9 Basic bread

Just a basic loaf of bread. Not fancy, but also not complicated.

Source: Partially from RealLifeDinner, but I also referenced a few other places, including SeriousEats. They also have some other articles on breadmaking.

Ingredients:

Ingredients

Tools

2 cups water

Bowl for mixing

2 tsp yeast

Something to mix dough with

1 1/2 tsp salt

Baking sheet / bread pans

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp olive oil

480-600 g flour

Preparation:

  • Activate the yeast: Add yeast to warm water (105° - 115° F) and allow to sit for approximately 5 minutes. The yeast should start to bubble a bit. OPTIONAL: Add some sugar to the water for the yeast.

  • While it’s doing this, measure out the flour, salt, and the rest of the sugar into a mixing bowl.

  • When the yeast is foamy, pour it into the dry ingredients and add the oil (optional).

  • Mix/knead until until dough comes together and no longer sticks to the edges of the bowl. May need to add some more flour during this process.

  • Knead for 3-5 minutes after the dough is no longer sticking to the bowl.

  • Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, preferably a fairly deep one, and reasonably wide. Put something over top of it (e.g., lightly place a lid on it).

  • Every 30 minutes - 1 hour, you should notice that the dough ball has expanded quite a bit. Once it has doubled, “fold” the dough and replace the cover.

    • Dump the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface. Gently stretch it out (it will flatten a bit, that’s fine), and fold it in from all four sides.
    • Fold in a pattern: Pick one side to fold in, then an adjacent side, then the opposite side, and then the last side (which should be opposite of the first fold).

  • Repeat this process 2-3 more times.

  • When you’re ready to form the loaves, gently sprea dthe dough into an approximate rectangle. Spread it out as well as you can without actually rolling it out.

  • Use a knife or dough scraper to cut it in half. Try to make it so that each half has one side approximately the length of a bread pan.

  • Roll the rectangle of dough up like a log, trying to keep it tight. Roll from the side so that the end result will be approximately the length of the pan.

  • You may want to try to keep folding the edges in, so that at the end, there isn’t much of an “edge” to the dough log.

  • Place the dough logs into a bread pan with the seam (which should run the length of the loaf) facing down. You may want to spray some oil in the pans first.

  • Cover the loaves with the non-fuzzy towel, and place in a warm place to let rise again. The loaves should double or more in size.

  • Preheat the oven to 425° F or 450° F.

  • Place 3-4 ice cubes in the bottom of the oven (or in another pan in the oven, preferably that was preheating as well, so the ice starts generating steam immediately).

  • You may want to slash them lengthwise to help them rise before putting them in the oven.

  • Bake the loaves for approximately 20 minutes. When you take the loaves out of the pans, all the edges should seem “hard”, and if you tap or knock on the loaf, it should sound hollow. The crust may seem rock hard (especially the top), but that is perfectly fine, it should soften up a lot.

Variations:

  • If you want to make an “artisanal” loaves, then instead of rolling the dough up in logs, divide the dough in to and form them into balls, try to get a lot of tension. Sprinkle some cornmeal on a baking sheet, and place the dough balls on that to rise. Make some slashes before baking.

Notes:

  • I’m by no means an expert on bread-making, so take my directions with a grain of salt. I’m satisfied with my bread, but proper bakers may scoff. I’ve heard good things about the book Flour Water Salt Yeast. I plan to get it at some point. My directions here will probably change then.
  • You can use less yeast, but let the dough rise for longer at each step. This is supposed to help impart some extra flavor (moving towards a sourdough flavor). So far I haven’t noticed anything really dramatic. I think the basic idea is to double the time for rising if you cut the yeast in half.
  • You can replace any amount of white flour with wheat flour. However, I’ve found that wheat flour tends to not rise as well, so the loaves may not turn out as well.