Bread

Once upon a time when I was in college I made all my own bread for a while....my sister told me that I needed a girlfriend upon hearing this fact. Recently I've picked up this habit once more, because honestly as long as I'm home for a good chunk of the day on Sunday, why not? It's cheaper to make a loaf than to buy one, it's not that hard, it smells amazing, and it tastes pretty darn good too. But before I continue on to how simple it is to make a loaf of bread, I want to regale a tale of a certain housemate I used to live with. While in Providence my second residence was in a house with four other people. One time when a vacant room was filled a boy from Arkansas moved in. After a few weeks I asked him one day how he was liking Providence. He said it was nice, but that he couldn't find cheap bread. 

I won't lie, this piqued my curiosity so I bite and asked him the obvious follow up question: is bread that much cheaper in Arkansas? To which I got the response, 'Oh yeah, it's only like 98 cents a loaf at Walmart' ...'Have you tried going to Walmart here?' 'No, I probably should though' 'Where have you been getting bread?' ....turns out he'd been getting it at convenience stores. You know, only the most expensive place, typically, to buy a loaf of bread. The most amazing part about this conversation though was that as it turns out was that each other housemate had at some point or another in that week had the same conversation with him. 

The fact that he was so fixated on cheap bread could only then be met with the irony that when he moved out the boy who then filled his room baked a loaf of bread just about once a week. While I no longer live there, and neither does our bread making friend, I can only hope that whoever moved into that room also has a special relationship with bread. Anyways...

To make my weekly loaf for sandwiches and whatnot, I start with 3 1/2 cups of flour. Lately I've been using a roughly half and half unbleached white and whole wheat mixture, but all white flour will work as well. Add to that a 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast and 2 teaspoons of salt. Then mix it up with 2 cups of warm water. Now you can definitely just mix it with a spoon, but I'm lazy and just use the bread hook on the Kitchen Aide.

This will leave you with a wetter bread dough that won't really hold it's own shape, but is perfectly suited for a loaf pan. Usually you'd want to just used an oiled loaf pan, but since the bread is removed from it before finishing being baked, I've occasionally run into trouble with the bottom sticking to the pan. So lately I've been using parchment paper to line the pan to guarantee a clean pop out, but it will leave an imprint of the parchment folds on the bread. Which I'm totally fine with, cause I loathe when it sticks to the bottom of the pan.

Pour the dough into the pan. Then cover it with a wet dish towel.

Put it in a warm place to proof (rise). I put it in an oven that I preheat for a few minutes then turn off. 

Let it rise until it's even with the top of the pan (usually about 2 hours). Then bake it at 450*F for 30 minutes.

Take the bread out of the pan and place directly on the oven rack to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. In theory it should sound hollow when tapped when it's done, but I never quite know what that means, so I just make sure not to burn it. 

Let it cool completely before cutting into it ...I know it's hard, but it will stay better longer that way. Nom nom nom. See you next Tuesday!