Italian Seasoned Bread

My basic bread recipe is FANTASTIC !!  (If I do say so myself.)  We use this recipe for all sorts of things.  One of the great ways to use this recipe, and other food storage ingredients is to make an Italian Loaf.  This bread is not an Italian type of bread....just seasoned to complement your Italian foods and recipes.

To one 4 loaf batch of Basic Bread, prior to adding the final 6-8 c. Flour, add this seasoning mix to have a delicious seasoned batch of bread!

ITALIAN BREAD SEASONING

4 Tbs Tomato Powder

4 Tbs Onion Flakes

1/2 Tbs Garlic Granules/Powder

2 Tbs Oregano

This bread is the perfect complement to Tuna and Lunch meat Sandwiches as well as your Sunday Roast or the Minestrone Soup you mixed up from your soup mixes!  Take one whiff of the divine aroma and your meal wheels will start spinning with the possibilities!

Best Bread Tips

Want to make the best bread?  I know I do.  I love making bread.
Here are a few tips to help you become a better bread maker.

1. Pick one recipe and stick to it until it is mastered.  A good one that I like is Basic Bread.  You can pick any recipe you want...the rules are the same.
2. Don't change the variety/brand of yeast you use.  Each yeast will respond differently and you don't want the yeast differences to confuse you while learning a recipe.
3. Learn to make it by hand after you master it by machine.

Once you can get consistent results with a recipe, then you are ready to move on to other options.

A few ways to 'shake' up the recipe:

Butter instead of oil

Milk instead of a portion of the water

Applesauce instead of oil for a low fat variety

Soft wheat instead of hard wheat

White wheat instead of Red

Dough enhancers

Lecithin granules

A few rules to NEVER violate when it comes to bread:

Salt kills yeast.  Never use the salt spoon in the yeast and mix the yeast thoroughly in with other ingredients before adding the salt to the dough.

Too much heat kills yeast.  If you can't touch it comfortably....it will kill the yeast. 

Never let the bread rise more than double.  Over rising in the final stage of loaf formation will cause the loaf to lose uniformity of texture and collapse.

Yeast has a limited life.  My Basic Bread recipe has 3 tbs of yeast.  This is enough to get 2 quick rises and 1 slow rise out of the dough.  No more.  If I punch the dough down and reshape it after the 3rd slow rise......there is no more rise left.

Happy Bread Making!!

Basic Bread

This BASIC BREAD recipe will make 4 loaves of bread.

It will easily convert from a loaf to a roll and from white to wheat.  It's not the best for every recipe that calls for a dough but it is extremely versatile for purposes of dinner.

BASIC BREAD

5 c. Hot Water

5 c. Flour

3 Tbs Yeast

Mix

1/2 c. Sugar

1/4 c. Oil

2 Tbs Salt

Mix

6-8 c. Flour

Place the first 3 ingredients in a mixing bowl.  I like to use a cookie beater for this part.  Blend until smooth, turn off the machine, and wait 5-10 minutes for the yeast to proof.  Even if your yeast doesn't need proofing, I do not recommend skipping this step. 





Once the dough has risen slightly and the little bubbles are forming, you are ready.  Put in the dough hook, add the next 3 ingredients and mix.



Keep the mixer running this time, start adding the flour.  You want to add slowly so as not to over flour the dough.  As long as the dough is sticking to the side of the bowl, you need more flour.  Let it mix in, then determine if the dough is still sticking to the bowl.



You will know the dough is ready when it pulls away from the sides and bottom of the bowl while the mixer is running.  When you turn the mixer off, it should look like the picture.

 

Once you determine the dough is ready, you can observed the texture of the dough by pinching a piece off with clean dry hands.  After you try to put the pinch back, you will not be able too.

Even once you try real hard to clean your fingers...there will still be some residue. 

This is a 'soft' dough.  You will need to use lightly oiled hands to handle it.  Turn out the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat the dough and cover lightly with plastic to keep from drying out.

Bread:

Let rise once, punch down to remove air.  Divide into four pieces, shape into loaves and set in lightly greased pans.  Let rise a second time, and bake.

Rolls:

You can skip the rising when you are in a hurry, however if you are not, the rise helps with the crumb of the bread.

Wheat v. White

For wheat, simply replace flour cup for cup, allowing that you will use less flour at the end of the recipe.  Wheat flour absorbs more water than processed store bought white flour.  You will also want to replace the sugar with brown sugar or honey which compliments the wheat flavor better than white sugar.

Stale or Old flour:

If any of you have food storage...you know sometimes the flour goes 'stale'.  Sometime you grind the flour and then forget to use it, or you open up that can that dissapeared in the back for too long.  You can tell by the smell.  You can still use this flour and correct the flavor slightly by adding a little extra salt.  Maybe 1-2 tsp for the above recipe.