In Search for Perfect Bread (Part 4)

Intro

This time it was my wife's need to make it. She made the regular white bread dough with addition of some butter.

Seasalt gives it that "old fashioned" look and great taste

Ingredients

• 3 cups of white unbleached flour (King Arthur brand is a good one)
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon or less salt
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1-2 (one to two) teaspoons of active dry yeast
• warm water (up to 1 cup) to be added while mixing and kneading
  

Preparing the Dough

Mix the ingredients and add water till it looks good. Put some flour on your hands and knead until it is mixed and is not sticking to your fingers. This takes probably up to 4-5 minutes of kneading.

Put some oil on the bowl walls and put your ball of dough into it. Cover with dump cloth and leave for hour or two. We usually leave it in the cold oven with lights on. After one to two hours the dough should rise to about two to three times its initial size. The heat coming from the oven light makes it just warm enough for the dough to rise nicely.

The bottom of the "lepinja" is also crusty and salty.

Punch it down and knead for about two more minutes. She decided to make flat or pita bread ("lepinja" in Serbo-Croatian) sprinkled with sea salt. You oil the pan, then put some flour and salt on the bottom. Spread the dough to cover the bottow of the pan and make it half to an inch thick.

Baking

She used a pizza cutter before baking. You can also use fork and punch it from the top. You leave the dough another 30-45 minutes in the cold oven before baking. It will rise again, but you do not need to wait for it to rise all the way like the first time. Turn on the oven to 385 degrees Fahrenheit. It will take 25-35 minutes for baking. When it was almost done we used "broil" feature at 550 degrees Farenheit to darken the top. If you use broiling it takes one to two minutes. Do not overdo it as it will start to burn. When finished with baking, you can sprinkle some water at the top of it and cover it with a cloth. Let it cool on wire rack.

You got to click on these pictures to "zoom in"

To enjoy this thing, you do not need anything else. This bread is just great on its own. Because it is salty you may use some butter spread or make sandwiches with it.