French Bread Memories- Loaf 3

So growing up, my mom had a bread machine. I have fond memories of her making mixes and bagging them into the fridge so we could have quick and simple homemade bread. I remember her experimenting with cornflake bread, and she always cut her butter and put it in the four corners. She says with her machine, it would spread better throughout the bread. My favorite bread she would make was a simple French bread. Somewhat dense, but also springy slathered in a thin layer of butter, warm from the machine... yum...

I called my mom last week for her recipe. She still has her recipes, and was more than happy to share for the cause. Meanwhile in the background my father's warning: You don't want that recipe, it's too good, we ate too much of it and it was bad for us. I agree, eating several loafs of it a week like we did when I was a kid is not good for your health. Which is why I decided to share this recipe with 10 other women, not a bad idea eh?

Below is the recipe I scratched while on the phone to my mother... looks good, no?

 Just in case you didn't get all that.. ha!

1 cup plus 3 tables spoons water
1 tablespoon of butter
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dry active yeast (1 1/2 teaspoons if bread machine yeast)

So as per all machines, first add your wet ingredients. You might notice in the scribbles about the water it says hot. I was told it needed to be warm, so I thought why don't I pop it in the microwave? I just wrote down hot for my sake....

 

 

Then I checked the temperature and realized I may have gotten overzealous. What else do you do with a meat thermometer in a mostly vegetarian household? At least my ground beef would be done, ha!

 

So after a quick realization, I just let the tap warm up. Silly me. In to the pot went the wet ingredients, and then the dry. If you're keeping up, you might notice the yeast is a little different, I opted for the fleismann's to see how it'd compare and if I could avoid the big bread loaf dents. make yourself a yeast volcano in the dry ingrdients. I prefer the light crust, and I used the regular basic setting on the machine.

The loaf turned out beautifully, without the big dents in the top. May I present, SUPER LOAF! Kinda looks like a cape..

The ladies loved the bread, I made three loaves of it and it made awful good turkey sandwich. Keeping it in plastic will help keep it fresh longer, but the cut edge of the bread will start to go stale within a day or two. I  give this loaf 4 loaves out of 5 for it's versatility, springiness, and overall yummy taste. It would be a 5 if it didn't go stale so easily. Overall a beautiful basic loaf.

Fanfare for the First Loaf

I had decided to start this blog after I bought the bread machine off of craigslist.  That being said, who buys a new (or new to them) fun kitchen gadget and doesn't try it out? Really, who?

So, though undocumented by photo, I thought I would share about the first loaf of bread. Excitedly I went home, and after purchasing some White Lilly Bread flour, I ran home to test it out. The Boy is particularly fond of White Lilly flours, as many of his family recipes involve it despite being Yankees from the cold depths of MI.

Walked in the door, pulled out the machine, the flour and realized.... I need a recipe.

Being resourceful, I thought what better place to get a recipe than the manual from the machine itself? Except as the machine is new to me, not new, I didn't have a manual. Oh the women had mentioned she had it somewhere, and she could even mail it to me if she found it while moving. A nice thought, but I politely declined. I know the ol' "the manual's in the mail." Once she had her cash, she didn't really care if I had the manual or not. I would forge my own path, how hard could it be?

I found the manual online. Great! Chapter 2: Let's Bake Bread. Sounds like the perfect place to start, right? Who needs chapter 1?

Then I was enlightened by the most important secret to bread making. Exact measurements. They said it 3 times in four lines, I guess they must me right. Apparently exact measurements means tediously scooping flour into the measuring cup, and then leveling it off. Did you know you can add up to a full tablespoon by scooping your flour with the measuring spoon? Whew, glad I read the manual. Who wants to be off by a tablespoon?


A quick scan revealed that there was indeed a second most important tip to bread making, this one even more important to us with bread machines. Put the ingredients in the machine in the right order.

First: Wet ingredients
Second: Dry ingredients
 Last: Yeast

Phew, glad I read the manual. Now it gives me a recipee for simple, but very good white bread.

Oster Bread Machine Simple White Bread Recipe

1 + 1/3 cups water
4 teaspoons softened
butter or margarine
4 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons dry milk
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

I load up the machine, set the crust setting to medium and wait with bated breath for 4 hours for the first loaf. The machine clunks and beeps at random times, what's that about? Just when I begin to forget it's there, it starts clunking again. I peep through the window hole on the top. Nope, still just dough. Thank goodness for window holes for the restless.

Four hours later it beeps a loud beep. Is this the "come pull the delicious masterpiece out of the machine" beep? I slide the loaf onto a cooling rack and was the lucky the mixing paddle just fell out. I begin wielding my bread knife. Pretty crusty for a medium setting. In fact, way to crumbly. Inside is very light, and chewy, but the edge could break teeth. "It's good as long as you eat the inside" The boy reassures me. So this is the medium setting? The dark setting must make the loaf one giant brick.

Crumb nuggets. Luckily our neighbors keep birds who enjoy bread. I'm sure they pecked away at the first loaf and had a swell time. Guess where all the failed loafs will be going after this?

Looking back, and re-reading the recipe, I now realize I completely disregarded the powdered milk instruction. I carefully measured and leveled my flour, yet forgot powdered milk? You heard it right.

So the first loaf was meh. I hope your first loaf turns out better. Maybe you'll read the recipe and you know, follow the whole thing?

I give this recipe 2 loaves out of 5. Maybe it would have gotten 3 loaves if I hadn't forgotten the milk.

Stay tuned, the first loaf of 2010 will be coming shortly. The new year is just 3 days away!