That’s right! Four styles of breads from one bread recipe. There is something immensely pleasurable about the smell taste and texture of home baked bread that you just don’t get from the mass produced sliced loaves in the store. We have been making bread on and off for a few years but since I left my last job we haven’t bought bread at the store, choosing to make it ourselves. It doesn’t have to be complicated. This bread is a straight forward but can be added to to give it a twist.
Keep it in the family
The bread recipe here is a modification of my husband’s family recipe. The modifications were part intentional and part happy accident. Either way, this makes a delicious bread. Of course at the moment flour and yeast can be hard to find. In fact we have been experimenting with using different yeasts to make bread. More on that later. First, let’s get started with the basic bread recipe.
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Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups white flour
- 3 cups wholemeal bread flour
- 1/2 cup flour for dusting
- 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
- 3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon salt
- 3 cups warm water (approx 40C)
Sweet filling & icing
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2-3 tsp cinnamon
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1/2 cup cream cheese
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Savory filling
- 1/4 cup butter
- salt & pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped herbs (chives, parsley, cilantro)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
Utensils
- large bowl or stand mixer, mixer bowl, mixing paddle and dough hook
- cup and tablespoon measures
- wooden spoon
- clean, damp tea towel
- rolling pin
- loaf pan
- baking tray
- parchment paper
- Measuring jug
- sharp knife
- oven gloves
One batch of dough from the recipe above will make 3 loaves. I made the dough twice. Once using my stand mixer as I usually do and once by hand. In the method that follows, I’ll give instructions for both but if you have a stand mixer, I highly recommend it. I have a Kitchen Aid mixer (Amazon link here: KitchenAid KSM150PSMY Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixer, Majestic Yellow
) and get consistent results every time and a lot less mess. I also use it for cakes, pastry, grinding meat, making sausages and grinding grains for flour.
Method
- In your mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, mix the yeast with the water, oil and sugar. Stir to combine and let stand for a few minutes until bubbles start to form.
- Stir in the salt.
- Add the flour a little at a time with the mixing paddle on the stir/low setting or stir with a wooden spoon.
- Stand Mixer only: after you have added 4 cups of flour, switch to the dough hook. This is a lot easier than trying to do it after all the flour is added.
- Once all the four has been added, you need to knead your dough.
- Stand Mixer only: with the dough hook still in place, turn the speed up one level and let the mixer run for 5 minutes or until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl and “climbing” to the top of the dough hook.
- Hand method only: flour your hands and start to knead the dough using a folding motion. The dough is going to be sticky. This is why there are no photos – my hands got too messy to use the camera! I l knead my dough in the bowl at this stage but you can turn it out onto a floured surface to knead if that is easier. By hand you should knead for about 10 mins. To knead, grab one edge of the dough pull it up and fold it into the main body of dough and repeat. I rotate my dough as I go to make sure it all gets kneaded. The dough should get smoother, silkier and more elastic as you knead.
- The dough should be well combined, smoother and slightly elastic. Once you get to this stage, it needs to rise. I leave my dough in the original bowl (saves washing up!) but you can turn it into a clean, oiled bowl to rise.
- Cover the bowl with a clean, damp tea towel in a warm place, away from draughts and let rise until the dough has doubled in size.
- Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. It should be spongy and full of air
- Knead gently for a few minutes to knock the air out of the dough.
Dough variations
When making the dough you can change things up by using all white four or all wholemeal flour. If my husband has been brewing we dry and grind up the spent grain which has a lovely, toasty, malty beer flavour and substitute one or two ups pf flour for the equivalent spent grain.
Use melted butter instead of oil. Using oil is one of the modifications we made to the original recipe that uses butter. We just find using oil easier.
If you are kneading by hand, add less water. The original recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of water but I accidentally put in 3 and got good results so have continued, however, less water in the mix will make it easier to knead by hand. See what works for you.
You can also add some herbs or spices to the dough at the mixing stage: garlic powder, mustard, black pepper, chili powder, cumin are just a few options.
The different breads
So far, we have made the dough. Now I’ll tell you about the different breads. Spoiler alert! There are actually more than 4 variations but I’ve only photographed four.
Plain loaf
This is the easiest. Line a loaf tin or a flat tray with parchment paper. Cut of 1/3 of your dough. If you want to be really accurate you can do it by weight.
- Shape the dough into a roll that will fit comfortably into the bottom of the loaf tin or on the tray.
- Lay it gently in the tin/tray and cover again with a damp tea towel.
- Leave it in a warm place to rise again. It will take about 30 mins to a hour for it to have doubled in size.
- While the bread is rising, preheat the oven to 450F/230C.
- When bread has risen, put in in the oven on a middle shelf and immediately turn the heat down to 350F/175C. Cook for approximately 30 mins or until the top is browned and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap the bottom
Garlic and herb tear and share
This is a delicious accompaniment to a meal or as a snack. You can try many different combinations of herbs and spices or some pesto or sun dried tomato paste. It’s possible to use dried herbs but fresh is best. If you are going to use dried herbs, I recommend you soak them in a small amount of water to soften them so they don’t give a gritty texture to the bread.
- Soften butter and stir in garlic and herbs. The butter should be easily spreadable but not liquid or it will run out and make a mess.
- Roll out 1/3 of the dough to about 1/4 inch thick and roughly rectangular.
- Sread filling all over the bread, not quite to the edges
- Starting on a long side of the rectangle, roll up the dough. Rest the roll so it sits on the final edge. This will help keep it in place.
- Use a sharp knife cut the roll into 1 inch (2.5-3 cm) pieces.
- Lay pieces cut side down on a baking tray so that they are close but not touching.
- Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise until doubled in size
- Bake in the oven at 350F/175C for 15-20 minutes or until browned on the top a d firm
Cinnamon buns with cream cheese icing
The method for this is the same as the garlic tear and share. I enjoy these because they are not overpoweringly sweet as the bread dough has no additional sugar.
- Spread softened butter over the bread and sprinkle on the sugar and cinnamon
- Follow the steps above
- Once baked, let cool until just warm before adding the icing
- To make the icing, slowly add the icing sugar to the cream cheese, stirring continuously to ensure no lumps.
- Add the vanilla extract and stir again
- Spread the icing across the top of the buns
- Tear apart buns and eat before your husband gets his hands on them
Buns/rolls
To make buns divide the dough into equal portions. If you are using 1/3 of the dough you can make eight buns. I do often weigh the dough to get evenly sized buns. All the ladies out their will be very familiar with the trouble that comes from having one bun slightly larger than the other.
- To form the bun shape, form a rough ball then pull the dough into shape tucking folds etc. to the bottom so that the top is smooth.
- Place the balls on a tray lined with parchment and press down firmly to flatten into a disc. The buns can be close but should not be touching
- Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise until doubled in size
- Preheat oven to 450F/230C
- Put the tray of buns in the middle of the oven and immediately turn down the heat to 350F/175C
- Cook for 15 to 20 mins or until the tops are browned and they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
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And more...
- Add a cup of grated cheese to the dough as you knead it the second time to make a cheese bread. Note: if you want to put cheese on top of the bread, add it about half way through baking to prevent it from burning.
- Combine a batch or wholemeal dough and a batch of white dough by rolling into discs, lay one disc on top of the other and roll up then form into bread for a swirled loaf
- On the second knead, add poppy seeds, sunflower seeds nuts or other grains
- Roll out the dough to a thin disc and add sauce, toppings and cheese to make pizza
Where has all the bread yeast gone?
You may have noticed that bread yeast is almost impossible to find at the moment. This is not just in Canada but also in the US and Europe too. The reason? Everyone is trying to bake away the lock down blues. This time of year is usually the slow period for yeast manufacturers as everyone is still trying to follow their no carb new year’s resolution and get their body ready for the beach. Right now, the demand for yeast is higher than the busy season in the run up to Christmas. It takes time to ramp up supplies – the yeast has to be grown and this time. For more on this, check out this article from USA Today – Corona Virus Yeast Shortage
Experimentation
In the meantime I have been experimenting with different yeast. Champagne Yeast, Ale Yeast and Sour Dough plus growing our own bread yeast. I’m not going to get into sourdough here. To be honest, I’m not great at getting a good starter going but there are plenty of experienced sour dough makers on the web that will guide you through.
For the ale and champagne yeast I activated the yeast according to the instructions on the packet, poured the mixture into a jar and added 1/4 cup of flour. Once mixed, the jars were allowed to sit out on the bench for a few hours. The ale yeast seemed very promising as it climbed right out of the jar. The jars were then put into the fridge ready for making bread.
For the bread yeast, I put 1 tablespoon in a jar, added 150 ml water and 1/4 cup of flour and left on the bench for a few hours too and then put in the fridge. Before making bread I bring the jar out of the fridge, add more flour and water and leave to warm up for a couple of hours. Then I use about half the mixture for the dough.
Ale yeast
The first attempt at making bread with the ale yeast was not successful. I’m certain I used too little starter mix and definitely did not let it rise long enough. The taste was great but the bread was a dense brick. The second attempt was much better but the rising time was long. Approximately 26 hours for the first rise and 4 for the second. This did turn out much better though with a good bread texture. The flavour starts as a bread flavour and then tastes like beer with a slight bitter after taste.
The other thing is this yeast is expensive. One sachet costs more than a jar of bread yeast.
Champagne yeast
I learned from my mistake with the champagne yeast bread and left it to rise overnight. We got quite a nice batch of bread (the buns in the picture above are from this batch) but the flavour was bland. Next time I plan to add some extra salt and spices to improve the flavour. This yeast is also more expensive than bread yeast.
Bread yeast starter
This took longer to rise than I expected. About an extra hour to bread made with yeast straight from the jar. The bread turned out well. The texture was finer/softer than our normal loaves but it makes a great sandwich.
Conclusion?
The experimenting is fun and we’ll keep at it but we gave in and bought some bread yeast online. It hasn’t arrived yet but we look forward to a regular loaf when it does.
Enjoy making bread in whatever form you choose and don’t be afraid of a little experimentation.
Stay safe, stay home and always be creative
