I'll be darned! I made bread!

Cafe Society
21

Here ya go!

Dark Rye Peasant Bread

3 tsp. instant coffee powder
2 ½ c. hot water (120-130F)
¼ c. dark, unsulphured molasses
2 pkg. dry yeast
¼ t. ground ginger
2 c. dark-toasted fine rye bread crumbs (save slices from previous batches if possible)
3 c. stone ground or pumpernickel rye flour
2 c. whole wheat flour
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 tsp. salt
1 c. bread flour
1 tsp. instant coffee powder mixed with 2 tsp. butter

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the instant coffee in the water. Stir in the molasses, yeast, ginger and bread crumbs. Allow to stand until the crumbs are soaked and soft and the mixture is warm to touch (about 20 minutes).

Ad the rye and whole wheat flours, butter and salt; stir thoroughly by hand. Measure the bread flour, ¼ cup at a time and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon or the dough hook of a mixer until the dough is a rough, shaggy ball that can be lifted to a work surface or left under the dough hook.

Cover the dough with a cloth or wax paper and let it rest about 15 minutes.

Knead with a push-turn-fold motion with the aid of a dough scraper until the dough is smooth, about 10 minutes. Early in the process it will be sticky (add sprinkles of flour) but gradually it will become more elastic.

Place the ball of dough in a bowl and pat with greased fingers to keep the surface from drying out. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave at room temp until the dough is puffy to the touch and has doubled, about 1 ½ hours.

Turn the dough onto the floured work surface, knead out the bubbles and cut into two pieces. Form each into a round ball and let rest for 3 minutes.

Press each ball into a long, flat oval under your palms or with a rolling pin. Double over and pound several time down the middle of the long piece with the edge of your hand. Fold over, seal and rol back and forth under your palms to fashion an 18” loaf. Repeat with the second loaf.

Cover lightly with wax paper and leave to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400F 20 minutes before baking.

Before baking on a baking sheet, brush the loaves with the instant coffee-butter mix. Bake @ 400F for about 35 minutes or until the bottom crust yealds to a hollow sound when thumped. The loaves will be crusty and deep brown, almost black.

Remove from the the oven and cool on a rack.
It’s some work, but well worth it.

22

papergirl, if bread baking becomes a regular thing with you, I would suggest Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads. Once I tried all of the recipes in books like Betty Crocker’s or BH&G, my dad bought this one for me as a Christmas gift one year long ago (why yes, there was an ulterior motive on his part. He got to sample the work. :D)

23

Artisian Bread in 5 Minutes a Dayis essentially the Bittman. Essential difference is you make up a big ol’ batch, and leave it in the fridge for a week or two until you are ready to bake. To say it another way, mix on day 1, bake a batch on day 2 (and leave the remainder in the fridge), bake another batch on day 5 (leaving the remainder in the fridge) and then bake a pizza with the leftover dough on day 11. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. You kinda always have a tub of dough in the fridge and an hour or two away from a fresh baked loaf.

missred - thanks for the recipe.

Papergirl, your website is Bittman explained in a different way.

If you ever get bread sticking to the pan, then buy a roll of parchment paper. You can reuse it and a roll lasts me 6 months or a year.

24

The late James Beard wrote my favorite book on bread, Beard on Bread

25

Yay!!!

I’ve been making lots of bread lately too, but I’m too lazy/uncoordinated to knead and rise, so I throw everything in the bread machine and let that do all the work. :smiley:

I’ve been wanting to make sourdough for a bit, too, and PBS had some kind of recipe that used grapes to make a starter, so I might try that. I’ma have to clean my oven before I do, though, 'cuz it requires a pretty hot oven (about 500 degrees), and the burnt-sugar charcoal crap I’ve got staining the bottom of it is gonna start to smoke.

26

Every time I read the first sentence in the thread title I think of this.

27

One cause of the soggy bread is that most breads give off moisture as they cool. If you wrap it before it completely cools, that moisture will result in soggy bread.

29

Thanks! I’m going to try this recipe too. It does look super easy.

I’ve had so-so results with baking bread in the past. I don’t know what I’ve done wrong, but it either doesn’t rise enough (yes, bought new yeast, etc) or I let it rise and when I went to take the plastic wrap off the top it sunk. Maybe this recipe will work better and I’m going with the sort of free form version pictured, rather than put into a loaf pan.