Patsy's Post: Baking bread again, part experiment -- part invention -- all good!

It's time to bake bread again. This time I am going back to a recipe from Ann Faye of Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty, NC. It is one she makes constantly and one I have made successfully. This time I am going to change the kinds of flower a little, none of the other ingredients or amount of flour, just how much of different kinds of flour I use,

This recipe makes 3 loaves in 9x4x5 inch loaf pans. Bake at 350 in a preheated oven.

Combine in a sauce pan to heat until just warm:

3 cups of milk
1 Tablespoon of salt
1 stick of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of honey

In the bowl of your mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the following dry ingredients:

7 1/2 cups of flour, this time I used:

2 cups of King Arthur whole wheat flour
2 cups of King Arthur white whole wheat flour
2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour (not self rising)
1 1/2 cups of King Arthur bread flour

3 Tablespoons of yeast (from packets)

Add 2 beaten eggs to the flour mixture, mix gently.

When the milk mixture is just barely warm, add it to the flour/egg mixture.

Switch to the dough hook and knead for 5 minutes at medium speed on the mixer. The dough will be sticky.

Scrape it out onto a floured surface to continue to knead by hand, adding all purpose flour to keep it from sticking to the surface.

When the dough is elastic (it responds to being poked with your finger by returning to its shape), turn it out into a large bowl that your have lightly coated with butter.

Roll the dough over to form a smooth top, it will have a coating of butter.

Allow it to rest in a warm place until doubled in size. I used my newly created proofing box to let the bread rise till doubled in size. It took about 35 minutes to double in size.

Previously I had made a "proofing box" using a cardboard box and a large plastic garbage bag. That worked well, but I didn't like having to find a place to store it between uses.

After another conversation with the bakers at Loaf Bakery and enjoying one of their brioche rolls with cinnamon (see their link on the right) I got an idea about how to convert a shelf on my storage rack in the kitchen to a proofing box. I installed a 25 watt bulb on one side of the shelf. This device was previously used to view slides (photographic, not microscopic). Next I cut a sheet of heavy duty plastic to wrap around the sides of the shelf and attached it to the shelf above using magnets. Hurray for metal shelves! This worked fabulously and the space can be used to store baking pans when not being used for proofing!

On the right you can see the bulb inside the old slide-viewing apparatus. The dough has just been divided into the 3 pans. I had to turn the light off to get this picture, The plastic is clear and doesn't show up here.

Turn out the dough which has doubled in size onto a floured surface. Knead and divide into 3 portions. Flatten and roll the dough with your hands, tucking the ends to fit into the buttered loaf pan.

Place the 3 loaf pans to the proofing box to allow the dough to rise a second time. When the dough has almost doubled in size, put the pans into a preheated 350 degree oven on the middle shelf.

Bake for 25 minutes.