Dough. Bread. Love.

My last post showed off the Pumpkin Apple Oat Bread I made recently. What I didn't say in that post was anything about the process involved in devising my own fancy bread recipe. It's just been in the last month or so that I began to make homemade bread, and I started off with regular un-spruced-up bread.

I give all the credit to my sister, Bethany, who shared her "Easiest Bread Dough Ever" recipe and taught me how to make loaves of wonderfulness. From scratch. In all its glorious FOUR ingredients:

Yeast.
Salt.
Water.
Flour.

Yup. That simple. No eggs, milk, butter, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, additives or preservatives.

And this is how you do it.

Directions:
1. Measure 1 1/2 Tbsp salt and 1 1/2 Tbsp yeast into a large bowl
2. Add 3 cups hot water (about 100 degrees F - this is about the hottest temperature that you can get straight out of the faucet.), and stir until dissolved.
3. Mix in 3 cups of white flour and 3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour. It will be a sticky wet dough that sticks to the sides of the bowl.
4. Cover loosely (such as with a plate, to allow gas to escape) and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 2 weeks.

To elaborate on Step 3: Don't try mixing it with your hands...

...just get a spoon and be persistent. Or, if you're fortunate to have a fabulous mixer like this, it will make the dough-making process a lot faster, easier and less messy! (The white attachment in the middle that looks like a hook is the one to use for mixing bread dough. Quite an amazing invention I'd say.)

To elaborate on Step 4: Once the dough is all mixed up - either through muscular or electrical effort - put a loose cover on the bowl and stick it in the fridge.

When you take it out later (later that day or later that month, whenever you need a fresh loaf of bread!), it will look like this:

All puffed up, pretty much doubled in size. This recipe should make four 1-pound loaves. I usually make 3 slightly larger loaves. As the dough ages in the fridge, it will gain flavor and "richness" - think more sour dough-tasting.

To Bake:
1. Put a baking stone (something like this) in the oven. Place a thin layer of flour on a piece of parchment paper set atop a regular cookie/baking sheet. (Or, if no parchment paper and/or no baking stone, place a thin layer of flour on a section of your counter top, and flour the top of a baking sheet or the inside of a bread pan.)
2. Dust your hands with flour, and cut or pull off a grapefruit-size hunk of dough from the bowl (about 1/3 of the dough).
3. Create a mound out of the dough by folding under the sides a couple times, and set it on the floured parchment paper atop a baking sheet or inside the floured cookie/baking sheet.
4. Allow dough to rise for 40 minutes. (If using a baking stone, place the stone in the oven and set a timer to start preheating the oven at 450 degrees F so that it's ready to go in 40 minutes. The baking stone needs to heat up as the oven heats up; a bread pan or regular cookie/baking sheet doesn't.)
5. Cut slits in the top of the dough to allow the bread to expand.  If using a baking stone, slide the dough and parchment paper off the cookie/baking sheet onto the hot baking stone inside the oven. Otherwise, stick the dough in whatever pan it's in inside the oven.
6. Cook for about 30 minutes at 450 degrees F. (You can take it out early and insert a knife on the underside; when it comes out clean, the bread is done.)
7. Turn loaf out onto a cooling rack. Eat warm if you like or give it some time to cool down. Any bread not eaten right away, once completely cooled, can be stored in a paper bag, with a plastic bag over top, to keep it fresh. Eat within a few days because these babies have no preservatives!

Appreciate the ease of a works-every-time mixer if you have one, but embrace the individuality of each bake you loaf. That's right. Part of the fun of making your own bread is shaping the loaves. The shape is more or less completely out of your control. Give it a whirl, and you'll get a kick out of the various shapes that come into existence of their own accord.

Shape it:

Slice it:

Then name it:

"Cracked Up Laughing Loaf"

"Merry-Go-Round"

"Bone Bread"

"Kissing Sisters"

Besides myriad shape options, there are endless ways to eat bread. Not that you needed me to tell you that! But here are a few pics to get the ball rolling.
With soup:

Creamy Potato Dill Soup

As a sandwich:

Snobby Joe Sandwich

As a late-night snack:

PB&J on Toast

As an anytime snack that is veeeeery addicting:

Bread dipped in Olive Oil & a Spice Blend

As dinner:

Veggie & Herb Pizza

Or as leftovers turned lunch:

Open-Faced Sandwich With Hummus & Last Night's Grilled Veggies

So, while I didn't post as many times as I intended during October - Vegan MOFO (Vegan Month of Food) - I will remember it as the month that I learned to make bread and discovered a plethora of ways to eat it! Good luck to all of you who try making your very own homemade bread!