Monday 2 August 2010

Homemade bread on an hour's notice? For serious!

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Do you ever just think: "I really feel like baking bread today," but feel like there's too much effort and time required?  That was me a couple weeks ago.  I didn't really have time to deal with a couple of long risings, and I didn't have an appropriate loaf pan for a quickbread.  So I set out on the hunt for a recipe that would allow me to have bread and butter in my mouth within the hour, and wouldn't require any equipment besides a baking sheet, a bowl, and these two lazy hands of mine.



And I found it, just about!  The recipe below, courtesy of my bestie, Allrecipes.com, was definitely easy, and definitely allowed me to scorch my mouth on superfresh bready goodness within an hour of getting up off my butt and heading for the kitchen, but it did require a saucepan as well as the other tools I mentioned.  But we'll forgive it that, because this bread was exactly what I wanted.  It was like the best ever storebought sliced whole wheat loaf, but with the added benefit of a crustier crust and a warm, fresh interior.  The bf and I ate the whole thing in 2 days.


Whole Wheat Bread
Barely adapted from Allrecipes

In a large bowl, combine:
     1 cup flour (have another cup+ sitting nearby for later)
     1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
     2 tbsp brown sugar
     2 1/4 tsp (one package) quick rise yeast (I used active dry and it was fine)
     1 tsp salt

In a saucepan, combine and heat to about 125F/50C:
     1 cup water
     1/3 cup plain lowfat (I used nonfat) yogurt
     2 tbsp (30g) butter

Add to dry ingredients and beat until smooth.  Add enough flour to form a soft dough, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes.  Shape into a ball and place on a nonstick or greased baking sheet.  Cover and place in a warm spot.  Let rise about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400F/205C.  When dough has risen, bake 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.  Cool on a rack, and try not to cut into it and slather it with butter until it's at least cool enough to avoid 3rd degree burns!


 ** P.S.  The bf and I were in Amsterdam over the weekend, and we took an awesome Dim Sum cooking class.  I didn't have my fancy camera with me, so the pics will be sub-par, but hopefully they (and the words) will convey a bit of the extremely fun and delicious experience.  So watch this space! **
 

7 comments:

  1. Peter from Amsterdam2 August 2010 at 11:38

    Hello! Awesome blog, I like the topics (fast bread, the amazing microwave chocolate cake that I'm going to try as soon as I finish this comment, mmm).

    It was nice to meet you at the Dim Sum course in Amsterdam - hope you guys were able to eat again during your stay! Did you get to Wynand Focking, by the way?

    My friends from Austin assure me that the only decent Mexican restaurant in London is Mestizo: http://www.mestizomx.com/ and apparently they do take away tortillas so that you can do all the good Cal-Mex stuff at home, to amaze all and sundry.

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  2. Hey! It was great meeting you too! We didn't get to Wynand Focking, sadly, or even the wildman, because we spent our whole last day focused on the Ij, which was closed when we got there... but it was still a lovely walk. We'll have to save Wynand Focking for next time.

    Mestizo is right around the corner from our old flat! Yeah, pretty good, authentic Mexican, and a great tequila selection. But now that I know they do take-away tortillas I might have to go back more often... dangerous!

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  3. That's amazing! I will have to try this. I'm usually too lazy to do homemade bread.

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  4. You SHOULD try it! I was very pleasantly surprised.

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  5. this looks so awesome. i can't believe how easy it is. i've been discouraged with bread baking lately cause it takes so much time and the results aren't always what i expect. this has inspired me to keep trying. thanks for sharing!

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  6. of course! i'm glad i inspired you! bread baking can be discouraging– it's especially bad when you've put so much energy and time into something and it falls flat. this is a great recipe to try when you don't feel like putting in too much effort!

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