There’s nothing quite like a warm slice of fresh bread served with butter on top. Mmmmm! This recipe is perfect, and we bet you’ll love it too – we have all our best recipes here if your favorite food is homemade bread as much as ours appears to be for us (and judging by how often visitors stop in).
Follow our step by step guide to producing the perfect loaf of bread
The Perfect Ingredients
Bread is one food that’s always at the ready. It doesn’t take much to make, you can throw some flour together with water and yeast–but what makes it so special are those simple ingredients: kneading by hand or using an electric mixer until everything comes together into elastic strands; letting it rise before cutting off pieces large enough for greedy children who demand more than their fair share…
A skilled baker could spend hours on end preparing this basic recipe while a less experienced cook might only need half an afternoon! No matter how long they’ve been cooking professionally though, every chef knows baking bread from scratch requires patience as well as a skill because any mistake made here will be felt throughout each slice cooked up in your kitchen later down tonight when everyone. We will make it simple for you. All you need to make the Perfect Loaf is water, flour, yeast, salt, and extra flavorings.
How All The Ingredients Work Together To Make The Perfect Loaf
The flour: Flour is the primary ingredient for a good loaf of bread and a key component to that foundation. Protein, or gluten as it’s sometimes called in baking circles, is an important nutrient found in many foods we eat daily; however, some people believe that since they can’t digest this protein-rich ingredient due to its large size (over 20%), their body cannot use/absorb what they consume because there are no small particles available inside your stomach where digestion takes place.
The Water: As you’re kneading your bread dough, water helps to create the gluten bonds that hold everything together. The more moisture in this process will make sure there is no dryness or crumbliness left behind when it rises during the baking time!
The Salt: Salt helps to flavor the bread and it also makes gluten strands stronger. Salt slows down yeast so that you don’t get an overly risen loaf before they have time in order for your dough’s proteins to form tight bonds, which will cause a collapse during the proofing stage if done too quickly with no salt added at all!
The Yeast: This is the coolest part–did you know that yeast are living things too? Enzymes in their cells break down starch molecules into simple sugars when mixed with water. And why does this happen?! Well, because of how much sugar there was for them to eat! More importantly though: The microbe gets rid of all these carbs so we can have some rise happening here at home (and on our loaves of bread).
Ingredients
- 6 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 packages active dry yeast (not quick-rise or bread machine)
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more for coating the bowl if needed
- 2cups warm water 110 – 120 degrees F
Making The Perfect Loaf
Assemble All Your Ingredients
You’ll be needing warm water, some sugar, and instant yeast. That’s it! The rest can be found on your kitchen shelves or in the food section of any major store near you–vegetable oil for example is usually located next to condiments like soy sauce at this type of place – but wait there are more ingredients: salt (from the sea or mined salts), etcetera…
Allow The Yeast To Dissolve
Drown your yeast in warm water and then proof it with a bit of sugar. This simple process takes about 6 minutes, but you’ll be able to see what the result looks like below! If using very hot water, it will kill off some or all my yeast life cycle (which has never happened), just make sure to use warm water, that is around 105°F for optimal results combined with 1 TBSP granulated granules per one cup of liquid ingredients plus five additional minutes before giving up on any leftovers that need reusing again later – unless they’re delicious.
Add The Other Ingredients
Once all ingredients have been added, mix using a good electric mixer for 3 minutes. Additionally, you can mix with your hands but it will take more time.
Start Kneading The Dough
We guess you are wondering, “What is kneading? Is it important to know how I can make my favorite bread recipe?” Well, let me tell you what this process entails. Kneading protein-rich dough with the help of water and flour creates gluten which helps give rise or height to baked goods like bread; they become lighter as well because there’s less yeast work involved when we’re talking about automated machines! You don’t even need any fancy equipment – just your hands will do if possible.
Allow The Dough Rise
When making bread, the first step is to keep the stretchy dough inside a big bowl, then you need to use an aluminum foil or clothe to cover it. The best material for this task will be chosen based on how well they contrast from each other – We like using spray-on paneling because not only does its surface help me keep track of what side gets greasy during cooking times but also keeps things cleaner all around!
Start Punching The Dough
Punch down your dough quickly to avoid air pockets, then shape it to have a ball like shape and roll it twice or thrice. We do punch our risen loaves soon after they’ve taken shape so that their rising has enough time for good coverage before baking; this also helps keep them tender by preventing over-browning at the bottom edge due to enrichment (especially if using canned goods).
Start Baking
Allow the Bread to bake properly for 15 minutes or more. We make use of a refined thermometer to check the bread temperature. The Bread has to reach 190°F before it reaches its golden brown perfection.
Allow Your Bread To Cool
You have to have to give the bread some minutes to cool before turning it to any surface like a plate, clean piece of clothe or a good rack. Wait until all parts of your loaf have cooled before slicing into it because otherwise you risk getting soggy sections!
Enjoyed this recipe? Learn how to make delicious butter bread and cakesicles.