Simple Bread Dough

Intro: Simple Bread Dough

This instructable will teach you a simple way to make a bread dough.

The main thing to remember, is that the quality of the bread is proportional to the effort you put in, so we need to simplify it some other way.

I've gotten a recipe that makes it easy to know how much flour to use, while still getting a great bread out of it.

STEP 1: Ingredients

You'll need:
flour (about a pound)
instant dry yeast (about a tablespoon)
1 cup milk
2 Oz. butter
1 egg

STEP 2: Mix First Ingredients

Mix 1 cup of flour with the yeast
Melt butter and add milk
Heat until warm to the touch, but not scalding.
Add milk and butter to flour and yeast.
Mix well
Add egg
Mix well
If you want a sweet bread, add sweetener here too and mix well

STEP 3: Mixing in More Flour

Add flour, about half a cup at a time and mix it into the dough until you can't mix in any more.
The dough should look something like the image below

STEP 4: Kneading

Here's the fun part:

Now we need to knead more flour into the dough. Remember, that kneading also develops the gluten, so the more you knead the better the bread.

Continue adding flour half a cup at a time, fold the dough over the flour and start alternating pushing with the heels ov your hands and squeezing with your fingers until it's fully mixed in. Stop adding flour when the dough is no longer sticky, while still moist.

Leave the dough to rise for at least 45 min. (note, if you're in a hurry, you can speed up the rising by using an oven set to 100-150 degrees farenheit, in which case 30 min. would suffice.)

STEP 5: Shape the Bread

If you want to add anything to the bread, here's when you do it. I added dried tomatoes.

This recipe is for one loaf, you could either use a loaf pan or make a freeform loaf. I made freeform.

The bread needs to rise a second time for around 30 min. (15-20 in a warm oven)

Bake until you hear a hollow sound when knocking on the bottom (it may take you a few tries to get the sound just right, but I prefer this method to buying expensie equipment to tell me if it's done.)

Enjoy.

Comments

[surpcrepair]

You do not mention the time or temp on which to cook the bread for.. Also do you add any salt to the bread I don't see that anywhere or is that in the part where you add whatever seasoning or stuff to it?

I tried to make it last night but it turned out hard :( IDK if I cooked it to long or not rise enough or what.. This time I am makign it without using the oven to help with rising. Also I am going to watch it closer when I cook it but I cooked on 350F idk for how long though since I was waiting for it to rise and it never did.. I ended up with a thin loaf that was kind of hard :(

[mhippo]

Thin loaf sounds like not enough rise time. The baking temp isn't critical, since everyone finds a temperature they're comfortable with. The trick is knowing how to tell when the bread's ready. You tap the bottom, and if it sounds hollow the bread is ready.

[lnxusr]

I took this loaf out of the oven about an hour ago and just had the first slice. This is an outstanding loaf. Moist with a great crust. This recipe may replace my current "everyday" white loaf which uses water with powered mild and less butter. Only change I made was to add a tsp of salt. Salt is an essential ingredient in bread and is needed to help the yeast develop the proper texture during fermentation and helps develop a proper crust during baking. It also enhances the taste. Never make bread without at least a tbs of salt per loaf. I used two tablespoons of honey for the sweetener. May drop that down to one next time as the little yeasties had a field day and the oven spring made it rise up almost five inches above the top of my loaf pan. I'll have to play around and get that down to a normal hight - maybe 3/4 cup milk and less flour will help. Once again, OUTSTANDING recipe! Thank you.