Ingredients:
4 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons of dry active yeast (yes that is a lot of yeast)
1 3/4 cups warm water (between 100 and 110 degrees F)
1.5 teaspoons of salt
2-3 tablespoons of butter melted
The afternoon or evening before you want to bake bread,
Combine 1 cup of the flour, 1 cup of water and the yeast to form a thick batter. It will get bubbly within an hour or so. If it does not, the yeast may have failed. Cover and let sit on the counter for 12-18 hours.
The next day:
Add the remaining 3 cups of bread flour, salt and melted butter. Start mixing, slowly adding about 3/4 of a cup of additional water to form a stiff dough. I do this on the stand mixer with the dough-hook running on slow. You are looking for the dough to pick up the flour and pull away from the sides of the bowl. If it is sticking to the sides of the bowl, dust in a teaspoon or two of additional flour. Knead on medium low, about 9 minutes.
Cover and allow to rise for 60-120 minutes.
Form into a loaf, you can split this for two baguette style loafs or form it into one large loaf as I did above.
Slash the top with a razor, (I keep an exacto knife (scalpel) in the kitchen just for this use.)
Cover and allow to rise for 60-90 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
I am baking this on a pizza stone, with a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil under it.
Bake about 35 minutes, it will sound hollow when thumped on the top and bottom when done.
Cool on a rack for about an hour, before slicing. If you cut into it too soon, it will not cut well and it will dry out in a matter of minutes. This is best when still warm. It keeps 2-3 days, but drys out fast, other than the salt there are no preservatives in it.
Bread porn!
ReplyDeleteWill Jay
So tasty
DeleteSlice a piece with some buttah for me dear! Looks tasty!!!!!
ReplyDeleteNice Irish Butter in this house.
DeleteThe recipe reads well to me, aside from so much yeast. Good bread is not meant to last more than a couple of days.
ReplyDeleteTry it with less yeast.
DeleteThat’s a beauty. What language were you speaking after the word Ingredients?
ReplyDeleteGibberish. You could learn, it is easy, and can be fun.
DeleteIt's the ancient cooking language of our people, ya know, before the eminently superior metric system and measuring by weight was invented. We're backward, but at least we're miserable.
DeleteThat looks dee-lish! I need a thick slice this morning.
ReplyDeleteToasted or untoasted?
DeleteIt looks wonderful! Well done, Mr Bread Baker!
ReplyDeleteIt tasted great.
DeleteThat's a good looking loaf of bread and I bet it smelled great while baking and cooling. I love the smell of bread baking.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful smell.
DeleteOh my...the aroma of freshly baked bread. That's a beautiful loaf. Some people get very artistic when they score their bread loaves.
ReplyDeleteTaste and smell are always most important for me.
DeleteYou certainly know how to bake bread. I've never wanted to do that.
ReplyDeleteIt is part of my nesting or hibernation mode.
Delete