This inspired us to find an easy way to have our bread and eat it too; to have fresh, homemade dough that we could make different shapes, sizes, and styles of bread without too much fuss and clean up. Originally, we assumed that it would take us a day to make the dough, let it rise, punch it down, then divide it and let it rise again... it's exhausting even writing the steps! But, we have seen the light! We found the simple way to have our bread any night and any time we want -- in 5 minutes a day.
If you are unfamiliar with our references, we are talking about Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. These two authors have mastered the art of having ready doughs in the refrigerator that can sit for up to two weeks, and give the family the ability to get pizza dough, pretzels, dinner rolls or loaves into the oven in about 5 minutes. Then, you allow the 15-20 minute baking time and you have a 30 minute meal! This seemed unimaginable to us to have freshly baked bread or fresh pizza with freshly made crust in 30 minutes. We knew that the pizza delivery companies could do it, but now we learnt that we, too, can do it.
So, in order to make your own dough, you will need about 10 minutes to put together the ingredients, and then, maybe a couple hours to allow the dough to rise. But, it rises only one time, and, after that, the dough will stay in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. So, before we get into how to make the dough, make sure you have a container large enough to hold the dough (tightly covered bowl, bucket with lid, plastic storage container, or comparable) and have a space in the refrigerator.
Start by making the dough. It is something that you can do by hand, in a mixer, a food processor, or even a blender. We are still traditionalists and prefer making doughs by hand so we can feel the texture, if we need to add flour, and as we knead, we feel the gluten build.
For this recipe, you will need the following:
7 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 to 1 1/2 TBSP Salt
2 TBSP Fresh Yeast (1 TBSP granulated dry yeast)
3 1/2 cups Warm water
The most important thing in this recipe is to make sure that your water is warm. Ideally, you want the water to be between 100 and 105°F. Any hotter than that will kill the yeast and ruin the effects of the yeast. Remember, yeast is a living organism and needs water to live and "work" in recipes. We used a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the water, but some people will choose to feel the water as "slightly above body temperature" when they make bread. It should feel barely tepid on your skin.
Now, here is the next note... we chose to use fresh yeast over the packets of dry yeast. You can use the dry yeast with no real problem. We have found that the dried yeast packets are many times slow to rise and sometimes the packets are expired or out of date. Buying fresh yeast lets us know that we have a fresh, living product that will likely work the way we want it to. Fresh yeast is available at many bakeries.
Pour the warm water into the bowl with the yeast and mix it well. The mixture will look creamy and you may see some yeast floating at the top of the water.
Once the yeast is fully dissolved, add the salt and the flour to the bowl. Make sure that the measurements are rather accurate by using the technique that many of us were taught in Home Economics years ago -- scoop and drag. Scoop up a cup full of flour (works with salt, sugar, breadcrumbs ... any dry product) and drag a flat surface (knife, spatula, chopstick) across the top of the measured product. This will make sure that the product fills the measuring cup or spoon and gets into all the curves. And, with the dragging method, you obtain a level amount that is equal in height to the top of the measuring tool. Measure over an empty bowl or the container where you get the flour (or whatever). Then, the excess falls into an empty bowl or back into the container -- not the mix! We scooped and dragged every spoon full of salt and every cup full of flour.
Now it is time to mix the ingredients. Some people will choose to use a spoon or a rubber spatula, but we preferred our hands. We were able to feel where the flour did not get mixed in properly, and we were able to continue to wipe the flour off the sides of the bowl so there would be no lumps and no real sticking. Mix well until all the ingredients come together completely and start to look like dough.
The dough starts to come off your hands as you mix. It may leave a few sticky pieces, but when the dough does not stick to you at all, then you are done mixing. You should be able to pull most of the dough off of your hands, without having much difficulty. You don't have to knead the dough very long, either, because you are kneading as you mix.
Once it is mixed and you have made sure that everything is very well combined with a little kneading, then cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and let it sit. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place until the dough doubles in size. This will take about two hours to get it at full height, but it is worth the wait.
The nice part about this dough is that it is now ready to use. However, this is also a bread dough that can be used for so many things and multiple dishes and you want it to stay in the refrigerator for the week, so you can have fresh breads every day! This recipe allows you the freedom to spend five minutes shaping the bread that you want and baking it, without the need to make it rise again. Now that the dough Is risen (a little humour for Pascha), set it into your airtight container and put it in the fridge. That's it. Put the dough away until you are ready to make something. It will stay in the refrigerator for two weeks, and will make about 10 small loaves of bread for 2 people, or 8 pizza shells for two.
"...And give us this bread, our daily bread..."
from The Lord's Prayer
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