My basic bread recipe

I was inspired to make some bread to go with my own butter the other day. After I had finished making the butter, I looked at the liquid in the measuring cup and decided to taste it. Remember, I had planned to make whipped cream and so I had added a little sugar and vanilla to the cream. It tasted great- sweet and creamy and I didn't want to throw it out.

I had always thought that the liquid left over from whipping the cream into butter would taste like the buttermilk that you buy at the store. It doesn't. That is cultured buttermilk made in a different process. And the liquid isn't whey either which is the byproduct from making cheese. (Can you tell that I've been on the internet?) I decided to use the butter-milk to make bread.

My basic bread recipe
makes 2 loaves 375°

½ cup warm water
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1-3 tablespoons sugar
1-3 tablespoons of oil or butter
1 ½ cup warmed liquid- water, milk or mix
1 egg (optional) room temperature
6 cups unbleached flour

In a warmed bowl, add water- should be warm to the touch- and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let soften for a couple of minutes. Add everything else to the yeast/water mix except for 4 cups of flour. Stir together briskly and then let sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Add the remaining flour and stir together.

Turn out onto a floured board and sprinkle a little flour on top if the dough is sticky. Carefully at first, begin to knead the dough, making sure that the surface doesn’t stick to your hands. I won’t say to knead for 10 minutes because I never do but do knead until the dough is elastic and smooth. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and let rise until it has doubled in size. This usually takes about an hour and a half.

Punch down dough to remove any large air bubbles- I took great delight in doing this as a child. Form into loaves- either in a pan or free-form on a sheet. Let rise again until double in size.

Preheat oven to 375°. When the loaves are ready- bake for 20-25 minutes or until brown. When you lightly tap the top of the loaf- it should make a sort of hollow sound. Remove from oven and turn out onto metal rack to cool.
Options- You can substitute 1/2 cup to 1 cup of another flour- whole wheat, rye, oat- the choices are endless. I added a teaspoon of cardamon to this batch of bread.

Let me walk you through the recipe. Start with a warm bowl and warm, not too hot water. You want to wake up the yeast- gently with enough warmth to get it going and not hot enought to kill it. It is alive, you know.

Giving the yeast just enough time to soften- I add most of the rest of the ingredients. I do this for two reasons- to give the yeast something to eat (sort of) and to beat some air into the dough.

After you have added the remaining flour and kneaded it until it's elastic- turn the dough out into a large oiled bowl. Flip the ball of dough to cover all of it in oil and then leave in a warm place to rise.

When the dough has risen, beat it down and decide how you want to shape it. You can make loaves in pans- metal, glass or clay, or just in a ball on a cookie sheet or even cut into rolls. I greased my clay pans with shortening because they are still new. When they are well seasoned, I won't need to grease them or wash them if I only use them for bread. I have some old metal bread pans from my mother that I never wash but they are quite a bit wider and make a wide, short loaf with the amount of dough from this recipe.

How long the dough takes to double in size depends on the warmth of the room, the heaviness of the dough and how active the yeast is.

Not a good photo but I wanted to show you how big the loaves get.

Out of the oven and ready to be turned out on the rack to cool. My mother would never let us cut the loaf when it was still hot because she said that it would mash the whole thing down. But, bread just out of the oven is irresistible and if you have a light touch with the bread knife- she'll never know.

Bread with just plain butter is wonderful but it's also great toasted with butter with some cinnamon and sugar.

Or toasted with butter and raspberry jam.