Special thanks to CJ AKA Homesteadmamma
Do you wish to learn how to make bread. I'll be making a tutorial here with pictures in regards to baking bread. You can learn to bake bread just as in the picture below.
Or scrumptious buns as in this picture.
First lets start with the recipes. I'm going to give you 2 recipes, one for regular white flour and one for bread made with freshly ground wheat.
WHITE BREAD
Measure into bowl:
1 c. warm water
2 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. yeast
Let stand for 10 minutes, then stir well. While this is rising,
put into large bowl:
1 c. milk
3 c. water
6 tbsp. sugar
6 tbsp. margarine
4 tsp. salt
Add yeast mixture to milk and water. Beat in:
4 c. flour
Stir in additional 4 c. flour and mix well. Then add 4 c. flour, mixing well. Turn out onto lightly floured board. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Cover and let rise until doubled. Punch down and let rise again. Put into pans and let rise again. Bake at 375 degrees for 1/2 hr. or until done.
WHOLE GRAIN BREAD
2/3 c. oil
2/3 c. honey
6 c. warm water
2 tbsp. gluten
2 tbsp. lechitin granules
2 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp. yeast
12 c. flour
Place in large bowl first 7 ingredients along with 4 cups flour. Mix well. Add another 4 c. flour, mixing well. Add final 4 c. flour and mix well. Place on floured board and knead (10 minutes). Place in large bowl and let rise. Punch down and let rise again. Place in bread pans and let rise. Bake at 375 degrees for 1/2 hr or until done.
Lets look at the yeast. Always make sure you have fresh yeast. When purchasing yeast, I always purchase it in 2 lb. cans and I get it from the health food store. I always check the date on the can. You can do the same whether your yeast comes in jars or in packages, there should be a date on it.
Once you have the yeast, store it in your fridge or you can keep it in the freezer (although I never have). Make sure you take it out a couple of hours before using for best results.
Place your warm water and sugar in a bowl (I use a cereal bowl). Measure out yeast and sprinkle over the warm water and sugar. Let rise for 10 minutes and then stir with a fork. (Do not move the bowl until the yeast as risen.)
While waiting for the yeast to rise, we now want to begin to put all the ingredients (except flour) in a bowl. Once the yeast is ready, we will then add it and mix well. We then add our flour, several cups at a time, mixing well. (If your using a mixer, do not add all your flour at once, but several cups at a time, making sure the mixer mixes it well before adding more.) You can either mix it with a wooden spoon or a mixer such as the following:
Once mixed, the results will look like the following picture.
We are now wanting our dough to look like the following:
In order for us to have our bread dough look like the above picture, we need to knead the dough. There will be a couple of pictures to follow, showing how the kneading is done. Dd kindly kneaded the dough for the pictures.
(If you have used a mixer like a Kitchen Aid, you will only have to knead for a couple of minutes. It really isn't required, but I find I have better results with my bread if I do. If you've mixed everything by hand, then you'll need to knead for 10 minutes. There are some NO KNEAD bread recipes but I haven't tried any of those yet.)
More kneading:
And more kneading. What your wanting to do is punch your bread down in order to get the air bubbles out. The longer you knead, the lighter the bread. I always knead for 10 minutes when I do it by hand. If you've used a mixer, you only have to knead for a couple of minutes when you take the dough out of the mixer (KA).
We have now finished kneading and are ready to put our dough into a bowl to let rise. Make sure the bowl is warm and is large enough. There is nothing worse than having too small a bowl and your dough running over the sides!!
Form dough into a round ball and place in bowl.
Once in the bowl, make sure you cover it. Covering the bowl keeps the crust from getting dry and hard and also helps keep any draught from harming your dough.
Let dough rise until double in bulk. It will look like this:
When dough is ready to punch down for its second rising, it will look like this:
For the second rising, again you will let the dough rise until double in bulk. When it has, punch down and place dough on your working area, where you will work at forming into loaves and/or buns. I always flatten my dough out with my hands, but you can use a rolling pin (just lightly). Your dough should look like the following picture.
If you are making bread with flour that has been freshly ground, my advise would be to let your dough rise the third time before you are ready to form into loaves or bun.
Now your ready to divide the dough into equal parts. For the recipes I've posted, you need to divide them into 4 equal parts. If you were making 2 loaves, you'd divide into 2 equal parts.
Once divided into equal parts, I take my rolling pin and gently roll one part, making sure the other parts aren't in the way. Don't roll it hard or for long, just enough to make it flat like the following.
Now your ready to form into buns or loaves. Here I will show you how they look when made into buns. Roll them into bun shapes and place on a greased pie plate, cake pan or pan that you plan to use for them. Make sure that they are seperated just like the picture so that they will have a chance to rise. As they rise, they will spread out a bit.
Another picture of how they will look before you cover them to let them rise.
After covering them and letting them rise until double in bulk, your buns will look like this. Always make sure than you have them in a draught free place, where it is nice and warm and they can't get cold. I often turn my oven on around 200 degrees when I start the process of making bread so that both the dough and the buns/bread are in a safe and warm place, free of drafts.
Or forming into loaves as follows. Empty bowl of risen dough onto a flat surface with a wee bit of flour spread on the table.
Roll as you would a jelly roll, just like in the following picture.
Once the dough is rolled it will look like this:
Now pinch ends under, as in the following picture:
Once that is done, place in your greased bread pans and let rise, covered, until double in bulk, as in the following picture.
Once risen, place in your heated oven at 375 degrees and bake for approx. 30 minutes or until golden brown on top. Once baked, take out of pans, butter top (if desired) and place on racks to cool.
This bread freezes well if you can keep it around for that long!!
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