Homemade Bread . . . I swear it's not that hard!!!

HOMEMADE BREAD

(I swear it's not that hard!)

Whenever I post my bread on facebook everyone thinks I'm amazing. Trust me, I'm not amazing I just follow directions. The secret to a good bread, though, is the prep. If you're a stay at home mommy like me then you will understand how nice it is to have something to do here and there, especially things that take just a moment. Well, this is it!

Night Before:

Easiest thing ever. Fire up that kitchenaid and make a POOLISH! yes, a poolish. It's a european term. There's a whole history but I'll let you Google it. This must ferment in your ice box overnight.

POOLISH:

1 1/4 cups (5 1/4 oz.) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 

2/3 cup (5 1/4 oz.) cool (approximately  60°F) water 

1/8 tsp. instant yeast or 1/8 tsp. active dry

yeast dissolved in 1 tsp. water

Mix her up for about one minute, pop in fridge with plastic wrap over top of bowl. I just make it easy and leave it in the mixing bowl since you have to mix more tomorrow anyway.

Day Of:

Ahhhhh, wake up, have some coffee. Oh, while you're grabbing your cream nab the poolish bowl and set on the counter. In about two hours it'll be ready to mix with other ingredients. 

drink coffee

change fifty diapers

watch sesame street

So, now the poolish is at room temp and sorta bubbly. Sorta like pancake batter in a griddle. 

There is no science to this, you could leave the POOLISH on the counter for five hours on the  if you want. Basically, all you're doing is pre-fermenting the yeast like you would a beer so that your bread has more flavor. 

now we add the rest:

2 1/2 cups (10 1/2 oz.) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 

1 1/2 tsp. instant yeast or 2 tsp. active dry yeast dissolved in 1 tbsp. water 

2 tsp. (3/8 ounce salt 

All of the poolish 

2/3 cup (5 1/4 oz.) cool (approximately 60°F) water

Use the dough hook attachment. Knead for about five minutes. Once done take all dough off hook, grab all of sticky goodness and sorta slather with a little olive oil and throw back in the mixing bowl. Set on your counter for another two and a half or so hours until it's double it's size. 

put baby down for nap

nip a sip of wine

write your blog

Okay! Now we are set to shape the dough. Pull it from the bowl onto a floured surface. Don't knead it, just sorta shape it around until you have a sort of ball. Doesn't have to be beautiful because it's tasty. Place on a baking sheet lined with foil and oil. Take a super duper sharp knife and cut three decisive slits across the top of the dough then cut three more in the other direction until you have a three-pronged # symbol. 

Let the dough rise another twenty to thirty min while you wake baby up from her nap!

Crank the oven up to 475 degrees.

once risen and oven heated. Pop bread in for 20 min. 

TA DA!!!!

Now you have some bread to go with that wine!