Bread

[mnjrutherford]

1976 huh? I remember that year! Spent 4th of July in San Francisco and we couldn't see the fireworks because of the fog! That was the Bicentennial. Remember?

You gonna try the "Bread of Joy"? That's pretty easy but I never measure anything so here's an approximate recipe.

1/2 c. bread flour
2 T. olive oil
4 pinches salt
Mash together with a fork. When crumbly, add:
1/4 c. very hot or boiling water
Blend with fork until it's mostly wet. Turn out on to work surface and knead until very smooth. You may need to add a bit more flour. When smooth, form into a ball, turn the bowl over on top of the ball and allow to rest at least 15 minutes. (For the original bread this was when the ladies of the house went to pack!!! ;o)

After resting, remove the bowl and sprinkle the area and the dough ball with flour. Start heating a skillet (mine is 12") on high with a generous portion of olive oil. Roll the dough into a circle about 10". Place in hot skillet. Turn after about 30 seconds. Now it's really cooking. Turn slowly and press gently with a spatula to make sure it's cooking evenly. You may get bubble, some bigger than others, don't worry, just push them down. They will come back and that's ok. When the first side is nice and brown, lift it up and throw a tablespoon or 2 of sesame seeds down then turn the bread over on top of them. When the second side is brown, pour over 1/4 to 1/2 c. of honey. It should bubble like crazy. Turn the bread over a couple times in the honey. When the honey and seeds are mostly on the bread rather than in the skillet, remove the bread to an oiled dish. Allow to cool 10 minutes or read a chapter from the bible. Then munch and think of all the wonders of the earth! Well, you don't have to get so "religious" about it, that's a me thing. ;o)

[fulenn]

Thanks for the recipe, MNJ. I will probably have to wait until next weekend to try it and the ones the that Pug posted. I'm still waiting for the Caramelized Onion Semolina Batard Bread recipe. That sounds good, too! Until summer gets here, I'm limited to just 1 or 2 new recipes per week. But when it gets here, maybe 5-6 per week-- ;D

Fulenn

[fulenn]

Okay, I didn't get to making bread for breakfast, but the Pan de Muerto is in the oven right now. We have 8 minutes left on the timer and the glaze is in the pan ready to cook.

I strongly recommend that everyone on here stop what they are doing and go make some bread. You will be glad.

Fulenn

[sphinxeyes]

Great! Let me know how it turns out.

[mnjrutherford]

Way cool Fulenn!! Can you eat and type simultaneously? ;o)

[fulenn]

Apr 19, 2009 19:02:52 GMT -5 mnjrutherford said:

Way cool Fulenn!! Can you eat and type simultaneously? ;o)

Nope! Boy, this is good. Thanks so much for posting this. I'll try another one next week and then the week after, too. Sooo good. We just made two oval loaves and one is already gone.

Hope the other makes it to breakfast. All but one of us loves the orange glaze, the other prefers the bread alone. Not too sweet, just right.

Fulenn

[mnjrutherford]

A woman after my own heart! ;o) You go girl!

[Penny]

Recipe sounds great, thanks!

[peapod]

Here are some recipes that I've compiled over the past few months of making all of our bread at home now. CMike I think even you could whip up some yummy bread in an instant.

3 C of luke warm water
1 1/2 TB of Bread Yeast
1 1/2 TB of course salt ( kosher or the like)
6 1/2 Cups or Unbleached white flour. You can mix it up too.
You make it 5 1/2 cups of Unbleached flour and 1C of Whole Wheat or Rye or what your liking is.

Mix all of this in order in a big enough container to hold it. I use a rubbermaid shoe box.
just mix it with a wooden spoon and let it rest and rise for 2 hours.

Then when that's done (the rising) you can make the bread then or you can refridgerate it for up to 2 weeks.

Next step. If this is your first attempt at making bread I suggest refridgerating it first it's easier to work with.

Flour the portion of bread that you will be using. We are a family of 3 so we make the loaves a little smaller for practacality.
You have just sprinkled flour of the cold dough and now pull it up and out of the container that it was in. Working kind of quickly form the dough into a round/ oblong ball shape by working the sides under and putting the formed ball on a chopping board or a pizza peel that has been dusted with corn meal. ( I use a cutting board...it works just fine)

Let the dough rise on the board/ peel for 20 minutes. If you are working with room temp dough then turm your oven on to 450 degrees F at this time with a baking stone and a very heavy pan in the oven. I use a broiler pan. You will need the pan for adding water later.

Cold dough let rise 40 minutes. After rising for 20 minutes turn on the oven to 450 degrees F and let it rise for 20 more minutes.

The here is what I do because I have learned from experience. Dust a very large spatula with corn meal or flour on both sides the lift the loaf quickly onto the hot baking stone in the oven and have prepared 1 Cup of hot water to pour into the broiler/ heavy pan in over too.
Put the bread dough on the hot stone and quickly add the 1 C of water to the broiler pan and close the door to the oven immediatly. Let cook for about 30 Minutes.

Let cool on a rack. When completely cool eat it. It makes wonderful toast too.

Here is my carmelized onion addition.

I take about 2-3 onions and saute them in a small amount of butter then I add a bit of brown sugar, salt, pepper and a dash of really good vinegar. Low heat for about 30 -45 minutes until the onions are nice and soft and gooey.

With this mixture you can put it on top of the above bread by taking a dampened thumb and pressing gently into the bread it will form a bowl on the top and add the onion mixture then bake.

Its not the semolina batard bread but close enough. Its great with a good soup or just as a snack.

[mnjrutherford]

VERY similar to some of my recipes. I bake all our bread as well. I think it's a crying shame that kids are brought up never knowing what homemade bread is.

[fulenn]

May 3, 2009 13:22:37 GMT -5 mnjrutherford said:

VERY similar to some of my recipes. I bake all our bread as well. I think it's a crying shame that kids are brought up never knowing what homemade bread is.

When I was a kindergarten teacher, I would bring in wheat, grind it for the children in my grinder, let them help mix it, and bake it in the school oven. Of course, we would have bread for snack-time that day. What was interesting was how many parents asked to come when we had bread-making day; they wanted to learn about it, too.

In Texas, we have full-day kindergarten, so there was plenty of time to rise twice.

Fulenn

[fulenn]

Peapod,

That sounds wonderful! Now I am 3 recipes behind as I didn't get to make bread this weekend.
sigh.

Fulenn

[mnjrutherford]

That's fabulous Fulenn! My youngest made bread with his teacher at the beginning of the year (first grade). Of course he already had a good idea what was going on. They used a bread machine though and that was more fascinating to him!

[michaeljohnson]

Actually-an old seafaring master chef friend of mine, who worked on all the big ocean going liners, told me that for the very best flavour to bread, just use pure sea water as it contains just the right amount of salt and other minerals for perfect bread.