Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone

Man cannot live by bread alone . . .

. . . he needs butter! Well at least I prefer a little butter.  I love making bread. It's such a lazy, come and go activity. I know some people are a little worried about bread making because it involves kneading and yeast and timing etc. But, see the thing with bread is that however it turns out somewhere in the world that's EXACTLY the way it's supposed to be!  So be flexible and if it's not quite what you expected think multicultural . . .

I have such beautiful memories of bread making with my grandmother.  She was a harsh taskmaster when it came to bread. I had better form those rolls correctly--she didn't care that I was 9!

A few years ago I was reading some new artesinal bread recipes and was shocked to see them doing things my little old grandmother had done! They said it was "European Technique." Hmm . . . I think Grandma would giggle if she heard that.

Grandma also made beer but that's a whole other story . . .

Let's get started! Truly tasty bread starts the night before.

Before I go upstairs for the night I put two cups of nice room temperature water in a bowl.  This bread has so few extra ingredients in it you don't really want to use "well water" for example. If you enjoy drinking your tap water feel free to use that. If you prefer filtered or bottled water then go ahead and use that.

You need some yeast. Some active dry yeast. Now if you look at the yeast you may say to yourself  "It doesn't LOOK very active to me. In fact it looks downright sedentary." That's because it's deeply sleeping in it's little granulated home.

We're going to wake it up with a bath!  You want to put a teaspoon in your water. Now if you don't buy your yeast in 2 lb packages but in those little individual packets then use half a packet. Just sprinkle it across the top and leave it alone. Leaving it alone is a very important concept in bread making. The more willing you are to LEAVE IT ALONE the less work you'll have to do and the better your bread will taste.  You will have many opportunities to LEAVE IT ALONE.

The yeast will slowly sink into the water. That means you've given it it's wake up call.  At this point it's going "what? . . . huh? . . ." It'll wake up HUNGRY so you better give it some food!

BREAKFAST!!! Breakfast for yeast is flour. I'm adding two cups of plain old all purpose flour. So it's equal parts of flour and water at this point.

Mix it in! You don't have to have a stand mixer for this. I quite often mix it up in a nice plastic bowl with a wooden spoon. Don't expect smooth evenness.

It'll look sort of like pancake batter. Okay now for the most important part. Cover it up with some plastic wrap and LEAVE IT ALONE!

Put it in a safe place where no cats will bother it. It was about 60 deg F. in our house this evening so I put it in the oven (it was off) with the light on. The light made it slightly warmer than the house. In the summer I would of stuck in in the microwave because you don't want it in a truly warm place.

The second reason you want to leave that light on is so you don't turn the oven on in the morning to bake some biscuits for the kids and wonder what that strange burning plastic smell is and shout profane words in front of impressionable ears.

Now, LEAVE IT ALONE! Your yeast is working in there. It'll start off munching on the easily available natural sugars in the flour. Then it'll get hungry again and start to work on the harder to digest sugars in the flour. The harder your yeast works the more interesting flavors you'll get.

The next morning the most interesting sour aroma will be rising from it! You'll see lots of little bubbles too.

Add another teaspoon of yeast to the pot! This would be the other half of the packet if that's what your yeast comes in. That old yeast is tired and worn out. It's done its work. It's time on earth is done. It's time for the next shift to come in!  Mix your new little workers in the soupy mess in the bowl. 

That soupy mess has several special names amongst bakers. Americans tend to call it a "sponge." Italians call it a "biga." The french call it a "poolish." Meanwhile go get yourself some extra ingredients. You know bread is good because it's got almost all of the flavor components in one fell swoop!  That sponge is sour right now so sour is in the house.

You'll need a little sugar and salt.

I like to add two teaspoons of sugar to my sponge . . .

and 3 to 4 teaspoons of salt. Stir that all together!

Now for the rest of the flour.  Add four cups. We're making a BIG loaf of bread. I figure if I'm going to all this work I want bread for a couple of days.

It'll be shaggy at first. If you don't have a mixer then start mixing it with a heavy spoon and then turn to your hands. You want to get all the flour mixed in.

It's not pretty but we're at another important stage here.

Cover it up and LEAVE IT ALONE! You want to leave it alone for at least 20 minutes.  This is when you can go and shower! Go wake the kids up for school. Take the dog for a walk. More than 20 minutes is perfectly FINE. Less than 20 is a waste. You might as well sit there kneading it by hand.

Twenty minutes are up so knead it some more.  Three to five minutes is more than enough. It looks different now!

It's getting stretchy. You can spread it across your fingers. You can repeat this step as many times as you want. Good french baguette dough gets so stretchy you can spread it thin enough to read newsprint through!  We're not going for that though because it's a LOT of work and I'm not interested in a lot of work. Just tasty chewy bread.

We have to get going because some of you need to get to work! Oil a bowl. Use tasty oil. I chose olive oil today. Grandma liked butter. Plain old vegetable will work too.

Throw your dough in the bowl.

Then pick it up and turn it over. You're trying to get oil all over the dough so it won't dry out.

Then cover it with some plastic wrap and LEAVE IT ALONE. I usually leave the house at this point. If you're leaving for the entire day you're going to want to stow it some place that runs towards cool, your bread might just grow right out of the bowl and onto the counter top if it's warm at all.  Use a big bowl whatever you do.

This is about 3 hours in. If I poke a hole in it it stays.  I'm getting ready to leave the house again and volunteer at school so I'm going to give the dough a "turn."

I grab the left side and fold it over.

Grab the right side and fold it over.

Then grab the bottom and pull it up. Then since I like things pretty I tend to pick up the dough and put all the folds on the bottom.  You can turn your bread every hour if you're around.  But after you turn it you've gotta LEAVE IT ALONE for at least an hour.  I tend to turn it twice during the day. Between grocery store, school, etc.

Shape the loaf.

Why didn't I take pictures of "shaping" the loaf?

FAIL

To shape the loaf I dump the risen dough onto a clean counter and roll it up from the bottom.  Then I pinch the seam together and put it seam down on a pan.  You'll see here I have it on some foil. It's nonstick foil but that's not really necessary. You could put it on parchment paper too. You can even put it straight on the pan. If you want that whole rustic look you could sprinkle some cornmeal on the pan first. I was too lazy to go get myself some cornmeal though.

Now cover it up with plastic wrap and LEAVE IT ALONE for an hour.  Around the 30 minute mark you'll want to preheat your oven to 400 deg. F.  Bread likes a good hot oven.  The longer you preheat it the better temperature you'll be able to maintain.  It won't matter as much that you opened the oven door.

I wanted shiny golden bread so I brushed a little beaten egg on it.  I was actually in the middle of preparing some scrambled eggs so I just used those!  You could brush on a little milk or water as an alternative.

Cut some slashes in the top.  They allow your bread some room for growing.  Now pop it in that hot oven!

At the 20 minute mark your bread has risen and is starting to get some color. Go ahead and flip the thing around so that the side that was facing the window is now facing the back of the oven.

I baked it another 25 minutes and it turned into a beauty! You can see where the egg glaze didn't get on it! 

The egg wash makes it shiny. My seam popped just a little. If your seam pops really big you're not allowing your bread to rise long enough.  It's still tasty though.

Not too lopsided today! Okay, now for the hard part . . . LEAVE IT ALONE.

I cut into it the next morning. You'll just tear up a loaf of bread if you try to cut into it right away.  That's fine if you want chunks of it with soup. If you want beautiful even slices you'll want to leave it for an hour. 

This bread was super aromatic. You could smell all the work that yeast did.  It's sort of like sourdough bread with it's sour, yeasty flavor.  The crust was hard and the bread was chewy.  A sandwich made with this bread will satisfy any appetite!  Toast with this bread is a lovely hearty breakfast.

Simple white bread

For the sponge:
2 cups tepid water
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon yeast


For the bread
1 teaspoon yeast
3 teaspoons sugar
4 teaspoons salt
4 cups all purpose flour

Glaze
1 egg, beaten

Mix the sponge ingredients together and cover. Let sit overnight.

Next day add remaining ingredients and mix together until it forms a shaggy ball of dough.  Cover and let sit 20 minutes.  Knead 3-5 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.  Put in an oiled bowl and cover.  Let rise at least 3 hours.  Turn dough if its convenient.  Form dough into loaf and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise one hour.  Preheat oven 30 minutes.  Brush loaf with glaze and cut diagonal slashes in the top.  Bake 45 minutes, rotating pan at the 20 minute mark.  Allow to cool for 1 hour before slicing.