Nothing beats homemade bread. It's great for sandwiches, toasted for breakfast, dipped in egg for french toast or seasoned and baked as garlic bread. For my purposes today, I needed bread for some burgers I'm going to grill. I picked up some 85% lean grass fed angus ground beef, romaine lettuce, cheddar cheese and an onion so my son and I can enjoy the yummy hamburger patties. Whoops, my son says he wants me to hold the onion on his. So there ya go.
Any time I prepare to make something delicious in the kitchen my first step is to assemble the ingredients. All the ingredients sit on the counter. We've got your flour, sugar, salt, water, yeast and oil ready to go. I gave them a pep talk and their mission is to make the best damn bread this side of the kitchen. They promised not to fail me.
Maybe it's considered lazy or blasphemy by the bread purists out there but we use a bread machine to MIX the dough and allow it to do the initial proof. We don't bake it in the bread machine because it tends to create a very thick hard crust that is no bueno. We have the Oster Expressbake Breadmaker. I think this is our 3rd or 4th bread machine since my wife and I have been married...15 years. Since we only use it to mix and proof the bread I think the machines tend to last longer than if we did the baking as well.
My method of adding the ingredients is the result of some trial and error to ensure all the ingredients get properly mixed. I first add the water to the bread machine pan then dump the flour on top of it. I make a little well in the middle of the flour and dump in the yeast. Then I sprinkle the sugar, salt and oil around the edges of the flour. When all the ingredients are in and a final pep talk occurs it's time to start the machine. For this particular machine there is a Dough setting, setting number 9. This does all the mixing and initial proofing you need. I think it takes about 90 minutes.
When the time is over the bread machine does this beeping sequence that doesn't seem to stop despite my angry yelling at it to "STOP!" It's annoying but I reach deep inside to calm the rage within and remember the bread machine saved me some time so I become happy again. It has risen!
My next step is to roll the dough into the desired shape. This requires a little flour on the counter top, dexterity and brute strength. Well...maybe just some flour and dexterity. I flatten the dough out into a rectangular shape then roll it up like a hippy rolling a joint...a really big joint. Here is some exclusive footage of the joint....errr....bread dough being rolled up from a hidden camera.
From here the dough is placed on a silicon cooking mat and covered with a towel for an hour or more. This will allow the dough to proof one last time before going into the oven. It is at this point the dough ponders it's life choices and where it went wrong. Below we see a side-by-side of the dough before and after. On the left is when I first put it on the mat then covered it. On the right we see it puffed up like a marshmallow in a microwave. (If you never put a marshmallow in a microwave you gotta do it. It gets freakin' huge!)
When the proofing is done the dough goes into a 400 degree oven for 8-9 minutes. When the first 8-9 minutes are over it time to rotate the bread and finish the baking for another 8-9 minutes. At this point there is the scent of homemade bread in the air filling your home like an old Italian bakery and peace falls over the world. Remember, your oven may bake hotter or cooler than mine so for your first go at making this bread keep an eye on it. Don't it look pretty?
I can't believe you read this far about how I make my bread! You must really love me. Thank you. I love you too. :blushing: Anyway, here is the main reason for me even making this bread in the first place...to have something to put my burgers on. The burgers and onions were grilled to perfection if I do say so myself and the condiments made the entire meal delectable.
*This recipe is for a 1 pound loaf in the above mentioned bread machine.
Take these ingredients and make the best damn french bread you ever had! Thank you for reading.
