Natti says I'm obsessed ......

Maybe she's right. I baked my first ever loaf of bread a couple of weeks ago, a wild yeast whole wheat sourdough. For my first shot at bread baking, it came out pretty good. I baked three more loaves over the last couple of weeks, and none came out as good as the first. All three taste good and have that sourdough tanginess, but two of them came out flat like a focaccia. The other looked beautiful, but it was a tad under cooked and quite dense (kind of like my noggin).



So today I decided to try something that uses regular old commercial yeast. I don't have time to wait for the sourdough starter to do it's magic (or maybe I'm just impatient). I started off with a Honey-Whole Wheat loaf... A very simple recipe: 1 package of dry yeast dissolved in 1 cup of warm milk, let it bloom for about 5 to 10 minutes in the bowl of the trusty stand mixer. Add 3 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 egg, a couple of tablespoons of honey and 3 tablespoons of butter. Put the dough hook on the mixer and knead for about 10 minutes on slow speed. You come out with a ball of dough that looks similar to the one below.


That little ball of dough needs to sit in a warm place in an oiled bowl covered with Saran wrap for about an hour. During that time, it will grow as the yeast does it's magic. Then I take it out of the bowl, flatten it, fold it, flatten and fold again...several times. Eventually, I roll it into a log and put it in a buttered bread pan for another hour of rising. (sorry I didn't get pics of all this) Then into a 375 F oven for 35 minutes....Out comes a perfectly lovely loaf of bread.



Next up, an Oatmeal-Molasses loaf. Dump a cup of boiling water over a half cup of old fashioned rolled oats. Add about three tablespoons of butter and a couple of tablespoons of molasses and let it sit until cooled to 105 to 115F (so it don't kill the yeast). Add one package of active dry yeast and wait about 10 minutes for it to bloom. Add 2 cups of unbleached flour and a teaspoon of salt, put on the dough hook and knead for about ten minutes on low speed. I had to add flour to get the right consistency, but I didn'y measure it. You know it's right when the dough is stiff and pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl. Make a dough ball just as above and put in an oiled bowl covered with Saran Wrap for it's hour of rising. It should look like this after it has risen.



Now I flatten it out...



and start folding. (This is what you missed on the Honey-Wheat bread)



I flatten and fold about a half dozen times, then roll it into a log and dump it into the buttered bread pan for another hour of rising. Before rising, it looks like this.



An hour later, it looks like this.



40 minutes in the oven at 375 and it looks like this!!