First let me perfectly clear here, I am not, nor have I ever likened myself to be of the likes of Martha Stewart. Ok, now that we're clear, let's carry on. ;)
***Tip off #1***: I use a bread maker 99% of the time to make my dough for me, but NEVER to bake my bread. If you have a few extra $$ and want to save time, buy a bread maker.
I use my bread maker to make my dough for me so while it's doing it's job, I can do other things. My favorite thing to do is to set the timer to have the dough ready & waiting for me when I wake up at 7am. I put the ingredients together at night before I go to bed, (literally takes me 2 minutes) then I set the timer & put it on the dough setting. When I wake up in the morning, I punch it down, let it rise again & throw it in the oven for hot & fresh bread.
I am on now my 2nd bread machine... My first bread machine was a Black & Decker which we paid over $200 for as they were very new & expensive then. It lasted me 18 years and was used a LOT. When it died I found the *exact* same model barely used for $20 on Kijiji & thanked the good Lord above for small miracles! lol! :)
The Ingredients & My Personal Bread Recipe for 2 loaves (9x5 pans)
1 1/2 cups Warm(er) water
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
2 Tbsp. Sugar
2 Tbsp. Oil/butter/shortening
4 cups white Flour (you can also use 1/2 whole wheat)
1 1/2 tsp. Yeast
(*I buy a big vacuum sealed pkg. of Fleischmans yeast from the bulk store for $5.99 & refill my little jar. The little jar alone will cost you around $8.99 at the grocery store. My bulk pkg. of Fleischmans yeast fills the jar full 4 times for savings reference!)
Oh, you'll want to use measuring spoons to measure for now, I just guess, but when you're starting out, you probably want to use measuring spoons until you can "eyeball" it. lol!
1. Place the ingredients in your bread pan in the order listed. DO NOT MIX.
2. Place the pan back in the breadmaker, put on "dough/pasta" setting. It will take 2 hours to run through this cycle.
3. Now, when it's ran through the 2 hour cycle, you want to take out the pan (it wont' be hot, or isn't in mine anyways...) flip it over on a well floured surface....
4. Then I split the ball in two. If you keep it in one you will have one MASSIVE loaf if you're cooking it in a regular 9x5" loaf pan. Therefore I use 2 loaf pans and get two regular sized loaves. ;)
5. Now take your handy husband beater, er, rolling pin, ;) And roll out each "ball" into a long rectangular peice of dough about 1/2" thick'ish. I just roll mine and go with it.
6. After you've done that, roll it up "jelly roll" style and place into a well greased loaf pan.
7. From here I put both pans in a preheated 100F oven, but once it's preheated I turn it off. Let the loaves rise until they're *at least* doubled in size... I usually let mine rise for about an hour. If you don't want to let it rise in the oven, then just cover with a clean, warm tea towel. Some say you should rinse it with hot water, squeeze, then put on the pans. I don't think it overly matters, or it didn't to me anyways, but it's an option.
8. Take the loaves out of the oven and preheat to 350F. Bake loaves for about 20 minutes or until golden brown & tapping on the loaf with a butter knife makes an "empty/hollow" sound.
And there you have it! Perfect bread!! Yummy!!
The benefits of still baking bread in the oven vs. in the breadmaker:
- The bread is a "normal" size loaf. Not ginourmous slices.
- The crust is soft. Not crunchy.
- You end up with 2 loaves instead of 1.
- You don't get a big "black hole" in the bottom of your loaf from the bread paddle in the bread machine. ;)
Now, if you instead want to use a mixer to make bread, you'll need a good & strong one... I have a Kitchen Aid Accolade in white and it makes fabulous bread too. I'm just lazy busy. So if you want to go the Kitchen Aid route, you'll want to take 1/2 cup of your 1 1/2 cups *warm* water and dissolve your yeast in it. Let it sit for about 15 minutes. Then pour it into your mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients, including the rest of the warm water using the bread hook, but add the flour in small increments slowly. You may have to add more flour or water to get the right "stickiness" for your dough, just play around with it till it's perfect. This is another reason why I love my breadmaker, the dough is always perfect!
Once you have the *perfect* dough, you'll want to cover & let it double in size in the bowl for at least an hour, then follow the steps above to let it rise again and follow the steps until you bake it.
As for freezing bread, i've saved bread bags from 'regular' bread and use those to freeze the bread in. It's only frozen for a few days at best, and they're always the perfect size. But you can always buy freezer bags. I do not pre-slice the bread before I freeze it. So when it's thawed out and I slice it, it's fresh & soft like I just baked it. Since homemade bread has NO preservatives or chemicals in it, it WILL NOT last nearly as long as store bought bread. If you're not going to use the entire loaf within about 3 days I suggest freezing part of it.
Now, I *think* i've covered anything... I hope this helps! If you have any questions, please ask away and i'll help in whatever way I can. :) I have buns that are done rising and need baked for dinner and my book is waiting!! I'm slowly getting everything crossed off of my "to do" list but i'm going to be hard pressed to get it all done. Such is life...
Well have a wonderful Sunday afternoon! I'm off & will return after dinner with Sunday Night Chit-Chat!! :)
