I honestly felt like I had already written this up to be honest… but it deserves another post.
Last weekend amidst prepping for a couple days in LA, I pumped two loaves of homemade bread out of my kitchen. One was more of a wheat loaf, the other just plain ole white. I had wanted to mail something to my grandfather since I hadn’t sent much his way in a few weeks. The other loaf was to bribe my sister to visit Eleanor while I was out of town.
While I had made the white bread before to accompany the Country Beef stew, the wheat bread was a new experiment. I had a bag of wheat bran on hand from the healthiest muffins ever a few weeks earlier. I haphazardly swapped one cup of regular flour for one cup of wheat bran and just hoped for the best. I barely got the bread out of the oven in time to take it to yoga and then the post office. Pretty sure it was a terrible thing to have the smell of fresh bread wafting out of my bag at a yoga studio.
The result? I had the following conversation with my grandfather on Saturday morning:
G: I got your bread on Monday afternoon.
Me: Oh that’s great! It was a bit of an experiment.
G: I wanted to tell you that you should quit your job … and just bake bread.
So, if that isn’t a resounding recommendation to try this recipe… you are an idiot. I’m going to keep my job since I currently find it fulfilling, challenging, and enjoyable. But, I will admit that this little conversation made me feel like a pretty great baker. I think it’s okay to admit that.
Here’s how it goes…
(Step 1) In a big bowl combine the flour, wheat bran, yeast and sugar.
(Step 2) Get your water to be just the slightest bit warm. You need the warm to activate the yeast … but if it’s too hot… you kill the yeast. Dead yeast means dead dough which means dead bread.
(Step 3) Add the water to the flour mixture and combine with a spoon or spatula. The dough should look “wet”. I drizzle a bit of olive oil on the top just for added moisture… and perhaps effect.
(Step 4) Cover your bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rest for as long as you can handle it. I try to aim for 12 -18 hrs.
(Step 5) After the rise, generously dump some flour on a surface and pour out the dough. Sprinkle some more flour on the dough and gently kneed into a dough ball baby. You’ll need more flour than normal because the dough is so wet.
(Step 6) After your dough is in a perfect little ball, cover and let rest for about 30-45 minutes.
(Step 7) While your dough is resting, preheat the oven to 425 F and put your dutch oven in to heat it up. Once the dough has resting and the oven is hot, place the dough in the pot on a piece of parchment paper.
(Step 8) Bake for 20 minutes with the lid on and then pull the lid for the last 15-20 minutes. Your bread is done when the surface is golden brown and crusty (in a good way)
Shopping List
3 cups of flour (substitute 1 cup for 1 cup of wheat bran if desired)
1 5/8 cups of warm water
2 T sugar
1/2 t yeast