WHEN IT’S BROWN IT’S COOKING – WHEN IT’S BLACK IT’S DONE

 

 

If I am making toast out of store-bought bread, I like it burnt, otherwise, to me, it is tasteless.

 

I knew an old man in Newfoundland who lived around the bay.   His wife made homemade bread almost every day.  He called the store-bought bread Bakers Fog.  

 

My wife and I started making homemade bread in a bread machine in 1985 while we were teaching in a Native village 150 miles north of Fairbanks.   It was a six-hour drive on a single lane road across the tundra, if the weather was good.  It was a potentially dangerous trip at the best of times.

 

Our first machine was made by DAK and looked like the R-2 D-2 robot in the early Star Wars movies.  

 

After that the Breadman was our choice of bread machine; but their quality went to crap along with a collapsible paddle that would pop lose during the breadmaking process.   We have even tried the expensive Swedish, two paddle machine which turned out inconsistent quality.   We now have a Cuisinart and I am extremely pleased with it.  (I like most Cuisinart products, but their toaster sux).

 

Bread making is so easy and the quality of bread is so good, I don’t know why most people don’t own a bread machine.

 

I think people that have tried bread machines, but found them inadequate, probably tried artisan and sourdough breads before mastering the basic white bread.  They ended up with doughy or grainy or just bad tasting results.   It is like signing up for karate classes and then jumping into a cage with a mixed martial arts fighter.   

 

The basic white bread recipe is easy:

1 1/8 cup of water

2 tbsp olive oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp of sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp yeast

In that order.  Exact measurements of flour, olive oil and water are critical.  Many recipes call for more than one teaspoon of yeast – but I have never found it necessary.

 

The next step is optional:  The Cuisinart beeps after the final kneed.  At that time, I pause the machine, remove the bread pan, dump the dough onto a floured surface, remove the paddle, reshape the dough and return it to the pan and the bread machine.   Otherwise, the paddle gets baked into the base of the bread and you end up with a hole in the bread when you removing the paddle. 

 

I let my bread sit for about four hours before sealing it in a plastic storage bag.  I let the bread sit on the counter overnight before slicing.

 

The hardest part of the whole process is slicing.  I have ended up with a bamboo bread slicing gismo that I like; but it has taken me many loafs of bread before becoming proficient.   

Just like karate, you need to practice.

 

You can not beat the taste of toast made with homemade white bread.

 

Did I run and

And am I tired?

the Ol’Buzzard

 

 

 

 

A RECIPE FOR BREAD

A LOAF OF BREAD, A JUG OF WINE, A JAR OF MAYONNAISE, AND YOU LYING NAKED BESIDE ME IN THE WILDERNESS.  

My beautiful young wife and I have lived ‘off the grid’ for most of our married life.  We were married after I retired from the military, and moved into a 200 year old farmhouse without electricity, water or sewerage.  We carried our water from the stream behind the house,  read by lamp light, heated with wood, and supplemented our food with our garden; all while attending college for four years.

  

After our graduation we moved to Alaska and taught school in the remote Indian and Eskimo villages of the sub-arctic, arctic and south-west interior.    We now live in a small post-and-beam cabin (about 800 square feet) in north-western Maine.  We still heat with firewood and have gas lamps installed in the living room and kitchen as a back up for when we lose electricity – which often happens during winter snow storms.

During much of the time we have lived together we have made our own bread.  We now use a commercial bread machine (the Breadman Ultimate) and are completely pleased with it.     I was raised eating white bread (Wonder Bread) but I also ate spam, vienna sausage, lots of gravy and bought Old Crow whiskey by the gallon.   Wives tend to change a man’s habits.

To get on with it, our bread of choice is now a multi-grain.   I am including the recipe here for anyone that would like to try it.

Most of the ingredients for this bread will be available at a health food store 

THE OL’BUZZARD’S MULTIGRAIN BREAD RECIPE.

• 1 ½ Cups of water at room temperature
• 2 tbsp of molasses: stirred in until dissolved
• 1 1/3  Cups of wheat flour
•  ¾ Cups of Rye flour
• ¾ Cups of white bread flour
• 1 ¾ Cups of six grain flour
• 4 tbsp of six grain cereal
• 2 tbsp powdered milk
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp gluten
• 1 tsp dried yeast

Select the two pound wheat bread setting on the bread machine.

There is a secret to making good bread in a bread machine.   First of all you must measure ingredients carefully.   Second, after the mixing begins you should open the top and check the consistency of the mixture:  if you see flour in the bottom of the pan that is not combining you should add one tablespoon of water (one tablespoon is usually good - the tendency is to add too much water at this point.)   If you see the dough is wet and sticking to the side of the bread pan you should sprinkle one or two tablespoons of flour until the dough is spinning free off the sides of the bread pan. 

The cycle for most bread machines is: kneed – rise, kneed – rise, kneed rise, and then bake.  Check the time of the last kneed cycle and at that time remove the dough from the bread pan, extract the paddle, kneed the bread on a lightly floured surface for about fifteen seconds in order to close up the cavity left by removal of the paddle.  Then reshape the dough and place it back in the bread pan and put the pan back in the bread machine for the last rise cycle and bake cycle. 

You should get a good loaf.   Bread machines vary so some tweaking of the recipe will improve your bread.  

Bread should sit for cooling on a rack for about an hour before cutting – usually I can’t wait that long.  Hot bread slathered with butter is difficult to cut, but taste great.

The Ol’Buzzard