If your idea of home cooking is heating up a frozen dinner in the microwave, then this might not be for you. But, if you’re ready to take a chance and try something new – please read on.
Learning to make homemade bread is more than just understanding instructions and following a recipe. For me, it was a lesson in patience and humility. There are no commercial breaks or television production edits to make everything look smooth and easy. It’s just you, the ingredients and time. Lots and lots of time, so let’s get started!
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Prep Time: 3 hours
Cook time: 45 minutes
Find out what's happening in Mission Viejofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Ingredients:
o ¾ warm water
o 1 pkg. active dry yeast
o 1 tsp. sea salt
o ¼ cup Karo Syrup
o 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
o ½ cup evaporated milk
o 3 cups unbleached Artisan Flour
o 1 rounded tsp. baking powder
In a small bowl, add warm water, Karo syrup and yeast. Stir slowly until blended, then set aside and let yeast ‘proof’ for about 10-15 minutes. There will be a frothy foam on top, when the yeast mixture is ready. (no foam means that the water was either too hot or too cold – approximately 110*) While yeast is in the proofing stage, get a large bowl and mix together your dry ingredients. Once your yeast mixture is foamy, add in your evaporated milk, and vegetable oil, then pour into larger bowl with the dry ingredients. Blend well until dough forms, adding extra flour as needed if dough is too sticky. Next, turn dough out onto floured board and knead, adding spoonfuls of flour as needed, until dough is smooth. (about 7-8 minutes of kneading) Place smooth ball of dough into greased bowl, turn to make sure dough is greased on all surfaces. Cover and let rise in a warm spot for 1 hour. After an hour, dough should’ve doubled in size. At this point, punch the dough down, place on board and knead a second time, but for only about 30 seconds. Then, form into loaf and set inside greased bread pan. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. While the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 375*. After 30 minutes, remove the cover and score the top of the loaf by cutting a slash down the middle or diagonally, with a sharp knife. Put in 375* oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. Once you remove the bread, while it’s still hot and in the pan, brush top and edges with melted butter, and let it sit for about 2-3 minutes prior to removing the loaf and placing onto cooling rack.
So, is baking bread an Art or a Science? I’ll let you decide.
And as always . . . Nosh with panache!
