Baking with Berry: Bread recipes.

[Berry Cool]

By demand of at least one person, here is one of a couple of bread recipes I've made that have turned out great. They are both from the February 1998 issue of Good Housekeeping, although some of the comments are mine. The other will follow later.

Sounds like a lot of work, but you actually have lots of time in between while you wait for rising and so on--and does it make great bread!

FARMHOUSE WHITE BREAD
(makes two loaves, about 12 servings each)

TIMING: Keep in mind that you will need to prepare the sponge starter 15 to 24 hours before mixing the dough and 5 to 17 hours of rising time before baking.

Sponge Starter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Dough
3/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp salt
about 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1. Prepare the sponge starter: Into large bowl, measure flour, yeast and 1 1/3 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees. Make sure it's very warm but not hot--you don't want to kill the yeast but you don't want it not to get into action either). With mixer at low speed, beat 3 minutes to develop a smooth, elastic batter (yes, it will stick to your beaters a bit so do what you can to scrape it off as much as possible). Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate starter between 15 and 24 hours. (It's ready to use when it's thinned out slightly, the volume has tripled and small bubbles appear on the surface that show the yeast is working.)

2. When starter is ready, let it stand, covered, 30 minutes at room temperature before using. In the meantime, start preparing the dough: into a very large bowl, measure 1 cup warm water (again, very warm but not hot); stir in yeast and sugar and let stand until the mixture foams slightly, about 10 minutes.

3. Add starter to the yeast mixture in the very large bowl, breaking up the starter with your hand (the mixture will not be completely blended. Also, if the starter has really long stringy fibers in it when you pull it apart to break it up, this is good--those are gluten fibers, that's what you want. May not be what Keith wants, but it's what you want). Stir in the salt and 3 cups of the flour. With a floured hand, knead to combine in bowl.

4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it until it's smooth and elastic, about 10 to 12 minutes, working in about 1/3 cup more flour while kneading if necessary. (If you don't know how to knead bread, find a video of it on YouTube and watch carefully. It's not that hard once you get the principle. Remember not to overknead or you make the dough tough. Also, remember the goal is to get dough that stretches and pulls, not dough that breaks. You want those gluten fibers to be looooong. If the dough gets too dry, add a little water; if it gets too wet and sticky, add a little flour, and knead until all is nice and smooth. As they say on the videos, when you can poke two fingertips in it and the indents stay, the kneading is done.)

5. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a greased large bowl (you can use the same one as you just used, if you grease it), turning the ball over to grease the top. Cover and let rise in warm place (80 to 85 degrees) until doubled, about 1 hour. (In the winter, anyway, I like to put mine right next to the living room wall heating unit and turn it on so it blasts the dough without blowing off the cover. Who knows, in the summer I might put it out on the deck. Use your local climatology as it permits.)

6. Punch down the dough. (Again, if you don't know how to punch down, YouTube is your friend.) Shape it into a ball in the bowl. Cover it and let it rise again until doubled, about 1 hour.

7. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and cut in half; cover and let rest 15 minutes for easier shaping. Sprinkle large cookie sheet with flour.

8. Shape each half of dough into a 7-inch round loaf. Place loaves, about 3 inches apart, in opposite corners on cookie sheet. Cover and let rise in refrigerator at least 3 or up to 15 hours.

9. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Remove loaves from fridge. With sharp knife, cut 2 parallel lines, 1 1/2 inches apart, on top of each loaf, then cut 2 more, perpendicular to the first, tic-tac-toe style.

10. Place 12 ice cubes in a metal baking pan (13 x 9 inches or so). Place the pan with the ice cubes in the bottom of the oven. Bake the loaves on the middle rack for 10 minutes. Turn the oven to 400 degrees and bake 15 minutes longer or until loaves are golden brown. Cool loaves on wire rack.

To store bread before use, keep it in a paper bag and do not refrigerate it if you can help it (it will actually spoil more quickly if you refrigerate it or put it in a plastic bag). If you need to keep it longer than a few days, wrap slices of it in zipper bags or foil and freeze it, then thaw as necessary to use. It will stay nice and fresh! If you can't eat it hot but want to reheat it before eating, do so in the oven--microwaving it will make it gummy.

[ralps]

1. Thanks Berry Cool!

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