A lot of people find the fact that I make our own bread intimidating. I hope to disspell the "intimidating" part with play by play pictures of how I make bread. I used to make it by hand. I liked (and still like) the feel of working with dough. However - I have some issues with my hands (lack of strength) that I moved on to this mixer my sister sent me. It is a Bosch Univeral Plus 800 watt mixer. Perfect for our family's needs. Thanks Lynda!
Bread
I make 4 loaves at a time - so decrease by 1/2 or 1/4's to suit your family's needs.
4 TBSP yeast
1 1/2 TBSP salt
4 TBSP vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup sugar
**I like to add 4 TBSP powdered buttermilk sometimes too
3 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour (yes - I do grind my own wheat)
4 cups hot water
Add all of the ingredients in the mixer. Cover with the lid and let it sit for about 45 minutes. This is called "sponging." It is highly recommended when working with wheat/yeast products together.
After 45 minutes - your dough should look like this. Increased in volume a lot and very bubbly....
Add: 4 TBSP vegetable oil and start adding white flour (you will end up using 9-10 cups or so).
The dough will start getting thick. It's almost ready here. It's still sticky so I added more flour.
You know the dough is ready with there isn't any left on the sides of the bowl and the dough is soft to the touch without being sticky.
Transfer to a large bowl sprayed with vegetable oil. Turn dough once. I like to set my bowl on the stove top. The overhead light provides the perfect temperature.
Cover the bowl with your favorite towel. Leave it for about 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes this is what your dough will look like.
It is ready because the poked finger indentations stay put.
Tip bowl over and roll out dough onto countertop. It looks like a big blob.
Knead a bit with your hands to roll into a sausage shape.
Using a knife - cut dough down the middle.
Now again to create 4 equal sections.
Take one of the sections.
Knead it a little and shape into a bread loaf.
Place in greased bread pan. Repeat for other dough sections.
Set bread loaves back on stove top to rise again. This time for 20 minutes.
Once again - cover with your most favorite towel. This is an important step. That way - when you look over at the dough rising - it brings happy memories. :) While your bread loaves are rising - turn your oven on to 400 degrees. This way it will be ready to use when your dough is done rising.
After 20 minutes - maybe a little longer - I got sidetracked this morning... your loaves will look like this. Place bread loaves in oven and bake for 30 minutes exactly.
After 30 minutes - your bread will look like this.
Remove from the pans immediately and cool on a wire rack. And of course if you live in close proximity to your neighbors - make in the morning and open all the windows of your house/apartment so everyone can smell the wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread. And you don't have to share. Unless you really want to.
5 comments:
Hey, I have a Bosch too. I love it! Mel got it for me so I can make cookies without burning out a motor. Your bread looks great. I bet you could even make them a little smaller and get a fifth loaf out of it. At least one loaf has to be eaten straight out of the oven. Mmmm, so yummy.
If you look at again at the coming out of the oven pic - there is no way to get 5 loaves in there. :) Four is the most. My oven is a tad smaller than most. Not sure how that came to be - so I make the most of it. :)
You're making me want a Bosch! Alas, with just me it doesn't make sense. The bread machine is more than enough. But I'm jealous :-) And I can smell the bread all the way up here.
I will have to send you some. :)
So I noticed that you have the new universal plus model. Did you get the blender with it? I did not get the Bosch blender because I had a different one, but now that one died so I'm thinking of getting the Bosch one. I wanted to know if you like yours if you have it? Also, do you have a wheat grinder of some kind?
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