In Search for Perfect Bread

Perfect Bread

Well not perfect, just normal regular bread. With all the offer in grocery stores it is almost impossible to find a "normal" loaf of bread. If you start reading ingredients these new modern superstore breads have all kind of stuff in them, nothing like what the real bread is.

I am coming from the area of the world where bread is part of each main course. Quality and taste of bread is important to us and regardless of how fancy your main course is, if the bread sucks, your meal sucks. Period.

This entry will probably be a one of many in my path of learning and searching how to make a simple, but tasty loaf of bread.

White Bread Recipe

I found this recipe on a forum where people discuss food from former Yugoslavia. The recipe is simple and it works. I made some modifications just to match the units and ingredients here in United States.

Ingredients

• Around 3 cups of white flour (700g)
  
• 1.5 teaspoon of salt
  
• 1.5 teaspoon of sugar (regular white crystal sugar)
  
• 1.5 teaspoon of dried yeast
• 1 and 3/4 cup (400 ml) warm water (not hot)
  

Optionally, you can add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil or butter. No mistake with that.
As for the flour, what you need is regular white (sometimes called bread) flour with no bleach or any other additives. One brand that is excellent is King Arthur Bread flour. I also found some organic Members Mark or similar here in local Kroger store that makes great taste, too.
In this case, I used bread maker dried yeast and it worked nicely.

Mixing it together

Put the yeast into half of the water. Let it work ("bubble") in it. While that is happening mix the other half of the warm water with flour, sugar, salt and oil (if you decided to put some). Put little bit of flour on your hands and knead it little bit. Then slowly add the remaining water/yeast into the mix. Knead until it stops being sticky. You can adjust the mix by adding little bit of flour if it is too sticky or water if it is too dry.

Once kneading is done put the mix into a large slightly oiled bowl and cover it with damp cloth. Leave it for about two hours (room temperature). I usually put it in the oven without turning the oven on. If it is cold in your kitchen turn the oven light on. That may help warming the process just right.

After 2 hours it should rise probably to around 3 times the original size. You punch it down, knead for about 2 minutes. Now you can split the mixture into two equal balls. Spread them out little bit. Put some oil on your hands while manipulating the mixture. Roll two loafs and put them into the baking pan. You can slightly oil the baking pan and sprinkle it with flour before putting the loaf in it. Making few cuts at the top of the loafs and sprinkling them with flour from the top won't hurt. Leave everything for about another hour.

Baking

Bake the loafs on 380F (230 Celsius) for about 30-40 minutes. You can see when it is done when it gets that nice golden brown color and tap hollow. One thing I like to do at the and is turn on the Broil (550F on my oven) to make the top of the brad really dark. Do not broil it more than one minute. You will burn it.

Once the bread is out sprinkle the top with water and wrap roll the loafs into a cloth. Leave the wrapped loafs on wire racks to cool down.

Keeping

Do not keep it, eat it. Once cooled you can eat them or keep them wrapped in cloth and a plastic bag. Do not just put the loafs in plastic bags. It will get wet and you might discover Penicillin (fungal developments) on it. You don want to eat that (and no Nobel prize there, already taken).
The bread will be good for a day or two after you make it.


Bread, Lard, and Hungarian Paprika

I know, I know. It does not sound yummy nor healthy. But it tastes great. It was a common kids meal (like peanut butter and jelly here in the US) for us. Original name "Hleba, masti, i aleve paprike". You spread some lard on the bread (preferably warm bread), sprinkle some salt, put some Hungarian Paprika, and that is delicious. Good thing here in Texas is that you can easily buy good lard since it is used in Mexican Cuisine a lot. One from H.E.B. in green/white packages is yummy.


This was my yummy "snack" after one successful bread making. Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark!

Flat bread (Pita bread, "Lepinja")

I do not know word in English for it, but you can make flat spread the dough (same as the one used for the loaf above).


Make few cuts on it and poke it with a fork. Then we like to put lots of salt on it and bake it. It takes shorter time. This stuff is yummy with butter spread or with nothing on it.