Nitty Gritty Bread

[kirra]

Nitty Gritty Bread
Nitty Gritty Foodbook

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups warm water (approx 80 to 85 degrees F.)
4 Tablespoons powdered yeast (or 4 packets or 4 cakes)
1/3 cup honey (or 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon ginger
4 cups unbleached flour
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons salt
1/2 cup oil
1 cup dry milk powder (if you add whole milk, it must be scalded, then decrease the amount of liquid by the amount of milk, and cool that milk!)
5 cups whole-wheat flour
5 cups rye flour
(you can use any kinds of flour you wanna play with as long as the total flour adds up to 14 cups.)

Preparation:

Into a very large bowl, pour the water, and add the yeast, honey (0r sugar), and ginger. Stir until the yeast is well dissolved. Then add the first 4 cups of flour. Mix well, then ignore for a half an hour while you go play with the dog or something.

When you get back add the eggs, salt, oil and dry milk, or wet if you oped for it. Mix well, then add your other flours a bit at a time, working them in. Mix the flour and knead in until the dough feels similar to the consistency of your earlobe. Go ahead and check it. Now you have a dough ear, doh. If you add too much flour, the bread will be coarse and dry. It should be sticky enough to pick up the flour from the bowl, but not sticky enough to be hard to handle with your oiled hands.

Work the dough on a lightly floured board. Knead it by folding over toward you, then pressing away with the heels of your hands. Turn the dough around a little, then repeat the kneading. Repeat until the dough is not sticky, but is smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl for rising, turning the dough over once so the greased side is up to prevent a hard crust from forming.

Cover and let rise in a warm place preferably between 80 to 85 degrees and without a draft. If you8 have a gas range the plot light in the oven will provide the right temperature. If your stove is electric, turn on the oven on the lowest setting and put the bread in to rise leaving the door open, but watch it closely. If the temperature is too cool the yeast wont grow so the dough won't rise, and if it is too hot it will kill the yeast completely.

Let the dough rise until double in size, about 45 minutes to an hour depending on temperature and altitude. Dough rises faster the high the altitude. A finger pressed into the dough will leave an indentation when the dough has doubled.

When your bread has risen, punch down the dough: Fold it and turn it, then let it rise again until almost double. Seems like a cruel thing to do to those hard working yeasties eh?

After risen again, cut the dough into 4 pieces for molding into loaves. Let rise another 10 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 at sea level or 400 above 4,000 feet while you prep your loaves.

With closed fists work the air out of each portion with a rolling motion. Work and roll each portion into a loaf shape. Place the dough into your greased bread pan with the edge where the loaf comes together toward the bottom of the pan. The pan should be two-thirds full.

Cover the loaves with a cloth, and let them rise outside the oven until the dough reaches the tops of the pans and the middle of the loaf is rounded (about 30 to 60 minutes). A slight indentation will be left with the finger when the loaves are ready to bake. Have you ever stopped to consider the veritable yeast orgy that is going on in your bread? Good thing it's almost time to bake and kill those suckers off!

Place the pans in the center of the hot oven, allowing space between them for the heat to circulate. Bake until brown (about 40 to 50 minutes). A slight indentation will be left with the finger when the loaves are ready to bake.

Place the pans in the center of the hot oven, allowing space between them for the heat to circulate. Bake until brown (about 40 to 50 minutes). Tap the loaves out of the pans. If baked throughout, the loaves will sound hollow when you tap their bottoms. If not done, return loaves to the oven for a few minutes. Oh it smell so good!

Take the bread from the pans and set it to cool sideways across the pans. Spread a thin coating of oil on the crusts with a pastry brush and cover the loaves with cloth or wax pape, if you desire a soft crust. Do not oil them or cover them if you want crisp crusts. I can never wait, at this point I am reaching for a good serrated knife and the butter dish. Warm bread with butter, yum!

Store bread you don't use within 2 or 3 days in the freezer. Reheat in a paper bag sprinkled with water in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes or until thawed. You can also freeze the unbaked loaves of dough. Bake them later after allowing to thaw and rise. The quality will be better, however if baked and then frozen.

Variation:
Toss in 1 cup Familia to the batch. (Recipe in Cereals/Snacks/Party Mix section: Cereals/Trail Mix subsection: Familia.)