Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Ultimate Bread Recipe


Over the last two years I've been searching for the perfect bread recipe and tonight I finally found it. Bread is super easy to make but good bread is another story. I've been trying to create bakery quality, light, fluffy dinner rolls and my biggest problem has been with the light and fluffy part. No matter what I tried my rolls always seem to come out dense. Tonight though proved to be a nice change of pace. I tired a new recipe that went against everything I knew about bread baking and it gave me the lightest fluffiest bread I've ever made. With this recipie you do not activate the yeast with warm water and you do not let it rise for an hour and then punch it down and let rise for another 30 minutes, instead you let it rise for 15 minutes, punch it down, then let it rise for an hour or so and put it right in the oven. Below is the recipe and I promise you if you have problems with dense bread this is the recipe you've been looking for.

Ingredients:
4C flour, 1C warm milk, 1pkg yeast, 6 tblsp butter, 1/2c water, 2 tblsp honey, 2tsp salt

Directions: In a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour and yeast. Add the butter and mix on a low speed with a dough hook, add milk water, honey and salt. Once all four is moist crank the mixer up to medium and let knead for 7 minutes.

After kneading pull the dough out of the mixer and place on a floured surface. Shape the dough into a football, flour the top, cover in plastic and let rest for 15 minutes. After resting push dough down lightly and form into a 12X5 shape. Next I cut the dough in half, to make a half loaf and shaped 6 dinner rolls but you can shape the bread however you would like. After you shape the bread, place into a greased pan or pans, cover in plastic and let rise in a warm place for 60-90 minutes.

After dough has risen, place in the oven at 425 degrees on the lowest rack. For dinner rolls cook 10-12 minutes and for a half loaf cook 20-22 minutes. If the top is browning too much cover in tin foil while baking.

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