I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't get much better than a slice of freshly baked bread. Very rarely do I ever close my eyes and sigh with satisfaction while eating anything, but this week I made some bread that generated such a reaction. Ben LOVES bread, and his mom spoiled him by making homemade bread nearly his whole life. I don't have the patience to make bread unless I can use my stand mixer to knead it or else the breadmaker. I actually started this bread in the breadmaker with the intent of shaping it into loaves once the dough was made, but it was just too much flour for the breadmaker to handle, so I ended up having to take it out and finish it in my mixer. I also modified the recipe slightly, but the base recipe comes from The Basics and More Cookbook. It was so good that I want to share it with you.
Light Wheat Bread
2 T. yeast
2 C. warm water
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. honey
1/4 C. vegetable oil
2 tsp. salt
1/3 C. potato flakes (this keeps the bread soft like a dough enhancer would)
5 C. white flour
1 C. wheat flour
Combine warm water, sugar, honey, oil and yeast. Combine flour, salt and potato flakes in mixer. Add wet ingredients, stirring with paddle attachment until thoroughly blended and dough doesn't stick to the side of the bowl. If needed add a little more water or flour to get the right consistency. Switch to dough-hook and knead dough on low speed for 7-8 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, you can knead it by hand but you have to knead it for the full 7-8 minutes or it just won't be the same. Let rise twice in warm place until double. The first time punch the dough down. The second time, gently place the dough on a cutting board and divide equally into 3 parts. Grease 3 bread pans and gently shape dough into the loaf pans. If you do this right, the dough will retain quite a bit of the air once it is in the pan. Let the dough rise in the pans until it peeks over the top and then bake at 325 for 10 minutes and 300 for 25 minutes. Of course, you should have a piece the second it comes out of the oven!
Enjoy!
2 comments:
There must be something about fresh bread, you're right! I love it, and Kris LOVES it even more I think. He gets so excited when I make French bread (the recipe from the Owens Family Cookbook) just because it's SOOO cymmy wih lots of salty butter, right out of the oven. OOh, I'm making myself hungry! OK, off to take the little squirt to church! Give the family hugs for me!
Sounds wonderful. I'll have to copy this one and try it sometime when I actually have a kitchen. Let me know if you have any success adding more wheat than white, though.
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