Wednesday, October 28, 2015

My EASY One Rise (oil) bread when you just can't face the thought of making a two rise bread. I feel your pain. I can help.

Sometimes you need a loaf of bread and you simply cannot face a two rise bread.  Sure, we've all been there.  I am here to help.  I have an EASY, ONE RISE white sandwich type bread loaf recipe that you will send me flowers for.  Truly.

It's quick, easy and about 90 minutes from the wish to the deed.  The deed being eating warm, homemade bread with thick, icy cold, butter melting into it.

My One Rise, easy, White Bread Sandwich loaf Recipe


1 1/2 cup warmish water
1 Tablespoon sugar (you know I heap it)
2 1/4 tsp yeast (that's one packet for those who buy packets, really though, buy the vacuum pack, dump it into a mason jar and measure out what you need, that's how I roll)

2 1/2 - 3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 Tablespoon plain oil (veggie, canola... NOT NOT NOT olive oil)
1 1/2 tsp salt.

COMBINE water, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a Kitchenaid mixer, mix with your hands and leave to proof about 10 minutes?

2 1/2 cup of the flour, the oil and salt and mix by hand for a minute to get it started, add the dough hook.

Knead by machine, adding up to another cup of flour, until it's soft and clears the bowl completely. Try not to add more than the 3 cups of flour.  The dough will be soft and on the edge of sticky.

Remove it from machine and knead a time of two to get a smooth dough.  No, you don't have to but this is the only part in the recipe I ever feel involved in the process.  I'm a tactile kind of gal and need to get my hands into everything.

Flatten the dough and roll it into a loaf shape.  Put in a greased loaf pan of your choice; a smaller pan for a tall loaf, a long pan for a lower loaf.  *I* use a steam tray insert pan purely because my one pound loaf pan is missing and I want a tall loaf.  You can also make rolls from this dough, let your imagination fly.  BUT today, we're making it into a white sandwich type loaf...

Lightly flour the loaf and put in a plastic bag.  Again, I use the vegetable bags I get from the grocery store.  I'm classy like that.  I'm sure there is some formal proofing box or bag or plastic but I don't have that sort of time.  So, I use the vegetable bags or the plastic bags from Walmart, use what you have, the point here is that the plastic helps it proof and keep it soft without forming a skin before you bake it.

Leave it to get poofy, at least double.  That will take as long as your house takes.  It takes me about 30-40 minutes but I have a warm kitchen and yeast in the air which makes everything proof ridiculously fast here.  It takes my mom about an hour.  It will take as long as it takes.

Preheat your oven to 400 and bake the loaf, nothing sprayed or brushed on it for about 30+ minutes, turn it at 20 minutes to help it bake evenly.

Remove from the pan immediately and leave to cool then eat with abandon and joy.

OH this recipe is EASILY doubled, double everything except the yeast, increase it to 1 Tablespoon.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!!!!!


Add the water, sugar and yeast to the bowl, shush it around and leave it to get poofy.  Add the 2 1/2 cup flour, salt and oil.

Pat it out and start to roll it, seal each time you flip a roll over.. look, it's easy to do, hard to write out. 



After about 40 minutes, oooh, look, it's poofy! Into a 400 degree oven for about 35 minutes, voila!
Out of the pan, onto the rack.  This is short because it was looked in a really large deep pan.  When it's cold, I'll cut into it and update the pictures here.  In the mean time, go make it...  

It's quick, easy, there's only one rise and you'll be DELIGHTED with it. It makes great sandwiches toast or just sitting there eating it 

Let me know what you think! 


Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Double Boule white bread, it's one of my finest creations... seriously you'll go mad for this bread

New (best) white double boule; yeah, the name says it all.  It used to be a boule, Then it became a double boule then I altered the recipe again and again and now it's a double boule white loaf that I cook in a pan rather than free form.  I need to hear how you all love these loaves...

NOW then, you can cook this dough as loaves, in loaf pans, in big pans like me, as free-form loaves, as proper boules, as rolls, in muffin tins, however you can imagine.  Just make it, make this dough and enjoy the resulting delights, oh and let me know what you think.


650 gm all purpose flour (yes, weigh it)
 (weigh it then remove about a cup of the flour and hold it aside)
2 1/2 tsp yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 cups warm(ish) water
1 Tablespoon soft butter
2 tsp salt.


About 600 gm of the flour (no need to stress out, you're just dumping the rest in later), yeast, sugar and water in the bowl of a Kitchen aid mixer.  Mix to  loose ball, and turn off mixer.  Cover with a plastic bag and a towel (I don't know why, it's just the way *I* do it)  Leave it to proof/rise for about 15 minutes.

Can you use another mixer?  Sure.  
Can you do it by hand?  Absolutely  
Can you hire someone else to do this? Probably
IS your homemade bread worth the effort?  

the reserved cup of flour, salt and butter

MIX with dough hook until it's a ball that clears the side of the bowl.  The dough should be a little shiny but reasonably sticky.  There is no hands on kneading here.

DUMP the dough into a greased container with a lid and leave to triple, about an hour?

TIP the dough onto a floured surface and fold it onto itself a few times, NO PUNCHING, be gentle but not obsessively so, (pics and hopefully video below)

DIVIDE the dough into two and fold over into loaf shapes.  Put into a greased pan, 9.13 or whatever you have.

LEAVE to rise, about 45 mins?

PREHEAT oven to 425.  Turn down to 375 when  you put the loaves in the oven.
BAKE for 20 mins then spin and BAKE for another 15 or so.

REMOVE to rack to cool completely.  TEAR the loaves apart and EAT with joy.  EAT more.

This makes the best toast on earth and, well, I love this stuff.  It's a lovely morph of white and italian bread..  make it, let me know what you think!!


HERE are the long winded version with play by play shots.....

OK, weight the flour, scoop about a cup out, add the salt to the cup of flour so you don't forget to add it, don't ask me how I know :)
Add all the water at once and mix it roughly, I slip the dough hook off the mixer and leave it in the dough, cover with a towel and leave it about 15 minutes.  OH look at the poof!

 Add the flour/salt/butter and start to mix with the dough hook.  This is the dough before it's ready and when it's ready :)
   Turn the dough over itself into a reasonable ball shape and drop into a greased bucket. Tap it down a bit and leave it to rise.  I ran to pick up my son and came back, 45 ins later to very happy dough indeed.   Gently tip it out onto a floured surface and press it out.  No punching or smacking or anything vicious, flatten it.  The pictures were hard because I had to do this with my left hand and try to get pics with my right.  I am trying to save up for some method to be take pictures and videos handsfree, hence the new 'donation' tab.  ANYWAY, this is my method

Roll the dough into a loose tube and cut it in half (ish)  I'm a notoriously bad divider

Flip the dough over and press each half out. Then start to roll the dough toward yourself, each time pressing the dough down into the seam... look what I mean:

I sort of press down with my fingertips then do  karate chop type press to seal then roll again until it's to the end.  Then pinch the seam together.  Roll it back and forth to make the loaf a little longer and put it in a greased pan.  NOW then, the pan, I use a steam pan that I got at a restaurant supply store.  There is no need to make a special trip, this works fine as a regular loaf or rolls or the two loaves in a 9x13 so don't fret over the pan.   



Put the loaves in a greased pan and sprinkle some flour on top.  Cover with a bag, trust me it's better than a towel, and let them rise till they're really poofy, 45 minutes or so?  I use the extra large vegetable bag I get at my local grocery store when I go to buy veggies.  Any bag will do.PREHEAT oven to 425  After 35 minutes or so, they're poofy.  LOWER the oven to 375 and pop the loaves in the oven.  BAKE on the lowest rack for 20 minutes then spin them an bake another 10-15, until they're done.
  THEN after it bakes... you get THIS:

Fresh from the oven, take it out of the pan quickly and transfer it to a rack... you'll have to go out because the worst part of this entire process is the eternal, painful, WAITING but WAIT you must, it'll be worth it.  Ok, you don't have to wait THAT long, give it an hour and DIVE IN!


Wait till it's cool(ish) to separate the loaves, they pull apart really easily. I'll update this post hen I do it but I wanted to get the recipe up for some people who are waiting for it. 

I have already heard the mean-girls (and boys) who tell me my bread isn't proofed right or rolled right or has too many pully bits, well that's fine... but I'll put any loaf of mine up against any beautiful loaf any day of the week.  It's not about beauty, it's about taste, it's food, and it's obviously homemade.  Want perfection?  Go to the grocery store  Want delicious, crazy delicious and easy?  MAKE this bread, make you and everyone you know happy.