Yesterday I posted about making bread with the kids and letting them use it as “dough” to make edible sculptures. Sharon asked about the recipe.
I use the basic White Bread recipe out of my bread machine cookbook, but with a few minor adjustments for the use of part whole wheat flour, and to be able to finish cooking it in the oven.
Why the oven? Well, I like the shape of the classic bread pan better-it just makes better sandwiches than that funny bread machine loaf pan. I basically use my bread machine as an automated mixer/riser/kneader these days, rarely letting it do the actual bake function.
Frugal Upstate’s Basic Bread
1 1/2 Cups Water
2 TBS Butter/Shortening/Margarine*
2 Cups Flour
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
3 TBS Dry Milk
1 TBS Vital Wheat Gluten
2 TBS Sugar (or Honey)
2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
-This recipe is for a 2 lb loaf.
-Put everything in the bread machine in the order listed and run on the dough cycle. Alternately you can use the regular bread cycle and let the whole thing cook up on your bread maker.
-When dough is done, shape and put in lightly sprayed or greased bread pan (or make into shapes and put on cookie sheet) and let rise in a warmish, draft free area for 40 min.**
-Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until you get that hollow “knocking” sound when you tap a knuckle on the top of the bread loaf. If you do smaller shapes or rolls you may want to check a little sooner.
Variations:
White Bread-Use all white flour, and leave out the vital wheat gluten. The gluten is to add extra protein to help the bread rise better, you don’t really need it with regular flour, especially if you already added the powdered milk.
100% Wheat Bread-Up the vital wheat gluten to 2 TBS. Makes a denser loaf, but it does rise.
100% Wheat Chapati Flour loaf-I found this great Chapati flour at my local Asian food store. This was 100% Wheat Chapati Flour-many Chapati flours have chickpea flour or graham flour-I’m not sure how that would work in bread. Chapati flour is used to make Indian Chapatis (duh), and has 15grams of fiber per cup (or something like that). Despite that the texture is more like regular flour, ground all fine without the visible flakes you see in WW flour. However all that fiber just sucks up the water, and the particular flour has a low gluten content. When I use that flour I use 3 Cups white flour, 1 Cup Chapatis flour, increase the water by 1/2 Cup, and use 2 TBS of Vital Wheat Gluten. This was discovered by trial and error. I really like the bread made this way though and need to buy another 15lb bag when I go to the Asian market again.
* You could probably even use olive oil-but I haven’t tried that.
** Personally in the winter, with my kitchen being fairly cold, I turn the oven on to warm, then turn it off when heated up and use that to let it rise. I’ve also put the bread pan into the microwave as a draft free area before.
phia says
I also use my bread machine to mix/knead the dough and then bake it in the oven. My recipe (in case anyone is interested) for a 2lb batch, which I bake in two loaf pans:
1 3/8 cu room temp water
2 Tbls. margarine/butter
2 cu bread flour
1 3/4 teas salt
2 cu AP flour
2 Tbls. powdered milk
2 Tbls. sugar
2 1/4 teas active dry yeast
I put all the ingredients in my bread pan, in the order listed, then set my bread machine to the dough cycle. Once it’s done in the machine, I take it out, separate to two greased loaf pans, and let rise about an hour. I bake at 350 for about a half hour. When done, I rub butter on the top of the bread and let it cool.
Anonymous says
Thanks I am gonna try it tonight!! Annette
Jenn @ Frugal Upstate says
Phia-That sounds good too! What does the butter on top do? I’ve never heard of doing that before
Annette-how did it work out?
cassie says
Hi,
Your site is great. Just wondering, have you ever tried using chapati flour instead of whole wheat flour in a recipe intended for whole wheat bread? I didn’t realize what I was buying when I got chapati flour. I make all our own bread–white or wheat–and I’m trying to figure out how I can use it. I’m happy to learn you can stick some of it into a white bread recipe. I’m going to try that today. Thanks!
Jenn @ Frugal Upstate says
Cassie,
I do use some of it (Chapati Flour), but you have to be careful. It’s got so much fiber that it soaks up water like a sponge. I usually only use it as 1/4 of the flour, add a couple of extra TBS of water, and add 1TBS of vital wheat glueten to help it rise.
However, I can use fully half (probably more) when I make things like pancakes and waffles. My one chocolate chip cookie experiment with it did not end well-but I am willing to try that one again at some point.
It also works fine for any time that you have to dredge something in flour, and I’ve used it as the flour when thickening gravy or sauces.