On a (bread) roll!
Mar. 19th, 2009 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flybystardancerThat's two loaves of bread baked this week! One I baked Tuesday (that I just finished eating a few minutes ago >_>) and one that's nearly cooled down from its stay in the oven!
I used pretty much this recipe, cut in half for both loaves.
I can only bake one loaf at a time, unfortunately. At least, when using a loaf pan. I only have one loaf pan that I trust, our glass one. We also have an overly-large silicone one and a metal one, but both have problems that make me stick 'em back in the storage cabinet every time I look at them.
Though my successes this week have boosted my bread-confidence and are making me consider playing around with starters when I get home this late spring/summer.
This Amish Friendship Bread starter looks really easy to make/maintain, so I'll probably follow that for the starter. However, after looking through a bunch of Google returns, I couldn't find a recipe using a starter that I was really happy with to try for a first loaf. So instead I took inspiration from several of them and tried to adapt the recipe I used this week to work with a starter. The recipe I came up with is below for critique from my fellow bakers.
Basic Bread using Starter
Ingredients:
1 cup Amish Friendship Bread starter (recipe follows)
1 Tbsp butter/margarine (melted) or oil
1/2 Tbsp salt
2+ cups bread flour
1 egg
Directions:
Put starter, butter, and salt in large mixing bowl. Slowly add flour (1 cup at a time), mixing. When dough is stiff and hard to mix, dump onto a floured bread bowl and knead in the rest of the flour until dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Put in an oiled glass bowl, cover with a damp towel, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Dump risen dough back onto the bread board. Punch down and gently stretch into a large rectangle. Shape by folding in thirds pocketbook-style, then folding under the ends. Pinch all seams closed. Place in a 9x5 loaf pan (pre-sprayed with no-stick spray), cover with damped towel, and let rise until doubled in size, or level with the top of the loaf pan (At least 20 minutes).
Preheat oven to 375 deg F. On bottom rack of oven place a large pan with about a half-inch of water in it to heat with the oven. Also heat a kettle of water on the stove. Use egg and a little bit of water to make an egg wash, brush on the top of the loaf. Then slice the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Place loaf in oven and fill the pan at the bottom with water from the kettle. Bake for 45 minutes or until crust is gold brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Internal temperature should be 205-210 deg F.
Place on a rack and cool before slicing.
Yield: 1 loaf.
This recipe is mostly for my use, so if there's any confusing parts let me know. XD I know what I mean/procedures I use but that doesn't help if anyone else wants to give pointers and don't know all the assumptions laced through it.
ETA: I was messing around with foodstuffs (baking, cooking, making cookie dough) for six hours straight. Granted, at the beginning some of the time was waiting around while food did its thing without my interference, but still. Something was going from before noon until Mom and I finished dinner a bit after six. @_@ But I have bread, dinner (tamales with refried beans and rice), and cookie dough to show for it. Yummy food is yummy.
I used pretty much this recipe, cut in half for both loaves.
I can only bake one loaf at a time, unfortunately. At least, when using a loaf pan. I only have one loaf pan that I trust, our glass one. We also have an overly-large silicone one and a metal one, but both have problems that make me stick 'em back in the storage cabinet every time I look at them.
Though my successes this week have boosted my bread-confidence and are making me consider playing around with starters when I get home this late spring/summer.
This Amish Friendship Bread starter looks really easy to make/maintain, so I'll probably follow that for the starter. However, after looking through a bunch of Google returns, I couldn't find a recipe using a starter that I was really happy with to try for a first loaf. So instead I took inspiration from several of them and tried to adapt the recipe I used this week to work with a starter. The recipe I came up with is below for critique from my fellow bakers.
Basic Bread using Starter
Ingredients:
1 cup Amish Friendship Bread starter (recipe follows)
1 Tbsp butter/margarine (melted) or oil
1/2 Tbsp salt
2+ cups bread flour
1 egg
Directions:
Put starter, butter, and salt in large mixing bowl. Slowly add flour (1 cup at a time), mixing. When dough is stiff and hard to mix, dump onto a floured bread bowl and knead in the rest of the flour until dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Put in an oiled glass bowl, cover with a damp towel, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Dump risen dough back onto the bread board. Punch down and gently stretch into a large rectangle. Shape by folding in thirds pocketbook-style, then folding under the ends. Pinch all seams closed. Place in a 9x5 loaf pan (pre-sprayed with no-stick spray), cover with damped towel, and let rise until doubled in size, or level with the top of the loaf pan (At least 20 minutes).
Preheat oven to 375 deg F. On bottom rack of oven place a large pan with about a half-inch of water in it to heat with the oven. Also heat a kettle of water on the stove. Use egg and a little bit of water to make an egg wash, brush on the top of the loaf. Then slice the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Place loaf in oven and fill the pan at the bottom with water from the kettle. Bake for 45 minutes or until crust is gold brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Internal temperature should be 205-210 deg F.
Place on a rack and cool before slicing.
Yield: 1 loaf.
This recipe is mostly for my use, so if there's any confusing parts let me know. XD I know what I mean/procedures I use but that doesn't help if anyone else wants to give pointers and don't know all the assumptions laced through it.
ETA: I was messing around with foodstuffs (baking, cooking, making cookie dough) for six hours straight. Granted, at the beginning some of the time was waiting around while food did its thing without my interference, but still. Something was going from before noon until Mom and I finished dinner a bit after six. @_@ But I have bread, dinner (tamales with refried beans and rice), and cookie dough to show for it. Yummy food is yummy.
