Bread Making by Hand
| Hardware: | Ingredients: |
| Small pyrex dish | Yeast - 2 Tbs |
| Tablespoon | Flour - 3-4 cups |
| Mixing Bowl | Sugar - 2 Tbs |
| Spatula | Salt - 1 Tbs |
| Pyrex measuring cup | Gluten - 2 Tbs |
| One cup measure | Water - 2 cups |
| Sauce pan | Butter - for eating on the bread! |
| Cutting Board | |
| Clean dish towel | |
| Plastic scraper | |
| Cookie sheet |
| Step | Procedure | ||
| 1 | Measure 2 tablespoons of yeast into the small pyrex dish. |
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| 2 |
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Using the pyrex measuring cup, put 2 cups of water into the small saucepan and heat to about 85 degrees (very warm but not unbearably hot to the touch | |
| 3 | Meanwhile, using the one-cup measuring cup measure 4 cups of flour into the mixing bowl. |  |
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| 4 |  |
Put a little sugar (1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon) into the pyrex measuring cup and measure another two tablespoons of sugar into the mixing bowl with the flour. | |
| 5 | Add 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of salt and two tablespoons of gluten to the flour. |  |
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| 6 |
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Remove the water from the heat and test for temperature. It should be at about 85 degrees and feel uncomfortably warm, not hot or scalding to your finger. If it is too hot, give it a few minutes to cool down. You can add some cold water but don't use all of the water if you do unless you are prepared to make a bigger batch of bread. | |
| 7 | Pour 1/2 cup of water into the measuring cup with the sugar and mix well. |
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| 8 |  |
Add the yeast and stir with the tablespoon for a few seconds until it is well mixed. Fill the pyrex dish with water and place in the oven. |
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| 9 |
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Using the spatula, stir the flour mixture and make a hole in the middle while waiting for the yeast mixture to double in size (to one cup). | |
| 10 |  |
Pour the yeast mixture into the flour and rinse out the yeast cup into the flour with the remaining warm water. |  |
| 11 | Mix well using spatula and adding flour as needed. | ||
| 12 |  |
When dough willingly leaves the sides of the bowl, flour the board and scrape all the dough onto it. |  |
| 13 |  |
Let it rest, knead it and put back into the bowl -you won't have to wash the bowl if most of the dough has been scraped out. |
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| 14 |
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Place dough in bowl and let rise until double (about 45 minutes) |  |
| 15 |
Meanwhile, scrape and wipe the cutting board clean and rinse up the measuring cups, spatula and measuring spoon.
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| 16 |
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Punch down the dough and turn onto the floured cutting board. Knead for a minute to get all the air out and return to the bowl to rise again. |
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| 17 | When dough has risen again, rub butter on the cookie sheet |  |
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| 18 |  |
Punch down the dough and turn onto floured cutting board. | |
| 19 | Knead into one loaf the length of the cookie sheet. Place seam-side down on the cookie sheet and cover with the cloth. |  |
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| 20 |
15 minutes after making the loaf, turn the oven on to 400.
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| 21 |  |
15 minutes later, score the loaf with a sharp knife and place in oven. |  |
| 22 |
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Bake
30 minutes. Occasionally sprinkle a little water into the oven during
baking to develop a thicker crust. |
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| SPONGE
METHOD: Another way to proof your yeast while adding flavor
Put 2 tablespoons of yeast into your mixing bowl and mix in a cup of flour. Warm 2 cups of water to about 85 degrees and stir into the yeast/flour mixture. Let sit for up to 4 hours without having to add yeast, or overnight and add another tablespoon of yeast before adding sugar, salt and the rest of the flour. |
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