BREAD!!

Jul 18, 2010

BREAD!!

I have an obsession with BREAD. For those of you who know me really well...knows that anything and everything with bread, I love it. So my new favorite thing is to try and make homemade bread! My kitchen aid mixer came with a good recipe for simple white bread, and I think I have mastered this easy recipe ;) Now my next task will to get more complicated! I really want to try a honey wheat bread!

This one is called Rapid Mix Cool Rise White Bread

Its really good for beginners apparently ;)

6-7 cups flour

2 T sugar

3 1/2 t salt

3 packages active dry yeast

1/4 cup butter

2 cups very warm water

Get your mixer ready!!

Place 5-1/2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast in bowl and then add butter. Use dough hook on Mixer and turn to speed 2 to mix the ingredients together (about 20 seconds)

Gradually add the warm water and mix about 1-1/2 mins longer

Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time and mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl, about 2 mins longer

Knead for another 2 minutes until this happens ;)

Then cover dough with plastic wrap

And a wet towel. Let rest about 20 minutes

Take dough from bowl and you CAN divide it into 2 , to make 2 loaves, but I like just one. Roll it out on a lightly floured surface to get all the air bubbles out. Then start from the smaller end and roll the dough all the way to the other end, squeeze the ends together and wrap underneath. You can wrap tightly for a more dense bread, or softer for a lighter bread.

I forgot to take a picture of the rolling part ;) Here's the after

Place dough in a GREASED loaf pan (or even a deep larger pan for a bigger loaf)

Brush the top of the loaf with oil

(sometimes I spray the olive oil pam instead)

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 2 - 12 hours.

The longest I've been able to wait is 3 hours, so let me know what happens if you make it to 12 hours!

After taking out of the fridge, Use a knife and make 4-5 impressions on the top of loaf diagonally

Place in oven at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes. The top will get very brown pretty fast, but the inside wont be done quite yet, so I usually put some foil over the top so the top of the loaf doesnt get burnt!!

And now get a big glass of milk and slice the bread! ;)