Making Bread Easy

A couple of weeks ago commenter Larry R. asked for my bread recipe. I tried to take pictures last week but blew it – it works much better when you put the mem card in the camera before the photo shoot – but I didn’t forget.

This is a variation/simplification on ML’s basic bread recipe which I started using about two years ago. My version has evolved since then.
Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups warm water
2 teaspoons yeast
2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup cooking oil
approx 6 cups white flour
Proof the yeast by adding it, the salt and the sugar (quantities of salt and sugar can be varied to taste) to the warm water and stirring it together. Let it sit about ten minutes, and the mixture should start to foam.
Stir in the egg and the oil.
Now comes the fun part, where I start some shit-kicking music.
Adding flour about 1/2 cup at a time, stir it in as vigorously as you can without making a mess. Keep at it.
At something less than five cups the batter will start to become dough, forming a ball and pulling away from the side of the bowl.
Once it’s there, flour your kneading board and dump out the dough. Roll up your sleeves, you’re about to make a mess.
This is a good time to put the Assistant Dishwasher to work.
If you took my advice about vigorous stirring, you’ll need to knead the dough less than ten minutes to achieve the right consistency. You’ll work in about another cup of flour in the process but don’t go crazy: You want the ball to remain moist but not sticky. Too much flour will make the ball too dry. When you’ve got a consistently firm and springy ball, you’re ready for the first rising.
Coat a clean bowl with cooking oil and put the dough ball inside. I wipe the inside the bowl with a paper towel and cover the ball with it to keep the dough from drying out. Cover the bowl with a cotton cloth. If the room is cool and you’ve got an oven with a pilot light, put the bowl in the oven: It’ll rise much better warm.

Keep an eye on it. In 30-45 minutes the ball should have about doubled in size. When it does that…
Dump it out of the bowl, gently roll it into a log and cut it in half. Punch each half into a greased bread pan.

Let it rise again. For the last fifteen minutes or so, set the oven to 350^o and let it pre-heat.
The dough should rise about half again its original size. It’ll rise more in the oven.
Into the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until it browns nicely and thumps a nice hollow sound. Take it out of the pans and let it cool on a rack.

And that’s all there is to it! This is a very consistent and reliable recipe. It’s been revised for altitude (high) and humidity (low), so don’t be afraid to play with water content and rising times. Even less-than-total success tastes good.