Baking Bread!

I am happy to report that I am sticking with my New Year's resolution so far. I did go to the grocery store but studiously walked past the bread aisle. The enthusiasm with which the kids have relished fresh baked bread makes me all the more determined to stick to this. I am not exactly sure what scared me most, the kneading gave me a bit of worry and also the part about the dough having to rise. When I finally picked up courage to go through with it, almost anti climatically nothing went wrong. The dough rose, the bread baked fine and the house smelled divine.

No knead bread.

I first started with the New York Times article of the famous No Knead bread. It was Jaden's No Knead Bread Recipe: so easy a 4-yr old can make it! that finally convinced me that I have nothing to fear. I did not have a covered pot like the recipe called for but my 8" x 4" loaf pan worked just fine. I could not find bread flour so picked up a bag of unbleached whole wheat flour which worked fine as well. I mixed up the flour, water the previous night and let the yeast do its thing. Baked the bread the next day, it had a very crunchy crust probably because it was left uncovered. Not a small piece got tossed so this should be called a success right?

So the next recipe I picked was Anita's Whole Wheat Bread, I halved here recipe (left out the Italian seasoning) and still got a lot of bread. I kneaded the bread a bit but not a whole lot. I was a little impatient after I had transferred them to the pans and did not wait for it to rise so got a flat top. But there was nothing to complain about in the taste department. I am finally sold on the idea of baking bread at home and eating it too.

Whole Wheat Bread

Bread baking now that I have done does not seem half as hard as I had imagined it to be, now with a doable method it seems all the more certain I will stick to it. Mix the flour and the liquids in the morning and leave it to rise till the evening, punch it down and knead it as much as possible, transfer them to the pans and cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise for a couple more hours. Then around 8:00PM the bread is ready to be baked and left to cool overnight for some fresh bread the next morning. I was in a hurry to pull of the plastic wrap before I it was time to bake so the top got a bit dry and hence a flat top when baked.

The recipe I present here is from the Arnold's Whole Wheat flour bag. It was a recipe for Walnut bread, I left the brown sugar and walnuts out and substituted with some raw sugar instead.

Ingredients

3 Cups Unbleached Whole Wheat Flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp canola oil

1 1/2 tsp yeast

2 Cups lukewarm water (start with 1 cup and then slowly add the rest of the water

Method

Mix all the ingredients in a big bowl add the water to make a slightly stick blob

Cover with cling wrap which has been greased. Set it to rest for 4-6 hours in a warm place to rise

Punch the dough down and knead it for about 5-10 minutes if possible more

Shape the bread and put them in a greased(I used oil spray) loaf pan,cover with a plastic cling wrap and let it rise for about 2 hours

Preheat oven to 375F and bake for 35 minutes

Remove from pan and let it completely cool before slicing

Ready to be eaten with butter, jam, whipped cream cheese, tomato pickle.

I am now may be ready to graduate to some more sweet and savory breads.