Whenever I’m short on time and running quickly through the grocery store, I always swing by the bread aisle. I swear that in another life I was French, or my French genes just outweigh everything except my imaginary Mexican ones, because I could live off bread, chocolate, butter and cheese. Not wine though. I need my beer. Anyway. Back to bread. Each time I peruse the bread aisle, I am astonished--$5 for a loaf of decent bread?
Bread, after all, is just flour, yeast, water, and perhaps some fat, sweetener, and salt. Why the mark up? Because bread is hard to make well. Although I’ve posted a bread recipe here before, all loaves I’ve made have turned out dense, with an almost pound-cake like texture. While I know that without a professional oven, I won’t be able to make bread with a crispy crust, I still would like a less dense bread.
Unfortunately, at this time, that means making it with less than 100% whole wheat flour. I used half whole wheat, half unbleached all-purpose. I’ve made this bread twice, and each time it’s been airy and delicious. I also give credit to my use of hard red flour, which has a higher protein content and thus allows for easier stretching (I won’t get too sciency, but I suggest a copy of Bakewise, which is fascinating).
A warning for you, dear readers: Do not make this bread at 11pm and then leave it unattended in the presence of hungry drunks. You will wake up to a surviving heel and a facebook comment lauding your bread-making abilities…which is not quite the same as actually having a tasty slice of bread for breakfast. In their defense, however, had I really not wanted them to have it, I would’ve said so.
Ingredients:
1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F)
1 tablespoon raw milk
2 tablespoons softened melted butter
2 tablespoons agave nectar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups hard red whole wheat flour
1 packet (~2 tsp) active yeast
Combine the milk, butter, nectar, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a Kitchen-Aid type mixer. Add the flours. Add the yeast, and pour the warm water directly on to the yeast. I let mine sit for a couple of minutes, and this seemed to be enough to activate the yeast. Using your dough hook attachment, knead the bread for ~10 minutes with the speed set at 2, until the dough is smooth.
Grease the bowl with a bit of olive oil and turn the dough once to get it all nice and greasy. Cover with a towel and set in a warm place (one day I used a sunny window, the other I put it on top of the washing machine while it went through its cycle) to rise for about 35 minutes.
Give the dough a few kneads, and then place in a greased loaf pan for the second rise, again about the same amount of time in the same place. Or, if you need to leave the house to, say, go shake the hand of Mr. Dave Sims and talk Sounders with Jack Zduriencik, you can put the bread in the fridge after its risen for a few minutes, then come home and bake—in a 375 oven for 25-30 minutes. It should make a hollow sound when tipped out of the pan. Leave it to cool (as long as you are able to keep your mitts, or those of others, off) on a wire rack.
If you would like to have bread for breakfast, place in cupboard, attach a chain, and padlock.
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1 comment:
Kirsten: I was never successful with 100% whole wheat flour also and when Andy and I lived in Oregon I made all of our bread. I think that the More with Less Cookbook has the best bread recipes and techniques for having fresh bread ready when you want it. I use their whole wheat role recipe for cinnamon rolls and with a little practice they are to die for. You can make them in advance, freeze and thaw overnight for the final rize and pop them in the oven in the morning.
Margo
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