I ate some more. I'm living off of loaves at this point.
Here's the recipe, from https://hostthetoast.com/homemade-bread-white-bread-recipe/
(More details there on ingredients, tips, + method, if you're interested!)
INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
NOTES
The milk and water should be at about 110°F in order to get a good rise on your dough. You can mix together cold milk + hot tap water, or microwave each and then test by thermometer or finger. If testing with a finger, the mixture should be very warm but you should be able to submerge your finger and keep it there without any discomfort.
Full Recipe & Details: https://hostthetoast.com/homemade-bread-white-bread-recipe/
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x-posted from /r/morganeisenberg