Basic Bread Dough
My grandmother made bread dough so often that it never seemed to be a challenge to make it come out properly. Her teaching method was simple: stand next to me and watch. She never wrote anything down, never consulted a recipe. Here is what I learned about making bread dough: never kill the yeast; use really good water and wait patiently for the dough to rise. Yeast killed means deflated bread. Bad water results in weird tasting dough. Waiting for the dough to rise means you will achieve your goal of perfect bread. I usually do a double rise, time permitting.
There are a couple of good theories on how to keep your yeast alive while making bread dough. One is simple: preheat your glass mixing bowl (this works beautifully if you have a Kitchenaid machine). The other is to mix your yeast separately in a measuring cup with 1/4 cups of warm water (tap warm).
Finally, kneading is really important to good dough. It matters not how you mix your ingredients (as long as you don't kill the yeast). What does matter is kneading the dough properly. It takes eight to ten minutes to knead the dough by hand. This is my favorite part of making bread.
Two other tricks to perfect bread: baking stones in your oven and 1 cup of hot water thrown in the oven before you shut the oven door.
Preheat oven to 350F
Ingredients:
1 pkg. of yeast
1/4 lukewarm water
1 cup of scalded milk, cooled
1 cup of cold water
1 tbl. of butter at room temperature
2 tsps. of salt
1 tbl. of sugar
6 cups of all-purpose flour
Add yeast to water. Allow to set for five minutes.
Using the bowl of your Kitchenaid or a regular mixing bowl if doing by hand, pour in yeast mixture, butter and salt. Mix well. Mix in milk and cold water. Add flour, gradually, until well mixed. Add sugar and salt at end. Mix well.
Turn onto a surface with flour. Knead until a good consistency is achieved. Place in a mixing bowl rubbed with olive oil. Pour a little olive oil over the surface of the dough and rub lightly. Cover with a linen towel. Allow dough to rise. Punch down and allow a second rise. Slip dough onto a baking stone in your oven. Throw some hot water on the bottom of your oven and close the door. Bake the bread dough for around 45 minutes until it is golden brown and when you tap it, it sounds hollow.
