It is easy to make a loaf of bread. And what an amazing thing for a kid to see yeast make the dough rise. If you have not done this before - it is easier to do than you think. There is more waiting than anything else.
Anyway, lets get started. Unless you have a cow to milk and you want to grind wheat between two stones to make flour, you will need to go to the store and get:
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water (110 degrees if you have a kitchen thermometer)
- 1 cup milk
- 4 tablespoons of sweet butter (leave it out so it gets warm) ‘Sweet’ butter is just butter without salt added
- 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
- 4 1/2 - 5 cups of bread flour (right next to the regular flour - which also works if you have it)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
- oil or cooking spray
So get out a big bowl and 1/2 cup of your warm water.
I often run some hot water in the big bowl and pour it all back out just to warm the bowl up before I add the yeast bit. On we go. Pour in the 1/2 cup of water and pour the yeast on top of it. Do not worry if it looks like it is floating - it will take care of itself. Really, it will. I have seen this before and know how it ends.
We need to let that sit for a bit and get comfortable with itself - so we will go to the microwave or stove or something. Put your 4 tablespoons of warm butter into a container or pan with the cup of milk and the 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar and the last 1/2 cup of water.
Put the milk/butter stuff in the micro for 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, etc until the butter is mostly melted but the whole thing is not too hot. If this is too hot (say much over 110 degrees or make your finger sad that you stuck it in there hot), it will kill all those nice little yeasts that are waiting to make this tasty bread for you. If you get it really hot - just let it sit for 10 minutes or so until it is pleasantly warm…
Pour the milkbuttersugar (I just made up that word and I am sticking by it) into the yeast mix.
You see I have the flour on deck here. Put the 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt into the flour and mix it around. Now, go ahead - don’t be nervous - slowly pour the 4 1/2 cups of the flour and salt into the yeast, mixing as you go. Maybe pour in a cup at a time and mix each new cupful for a few seconds. This just makes it a little easier to stir. When you get it all in, it is pretty hard to stir anyway. When you have it mixed up, it might just look a little like this:
Next, kneading. Smear a little flour around on your counter or cutting board and pour out the bread dough onto it. Don’t skip this part. If you put in a few minutes here, the bread will be light and oh so much tastier. For the kneading, I will refer you to a youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWj8oHMPFm0
If watching that seems like too much trouble, work the dough into a ball, fold it in half on itself, smoosh, turn a half turn, repeat. Each half turn should be the same direction.
Now that we are past that, wash out the bowl that you mixed the dough in and spray a little non-stick spray in or spread a little oil (canola is fine) around the bowl with a paper towel or something. Put the dough in the bowl and turn it over so that it is all coated lightly with the oil. Cover the bowl with a damp towel or a little plastic wrap.
Hang with me here - the work bits are almost over. Put this somewhere warm and let it sit for an hour. I often put it on top of the fridge or in the microwave to sit. After an hour, it should be twice as big as when you put it in. Take it back out and squish it flat.
Take it out of the bowl, split it into two halves. Roll the two halves into a ball and put the seam side down into a couple of bread pans.
And - I bet you didn’t see this coming - put them back into the microwave or on top of the fridge for another hour. They will rise again and it will be GREAT! Or at least, it will be pretty good :) In the last little bit of this hour, preheat your oven to 350 and tell it that the bread is on its way.
Here is how they look just before you bake them.
Bake them for 50 minutes or so and you will be in bread bliss. The house should be smelling fantastic right now. A way to check if the bread is properly done is to pop it out of the bread pans and flick the bottom of it with your finger. The sound should be a little hollow. If it sounds thick instead of hollow, give it two minutes or so back in the oven. It should look like this and taste amazing:
Eat it.
Let me know how it turned out.
-Jim
