basic bread - with options

Making bread is a LOT easier than you think. When you only do it once or twice a year, it seems like a big deal. But it's really less work than making cookies. It's just you have to be home for several hours to do it, but it fits in with doing housework or other chores around the house.

I spent about a year baking bread weekly and reading about bread in order to develop this recipe. By the time that year was up, I thought of baking bread as a very simple exercise.

The temperature of the liquid ingredients is critical; you want them warm enough to encourage yeast growth, but not hot enough to kill the yeast. I find my hot tap water is just about right.

We find this tastes much better when made from hard white wheat rather than hard red wheat. It takes about 1 1/2 hopperfuls of wheat ground to make a batch of bread. Alternatively, you can use whole wheat bread flour from the store, but it won't be quite as good - freshly ground wheat is much more flavorful

The rising of bread is critical to produce a light texture rather than a heavy one. However, if you let it overrise, it can fall during baking. So keep an eye on it and if it does rise too much, punch it down and let it rise again.

The very first time you make bread, it's actually better to use white flour rather than whole wheat. When a dough made with white flour is kneaded properly, it gets very shiny. After you've done that a time or two, you will know how it feels when the gluten is developed, which makes it easier to tell when the whole wheat loaf is kneaded enough. It's very important to knead *just* enough as over-kneading causes the bread to be tough.

If using all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, it'd be good to add some gluten. Otherwise, the rbead won't be as light.

ingredients

1 TB sugar
2 3/4 cup warm water, divided
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 tsp lite salt
pinch of baking soda
8-10 cups of freshly-ground whole wheat flour, divided

method

Proof yeast:: In very large bowl, dissolve sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Sprinkle yeast on top. Allow to sit for a few minutes while you follow the next two steps to make sure yeast is active.
Prepare liquid:: In 4-cup measuring cup, melt butter. Add 2 1/4 cup warm water, honey, egg, salt and baking soda.
Prepare baking items:: Butter a large bowl and 3 large loaf pans.
Mix dough:: Pour liquid ingredients into proofed yeast, then add 5 cups of the flour. Mix with clean hands thoroughly. Add additional flour 1/2 cup at a time and mix in. Continue adding flour just until dough comes together and doesn't stick to the side of bowl. It's better to add as little as possible so the resulting bread will have a moist texture.
Knead dough:: Place dough on a lightly-floured wooden cutting board. Plunge your hands into the flour container to lightly dust them and begin kneading. Try to add as little flour as possible during the kneading process. Knead for 5 - 10 minutes. You want to knead until the gluten is well-developed, but do not over-knead or the bread will be tough. Knead just until the loaf is smooth and elastic.
First rising:: Place dough in buttered bowl, turning several times so dough ball is lightly greased. Cover with moist dishcloth and place in a draft-free location. Allow to rise until double in bulk. Time depends on ambient temperature, in sweltering summer heat, it may rise in as little as 45 minutes; in winter, it may take up to 2 hours.
Shape dough:: Punch down dough ball in bowl. Break into 3 pieces and roll each out into a rectangle just longer than your bread pans. Gently roll up into a cylinder (try not to tear the dough). Place it into bread pan, seam side down, folding under overhanging edges of cylinder. Once all loaves are in pans, gently press down loaves so they reach the corners of pan.
Second rising:: Cover loaves with damp dishcloths and place on top of stove. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. The oven heat will decrease the time needed for the second rising. You want it to rise until the loaves completely fill the pans and then some - the dishcloths will be raised about an inch off the pans.
Bake:: Place loaves in oven. After 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350. After 50 minutes, remove a loaf from the an to test. When you knock on the bottom of the loaf, it should sound hollow when it's done.
Store:: Cool loaves on racks completely before storing. Wrap in plastic wrap and store one loaf on counter, one in fridge and one in freezer. This bread doesn't keep real long because there's no preservatives in it. Do not slice in advance as it dries out too much if you do.

Options to basic recipe:

Add 1 cup powdered milk before adding flour to add protein. Bread won't crust as well and won't keep as well, but has a pleasing taste.
Use water leftover from boiling potatoes instead of tap water to make potato bread.
Increase eggs to 6 when the hens are laying well to make a very rich bread.
Add 1 cup warm mashed fruit or vegetable to liquid ingredients. This is a good way to use up leftovers.
Add 2 cups steel-cut oats before adding flour and let soak for about 5 minutes before adding flour to make oat bread.
Replace up to two cups of wheat flour with any other type of flour: cornmeal, oat flour, rye flour. Dough will rise a bit slower, but the bread will keep a bit better.
Replace honey with maple syrup or black-strap molasses for a different taste, which is pretty strong-flavored.
Form one third of the dough ball into rolls and bake on an oiled cookie sheet. Rolls get eaten faster than bread around here. I suspect some people (Steve) are a bit lazy about slicing bread whereas they can just grab a roll.
To make a cinnamon breakfast roll: roll out one third of dough thinly to a very large rectangle. Cover the rectangle liberally with melted butter, cinnamon and sugar. Roll up rectangle into a cylinder and bake on an oiled cookie sheet.