Baking Bread

Not many things smell better than baking bread, IMO.















Once a week I make a big lump of dough and freeze it so I can have fresh bread whenever I want it, given 2 hours notice.

This is a photo of the bag of white flour. It's the basic recipe I use for bread, pizza, buns, whatever...



















Here is my adapted recipe:

Basic Bread Dough Recipe

2 cups warm water*
2 tbs active dry yeast
mix together and set aside while you mix the dry ingredients:

4 cups Bob's Red Mill Unbleached White Flour
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour
2 tbs sugar
2 tsp salt

Wisk together dry ingredients then add warm water and yeast and 4 tbs olive oil.

Knead until you have a smooth, elastic ball. Add more flour if necessary.

Put ball in an lightly oiled bowl and cover with a towel. Put it in a warm place for about 1 hour or until it doubles in size.
Punch down dough and knead about 5 minutes to remove all the air.
Split the dough into 4 lumps and freeze individually in ziplocks or other freezer safe containers.

I like to bake one of these in a small loaf pan, it makes enough for the two of us to have bread with dinner and a couple of sandwiches or toast the next day.

Three bags of dough ready for the freezer and one small loaf of rosemary/olive bread ready to bake
















Today I made a Rosemary/Olive loaf by kneading 1 tsp ground rosemary and about 2 tbs chopped green olives into one of the 4 lumps of dough. I baked it in a greased pan at 350F for 45 minutes.






* Water should be warm to the touch but not turn your skin red, approx 105-115F. Just a bit warmer than your body temperature. Most people's hot water from the tap is 140F.