March 2020

My family calls me the Bread Witch because I whip up bread so easily.  Bread making can intimidate people and is considered a science where you need scales and meticulous care to produce a loaf.

Nope.  It isn’t that hard.

I take a lot of short cuts, like using a bread maker for the mixing and kneading, and my measurements are by eye and experience, not very precise.

As long as you follow the basic principles and use the approximate components, it all comes out okay.

Not that mistakes don’t happen. I can set bread to rise, forget, walk away and hours later come back to popped balloons.

Or jostle the pan too much when moving it to the oven and create a sinking mass of dough.  I always try to peek in the oven a couple of minutes after loading it in, to see if there is wrinkling.  That means it wasn’t treated gently enough and will soon collapse.

Hint- if the corner of the dough looks like the inner thigh of a 62 year old woman who just had surgery on her knee and lost too much weight, in a not very pretty way, the bread is on its way to falling.  Too much info?  It is sad but true.

But all is not lost, just remove it, stretch it, ball it up, reshape it, and let it rise again.  It usually doesn’t take as long for a second raising, so check back. (Or again, walk away for hours and let it happen again, and it can still be salvaged.)

(Just in case you get careless, always start with a clean surface.  I wipe out my microwave before adding the pans to rise, because if the dough flops over the sides, I won't want to save it if there were stray crumbs it fell into)

This is how I make my yeast bread. With stores running out of yeast, I have also began a batch of sourdough starter, and will let you know how that goes.

First, some oil.  I like avocado or olive.  I do not measure, but it is anywhere from 1-3 tablespoons.  Or I can use butter.  Or no fat at all.  Seriously, choices can be made as you go.  Think about the flavor profile.

I use pink Himalayan sea salt.  Or garlic and rosemary salt. Or table salt. About 1-1/2T, a bit more if I want it extra garlicky and I am using flavored salt.

Next, liquid.  I prefer nut milk, but water is fine.  Or regular milk. You can even sub a 1/2 cup of coffee for some of the 2 cups of liquid, or throw an egg in as part of the liquid. Just use two cups total.

See, choices!  Use what you have, or what sounds good.

It is nice to use bread flour, I sometimes do that half and half with regular flour.  Or use all of either kind.  One thing I do not do, is go full on with a specialty flour like whole wheat, sprouted spelt, or almond.  If I want to use one of those, I will add only a third or so of them, because they all tend to make a more dense bread and I prefer mine lighter. 

The cup I use to add flour isn’t exactly true as a measuring cup  it is more like 1-1/4 C.  I use three and a half of those, so let me do some math…about 4-1/3C?  Honestly, some of my scoops are heavier or lighter than others, so, again, I am not exact.
Add 2 or 2-1/2T of fast rise yeast.

I often throw in a handful of chia seeds, ground flax, sunflower seeds, or mashed potato flakes.  
Or honey, but not a handful, that would be sticky.  More like a spoonful or two.

My point is, that bread is not scary. Make it with what you have. 

I mix and knead in the bread maker, On the dough setting, but don’t leave it in the full amount of time.  Unless I forget… still, it isn’t ruined if it grows and pops.  It just needs to have the machine turned on for another minute or so to stir it up again before putting it into the pans.

I prefer mine baked in the oven, not the machine.  So I turn it into oiled pans.  Two small or one bigger.

To proof it (let it rise), I heat a cup of water in the microwave, and turn on the light.  That creates a non drafty, warm environment for the bread to grow.

Leave it about a half hour. 

Check and see if it is tall enough.  Leave it longer if needed. Then bake at 350 for about a half hour.

Remove the loaves from the hot pans right away so the bottom doesn’t get soggy, let the bread cool on a wire rack (I use one I have taken out of the oven)

I was pretty proud of myself for getting a few bags of flour so I’d be able to drop bread off on porches for family members. But I didn’t realize I was low on yeast, so am going to experiment with sourdough during this time of making do.  

I haven’t done that before, and it might be a learning curve. But bread isn’t rocket science, it just takes trial and error. And a house that smells like hot, fresh bread is worth the effort.