I just want a simple basic bread recipe.
So I got out a bread book I have – Beard on Bread by James Beard. The first recipe is basic white bread. Already vegan, too. Sold. No need to look any farther.
It was so simple and it’s really delicious. Just a yummy fluffy basic white bread. A perfect Monday evening, too.
I obviously couldn’t wait until I had sunlight to carve into it, so I have only-part-of-the-loaf-was-left-by-the-time-the-sun-came-up pics. 🙂 Yummy!
serves 8 (for thick slices like in the picture – but it is super easy to slice thinly, too! You can easily get 16 slices out of this.)
from Beard on Bread
1 1/4 C warm water
1 packet active dry yeast
2 t sugar
4 C all-purpose flour
1 T salt
oil/margarine/cooking spray for greasing things
Mix 1/2 C of the warm water, yeast, and sugar together in a small bowl and let it sit until the yeast “proofs.” That means you wait until it gets fizzy and bubbly on the top. If you aren’t sure if it’s happened yet, then it has not. You’ll know it when you see it. If it doesn’t happen after a good 10 minutes, your yeast is dead. You need new yeast, repeat this step, and then keep going!
Meanwhile, mix 3 3/4 C of the flour and the salt in a large bowl. Spread the remaining 1/4 C flour on a cutting board or very clean counter to knead the bread on. Add the rest of the warm water and the yeast mixture (after it has proofed!), and stir it up with your hands. It will be fairly sticky, but you don’t want it so sticky that it is hard to move from the bowl to the counter. Add more flour if necessary. Get it on the counter and knead it. The book says it will take anywhere from 4-10 minutes. I think it only took me close to 4 minutes. You want the dough to be smooth – no little bumps or knots. Again, you’ll know it when you see it.
When it’s done, get a bowl ready to let the dough rise. Grease the bowl with oil, margarine, or cooking spray. I used a little olive oil. Put the ball of dough in the bottom, and spin it around in the bowl so that the dough is covered in oil too. Cover with a kitchen towel and set aside to rise for about an hour. I put mine in my oven (which was completely off!) The dough should double in size before you keep working.
Take the bread out, knead it again for several minutes, then put it in a greased loaf pan. I sprayed my loaf pan with cooking spray. Cover with a kitchen towel again, and let it double in size again. This time it seemed to happen pretty quickly. The book says anywhere from 40 – 75 minutes. I could tell mine was doubled because it was starting to push the kitchen towel up over a little lump!
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, add some slices to the top of your bread if you want, and brush cold water on top of it. Bake until golden brown! It will sound hollow when you knock on top of it too! Flip it out of the loaf pan onto a cooling rack and try as hard as possible to let it cool a little before slicing (Instagramming a picture of it distracted me!)
There you go. Simple, perfect, homemade bread.
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