My Go To Sandwich Bread

I hope i haven't already posted this bread, but since i've made it at least 5 times now, it's high time that i write down the recipe for you.

I've posted about the delicious onion/herb bread that i've made from "Mary's Bread Basket and Soup Kettle" circa the 1970s that gave me the confidence to bake bread and cut out one more aisle in the grocery store. I didn't love that the bread only went with savory fillings (when used as sandwich bread) or that it was all white and lacking any whole grains. So i moved on to page 34 and tried out this bread. It's versatile in that you can add whatever sweetener you want, and it's been consistently moist and delicious every time i've baked it. It has a nice texture and is perfect for peanut butter toast to salami sammies. I mixed in some oats this time around and am looking forward to seeing what that adds to texture wise. My husband bought me a beautiful book about the 'no knead' technique for my birthday, and i think next time 'round i may try doing a slow ferment instead of the standard hour rise for this recipe. I'm ready to experiment!

Basic Whole Wheat Bread
Taken from Mary Gubser

Ingredients:
2 packages or 4 1/2 teaspoons yeast ( i should probably do the math and convert to tablespoons, but this works for me!)
2 cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons sugar
3 cups unbleached white flour (I use bread flour)
1/2 cup hot water
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup brown sugar, molasses, or honey (or agave nectar)
4-5 cups whole wheat flour

Make the sponge:
Sprinkle yeast over the warm water in a large bowl. By warm, i mean a little bit hot. Mix with a fork or danish dough whisk until yeast is dissolve, then add salt 3 tablespoons sugar and the white flour. Beat this with your danish dough whisk until it's smoothish. Cover with a towel and set in a warm spot until light and bubbly, about an hour. (this is where i may try the 'put it in the fridge over night' trick next time).

Meanwhile
Combine hot water, melted butter and sweetener of choice. Mix and cool until lukewarm. Once the sponge is ready (should have visable popping or puffy bubbles on top) add the sugar mixture and gradually add the flour until you have a soft, workable dough. Turn onto a floured surface (use white flour for the surface and to add while kneading) and knead about 10 minutes, or until the dough bounces right back when a finger is poked into it. Place dough into a warm greased bowl, turn to coat, and cover with plastic and a towel until doubled, about an hour. I like to rest the bowl on the top of a stock pot or canner after something has been heated - in this case some herbal hair rinse. It makes for a warm, moist environment. Once the dough has risen (a finger pressed into the dough will leave an indent this time) turn out onto the counter and knead lightly then let rest covered for about 10 minutes. Set your oven to pre heat soon!
Divide dough into two and work into loaves. Let rise in greasted loaf pans for about 30 minutes. The dough should poof up the sides of the pans. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes and turn onto racks to cool.

VOILA!
I lined the pans with oats to help release the loaves. Looks pretty too. My hubby will be happy to have fresh bread at work for his sandwiches, and i may just steal half a loaf myself for occasional decadent snackage. I like to slice then freeze these loaves A. to keep my hands off and B. to extended shelf life.

This post can be found at the Barn Hop!

Onion-Herb Bread

I'm really getting this bread baking thing down! With this one recipe, at least. haha.
Thanks again to Mary Gubser, author of "Mary's Bread Basket and Soup Kettle" circa 1970 something. Helpful tips, easy to read recipes, confidence building all around!

One tip she stresses is that no bread recipe can possible call for the exact amount of flour you'll need. All flours absorb different amounts of liquid, so you'll just have to get a 'feel' for how dough is supposed to stretch, etc and when you're done adding flour. I added about a cup less than she recommended, and i'm pretty sure it was behaving properly.

Two things i did differently that helped my success:

• I have a new meat thermometer that is, gasp ACCURATE. Plus it comes with a handy booklet that recommended adding water a temp of 100 or so degrees to activate the yeast. This is much 'warmer' than the warm water i've been adding to my previous bread attempts.
• I canned some chicken stock in the morning, and used the empty (save the inch of warm water) but still warm and humid pressure canner to do my incubating. That was some happy, rising dough!

Onion and Herb Bread, Adapted from Mary Gubser

• 1 package active dry yeast (I believe that's 2 1/2 T)
• 1 1/4 Cup warm water - I used half whey/ half water
• 1 tsp powdered chicken stock - I used no sodium stock
• 1/4 Cup hot water - i used all whey (note: i think whey acts different than water, producing a denser bread perhaps? Next time, i will use all water and see if it makes a flavor/texture change)
• 1 1/2 T sugar
• 1/4 Cup oil
• Several T fresh, chopped herbs. I used rosemary, oregano, dried basil, sage
• 1 multiplying onion with greens, chopped. Could use chives or scallions.
• 1/4 t salt
• 4-5 Cups flour - I used about 3.5 cups, a mixture of all purpose and bread flour

Combine yeast with warm water and dissolve. In small bowl, blend powdered chicken stock and hot water. Add the sugar, dissolved stock, and oil to the yeast. Beat in 1.5 cups flour until smooth. Stir in herbs and onions and gradually add in enough flour to make a workable dough. Turn out onto floured surface and knead about 10 minutes until smooth and satiny. Round into a ball and place in a warm, greased bowl. Cover loosely in plastic wrap and a towel and set in a warm, protected spot to double - about 1 hour.
Punch down, knead on floured surface about 3 minutes, cover and let rest 10 minutes. Shape into a greased loaf pan and let rise to the tops of the pan, about 40 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes until over 190 degrees inside.

Makes a great egg salad sandwich!

Bread Attempt #3: WOO HOO! Total Bread Success!!!

I've finally done it! I've succeeded at baking a loaf of light and fluffy bread. Granted, it's not as salty or flavorful as it could be as i didn't have the sodium packed chicken boullion the recipe called for, but it's pretty darn tasty, just the right texture and is going to make some amazing egg salad sandwiches!

I picked up this book at a local book store about a year ago. I've tabbed a lot of soup and bread recipes i've wanted to try, but my repeated bread failure made me hesitant to try my hand at any of her yummy sounding recipes. These recipes are not fancy. They're not new fangled. They're just good, basic and interesting sounding breads and soups. After my success today, i'm willing to say this was one of the best $1s i've ever spent. Way to go, books from 1974! While working on the bread i thumbed to the beginning of the book where i hoped there would be, and was happy to find, a section on how to knead, what to expect during rising, and other basic tips (like put the rising dough in a WARM greased bowl and where to and where not to put it to be cozy and rising.)

Everything went like clock work, i learned how to knead, and i used up some of the whey from my failed attempt at mozz the other day to make a delightful loaf of bread, plus a bonus loaflet ( i halved her recipe .)

Woah! Totally doubled! Finally!

 I like not failing. I enjoy succeeding. I WILL i WILL i WILL be able to be a proper homemaker and make loaves of bread for pennies a loaf (without any weird preservatives!).

Attempt at Bread #2 = SUCCESS!

Last night i started out this bread, and i did it right! I awoke to this in the fridge, and continued following my friend's recipe, with minimal mistakes. Here's how i did:
I did the sponge correctly this time, and woke up with it looking like this:

It's supposed to look like this! Yay!

OMG, this mixer is so awesome. How did i live without one?

The mixer really made mixing up the dough easy and efficient.

 On second thought, I either need to find a manual for this, or get some instruction....... i don't think the dough is supposed to climb up and clog the beaters....

I had to wash my hands to take this photo: this dough was SUPER sticky and globbed all over myself while kneading, even when i added flour. I finally got it to a decent consistency. Not sure if this is normal or if i had my water to flour ratio a bit off.

 Has it risen? Hard to say.... oh, and i remember my friend said to cover with plastic wrap, i've been using a towel.... am i in for failure once again?

A nearly indecipherable difference, it had in fact risen.

I have hope! It stretches and acts much more 'alive' than my previous attempt, and has definitely risen at least SOME.

On with some saran wrap AND a towel and back into the cozy warm lit oven for another hour.

Woo hoo! Not only did it rise, it actually rose to 'poofing above the pan' as it was supposed to! Maybe not as much as it COULD have risen, but i'm pleased.

And how does it look 45 minutes at 350 degrees later?

Up to temperature! Gorgeous! Delicious!
My first successful loaf of bread! A new world has opened up to me. Now i'll start experimenting with adding things to this loaf ( i added some sunflower seeds this go round ) and then start looking for a new recipe using this same 'starter sponge' technique. I like the technique and the proofing in the fridge, but i'd like a more interesting loaf. Maybe oatmeal? More grains? Veggies added?  Feel free to email me your favorite recipes. But please include 'how to' tips, as i'm by no means a pro!

Bread = Fail

I'm not sure what it is about me, my house, and bread making - but i'm just no good at it! I rock muffins, quick breads, pancakes, you name it - but yeasty leavened bread just dosn't work for me. I can never get the stuff to rise at ALL much less double, and the resultant bread is always tasty, but dense and overly nutritious.

My friend Heather was recently nice enough to send me a well photographed 'how to' to baking a simple sandwich bread from The Bread Bible. Simple.
Fail.

I followed all the steps, but messed up the first one pretty majorly, don't have a mixer, and don't know how to knead. This was what went into the oven: an unrisen lump of dough:

blurry photos are lame.

I guess it's a good thing that i'm no good at baking bread, cuz homemade bread is really delicious and i end up eating gobs of it at 11:30 pm slathered in honey, peanut butter, cheese, or hot sauce - none of these are good for the waistline when you spend your days sitting at a drafting table, drawing cute things.  It would be nice to save money on bread though - so feel free to send me your fool proof multigrain bread recipes. For now, i'll stick to my recently made muffins and try some cool variations. I have some cranberries in the freezer and the jalapeno plants are falling over with fruit. Jalapeno muffins anyone?