I've always been curious about making bread. I'd never done it. By this I don't mean using a bread-maker either, I mean rolling out dough and putting it on a sheet in the oven. Recently I found King Arthur Flour's 'Easiest loaf of bread you'll ever bake,' and took the plunge earlier this week.
When it comes to bread my wife loves to quote Oprah, so I want to include this gif before moving on.
Who doesn't?
Alright, let's bake.
Ingredients:
4+1/2 cups bread flour + some extra (I used all purpose for sprinkling)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2+1/4 tsp instant yeast (one packet)
2+1/2 tsp salt
1+2/3 cup water, lukewarm (~100 degrees F)
yellow cornmeal
Quick version:
1. Combine measured ingredients (not the cornmeal) in a mixing bowl, mix into shaggy mess
2. Lightly flour countertop, dump out bowl contents
3. Knead dough (pull toward yourself, push down with palms, rotate) until it comes together, is smooth and springy
4. Put dough in greased bowl, cover, let rise and double in size (1-2 hours)
5. Deflate dough and divide in two, make each half ~6"x8"
6. Fold each half like a business letter (1/3 down and 1/3 up) and roll into ~10" log
7. Sprinkle baking sheet with cornmeal, place logs on top, cover with plastic wrap, let rise another 45 minutes
8. Preheat oven to 450 (start ~30m into 45m rise), place cast iron pan inside on low rack
9. Dust dough logs with flour and make diagonal three cuts across tops
10. Bring 1 cup water to boil, or close to it, in microwave, then pour into cast iron in oven
11. Bake for ~20 minutes, done when golden brown and knocking on bottom sounds hollow
12. Let cool a while before cutting and eating
First things first. While the ingredients list is amazingly simple, the actual process of making bread was in actuality a challenge. We already had bread flour and no plan for how to use it, which was a secondary reason to give bread-making a go. I sucked at kneading and am still a little surprised the dough came together at all. This would go considerably easier if our mixer was big enough to handle the 4+ cups of flour. When I do this again I'll probably try to find a way to not do everything by hand, but this time that was all part of the experiment.
If you're unfamiliar with baking, a few tips. Spoon, one scoop at a time, and level, using a butter knife or whatever, when measuring flour. Exactness is a key aspect of baking and you want to be as close as possible. It's not meant to be packed into the measuring cups. Do sprinkle flour on whatever surface you plan to work the dough, because you really don't want it sticking. Same goes for greasing the bowl during the first rise.
As for kneading, that really was a mess. After combining with a wooden spoon in the mixing bowl it was nowhere close to a solid mass. Most of it clung together but a lot of it wouldn't. When first kneading it stayed that way for quite a while as I attempted to pull it all toward myself and mash it down with my hands. Several times I chucked bits of it onto the floor at my feet. That was frustrating to say the least. The King Arthur recipe says that kneading should only take like six minutes. After about 10 I knew I wasn't doing it right. I did have everything in a single ball by that point but it was nowhere close to smooth, with a bunch of big cracks. I ripped that big ball apart and saw the outside and middle were not getting combined well enough. After that I got a better hang of the motion and it continued to get better. After about 20 minutes total, however, it still wasn't as smooth as I figured it would or should be. But at that point I was tired and little afraid I'd overworked the dough so called it good, and was a little uncertain how the rest would go.
I threw the ball in a greased bowl and covered it with a towel and put it in our (not yet turned on) oven, since it is cold in the house. There it stayed until we'd put the boys to bed, three hours later. It probably more than doubled in size, though admittedly I'm not sure. Either way it was pretty puffy by the time I came back. The folding and rolling part was pretty easy compared to everything else. It's good to know that it's just fine to have a big seam along the bottom after rolling. The second rise does make a difference again and they became pretty rounded after another 45 minutes.
The part about adding steam by putting boiling water into a cast iron inside the oven is probably unnecessary, but this time I went for every step. It works out we have a cast iron pan too (two actually). The water goes in at the same time as the dough.
After the dough actually went into the oven, a little over 19 minutes was enough. There are so many recipes out there where the bare minimum time is potentially too long, and I've learned it's good to check before that time. Here the bread was pushing beyond golden brown, though just barely, and did indeed have a hollow sound when knocking on the bottom. After checking that and turning the oven off, the loaves went back into the oven, with the door partially open while it was venting. 5 minutes later I pulled it out for good and let it cool for about an hour before cutting in.
I have to say the bread turned out great. The consistency inside was perfectly even as well as nice and soft. The outside had a nice crispy crunch. It was better than I hoped for, even if the loaves weren't all that pretty to look at. The downside of making bread like this is it doesn't last. You basically need to eat it within two or three days.
But bread-making, even with a super simple ingredient list, wasn't easy. I think I can improve on my kneading, especially if I use a stand mixer. The harder part is probably accounting for the time if you want to follow the rise times strictly. There are two of them, and not for short periods, in addition to the bake time. It'll be good to understand that beforehand and plan better in the future. Plus, now I feel like I could attempt more complex breads too. Maybe.
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