Utensils:
Large Glass Bowl
Large Sturdy Spoon, Preferably Wood
Measuring Spoons
Measuring Cups, Liquid and Dry
Bread Pan
Sauce Pan (optional)
Whisk (optional)
Kitchen Scale (optional)
Ingredients:
- 4 cups (20.5 oz / 585 gr) unbleached all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (1.5 oz / 40 gr) dry whole milk (See Notes)
- 1 tbsp (9.6 gr) instant yeast
- 6 tbsp (3 oz / 85 gr) unsalted butter softened
- 1.5 liquid cups (12.5 oz / 354 gr) water at room temp (70-90 deg F)
- 2 tbsp (1.5 oz / 40 gr) honey (See Notes)
- 2 tsp (13.2 gr) salt
Notes:
- There are volume and weight measurements for a reason. Weight tends to be more accurate and easier to replicate and experiment with so if you have a kitchen scale go by weight and take notes. If not, eye-ball it with volume.
- Don't have dry milk? Scratch it and scald one cup of milk and use that instead of one cup of the water. That means 1 cup scalded milk and 1/4 cup water.
- To scald milk, bring it just under a boil then let it cool to room temp. Best to let it go ahead and cool in your mixing bowl.
- Don't have honey on hand? Substitute sugar instead.
The Process:
Making the Dough:
- Mix water, milk, and honey into your glass bowl. Put your finger in it, it should be the temperature of bath water. Yeasties love bathwater. Next, pitch your yeast over the mixture. By pitch I mean sprinkle. Drape a clean towel over the top and let it sit for about 10 minutes in a warm place.
- Uncover the bowl and smell it. Seriously. Those little balls of yeast should now be a thin layer of tan foam and smell kinda like bread. If not, no worries, they're just not thrilled about getting out of bed. Go ahead and toss in your softened butter and two cups of flour. Take that sturdy spoon and mix it up until it's the consistency of thin pancake batter.
- The reason we didn't add the butter earlier is because any melted portion can keep your yeast from getting at the delicious sweet and creamy concoction that will wake them up.
- Next add in your salt. I've found that adding the salt at the pancake batter stage helps get a good rise. Salt and yeast aren't friends, so putting some substance between them will keep them from fighting. Mix up you batter really well and toss in another cup of flour. Mix away again. At this point you may notice two things: First, if you didn't get an actual sturdy spoon it might break. Second, your arms may be getting a little tired from stirring. The hard part is yet to come. At this stage the dough will start clumping around the spoon. When you start feeling adventurous, cover your hands with a little flour and scrape as much as possible off the spoon.
- Go ahead and add in the last 3/4 cup flour. Not the full cup? Nope, save 1/4 cup for later. Now take off any rings, bracelets or watches you may have on, because you're about to get messy and this stuff dries like cement. Dig your hands in and start kneading the dough until you get pretty much the rest of the flour worked in. When it sticks to your fingers, cover them in flour from the bowl and scrape it off. Keep folding and mushing it until you don't have any loose flour left in your bowl. The sides will be a holy mess, but that's OK.
- Once you manage to get all the flour worked in, go ahead and take a little bit of that 1/4 cup and sprinkle it onto your (clean) counter. Take your dough, which probably looks pretty rough and angry, and put it on the lightly floured counter. Now the workout begins. Knead the dough (if you've ever attended a pottery class you can use the same technique for kneading clay) for five minutes. Five minutes? That's it? How is that difficult? If you can do it without breaking a sweat then you're a tougher person than I. Or at least in better shape. By the time your done your dough will be stretchy, smooth and happy looking. Possibly a bit sticky still, but happy.
- Make a rough ball out of the dough and give it a couple good smacks. It should sound like smacking a... Never-mind, moving on. Cover the dough and let it rest for about 20 minutes. More importantly, let your gelatin-like arms rest as well. The best way to do this is just flip your bowl upside down over the dough ball. I usually take some olive oil and lightly coat the outside of the ball to help keep it moist.
- When you regain some feeling in your arms and the dough has risen a little, knead the dough for five more minutes. I know right?! Just when you thought you were safe... By the time your done it should be smooth and stretchy. Who wouldn't be after a massage like that?
Shaping the Loaf:
- If you want to check your work (and you have a kitchen scale) your dough should weigh around 38.5 oz or 1102 grams. If you don't have a scale then the ball should be slightly sticky but easy to manage. Shape your dough into a football, flour the top and cover it back up with either some plastic wrap or the bowl. Let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes.
- The original recipe calls for you to "gently deflate the dough" but go ahead and knead it for a minute or two. Not much, just enough to work the air out. Once your done, use your fingers to work it into a 10 by 8 inch rectangle.
- Give your dough a business letter fold (Pretend it's bread and don't stuff your dough in an envelope) and flour your counter as necessary to keep it from sticking. I haven't had sticking issues at this stage, but maybe you will. After you've folded you dough, spread it out again so it's slightly wider than a bread pan and about 12 inches long. Give it another business letter fold, again flowering as needed to prevent sticking.
- Grease up your bread pan with either olive oil or butter. Be generous with it either way, it will keep the crust soft and help the finished loaf slide out. Place the folded dough into the pan and tuck in the edges when needed to have a nice smooth top. Grease up the top, again be generous with it.
- Cover the pan with a clean towel (loosely) and place it on or near the oven. Let it rise for 30 minutes, then move the oven rack to the lowest position and preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Let the dough rise for another 30 minutes. It is very important to let your oven preheat for at least a half hour. Also, if you have an oven thermometer use it to verify the temperature inside your oven. By now you should have a nice puffy looking bit of dough chillin' in the bread pan.
- Gingerly uncover the dough and transfer it to the bottom rack of the oven. At this point the dough is going to be very puffy and you don't want to make it fall. Let the bread bake for about 20 minutes.
- Check the loaf. It should be getting a little brown on top. If you want a soft crust, take the bread out, re-grease the top real quick and then put it back the turned the opposite way. If you want a crustier bread just give it a turn. The turn helps promote even browning. Bake for another 20 minutes, checking on it every now and then.
- If you noticed it browning a little fast, tent the top with tinfoil to let it cook thoroughly without burning the outside.
- Usually my loaf is pretty much done by the 40 minute mark, but I haven't been able to do the tinfoil tent yet, so... The outside of the bread should be a nice dark brown and if you tip it out of the pan and tap the bottom you should get a nice hollow sound. If it's not quite there for you, give it another 20 minutes, checking on it often.
- Try to avoid opening the oven when possible as this causes a fluctuation in the temperature.
- To finish it off, take your nice hot loaf of bread and rub a stick of butter over the top. Be careful because the loaf of bread, which looks so inviting and wonderful, will be at roughly the temperature of the freaking sun so try not to burn yourself. If you can figure out how to do this, please let me know.
