These are anxious times, really anxious. The stress of the modern times seems to lead to a restlessness of sorts. As a friend of mine says it’s like everyone around us is going crazy. I have friends itching for a different job, a different partner and/or a different path. It’s like high school all over again – the feeling that you are not quite in control of your life but it is still up to you to make life-changing decisions. What is the response to such anxiety? Baking bread. It’s not much really. Using flour and yeast to settle yourself. But the mindless business of kneading, and the elation of seeing a dough double in size is a little bit of happiness. And its hard to be too grumpy with the smell of baking bread in the air.
There are a lot of bread geeks around. They know a lot about glutens and proteins and sugars. And they are awfully good to have a phone call away. But you don’t need to know all that stuff. All you need is a recipe and yeast and about three hours to be around the house.
So far I’ve made whole wheat sandwich bread which was good and satisfying. Yesterday, I made cinnamon raisin bread. And all I can say is the smell was ridiculously delicious, and I don’t really like cinnamon that much. I wasn’t totally happy with the recipe so I won’t post it (oh no am I becoming a yeast geek?). But I will post the easy and tasty whole wheat recipe which my friend Andrea gave me. She is one of those people who orders special flours and has her own sourdough starter.
It is a pretty loose recipe, if you want something a bit more stringent check out: www.thefreshloaf.com
Incredibly easy, everyday sandwich bread
Ingredients
2 ½ tsp (1 envelope) active dry yeast
2 cups warm tap water (about 110 degrees)
3 – 3 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbl. salt
2 tbl. honey
5 tbl. melted butter (or vegetable oil, if you want the bread to be parve, but butter is better)
1. Measure water into liquid measuring cup, whisk in yeast. Let sit a few minutes, then whisk in honey.
2. Put 3 cups white flour and 2 cups whole wheat flour in bowl of standing mixer. Add salt, yeast and honey mixture, and melted butter and mix on medium low with dough hook for about 5 minutes. [You can do other things while the mixer is working, but keep an eye on it, because sometimes the bowl pops off if the mixture gets very stiff.] The dough should be smooth and elastic and should clean the sides of the bowl. If it is still sticky, add remaining ½ cup flour, a little at a time.
3. Take the dough out of the bowl, smear a little oil in the bowl. Put the dough back and turn it to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit about an hour, until doubled.
4. Grease two loaf pans. Turn the risen dough out on to counter and divide in half. Using one piece, flatten it into a rough rectangle. Fold in the short ends of the dough to middle, about the length of the pan, then roll up the dough the long way to make a loaf. (check out video on http://www.thefreshloaf.com/) Put it in the pan, seam side down. Do the same with the second loaf. Cover them both with plastic and let sit about an hour.
5. Twenty minutes or so before the loaves have risen, preheat the oven to 400 and be sure rack is in middle of oven. When loaves are risen, bake for about 30 minutes until golden and firm (or internal temp is about 220). Take out of oven, let set for five minutes. Then unmold on a rack to cool completely. Et voila!
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