Mamuq: Fill your home with the aroma of fresh bread

There is nothing more exquisite than the smell of freshly baked bread. Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads is an excellent collection of recipes from around the world. The great variety makes it a superb book for beginners and more experienced bread-makers alike.

One of the unusual things about most of the recipes is that the yeast is not proofed beforehand and the water temperatures are quite high. If you’ve always wanted to try making bread by hand here’s a recipe from the book for a basic white bread.

The first loaf

Ingredients:

5 to 6 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt

1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup powdered milk
2 cups hot water

3 tbsp shortening, room temperature
Baking pans:

2 medium (8-inch by 4-inch) or 3 small (7-inch by 3-inch) loaf pans, greased or Teflon.

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl measure 2 cups of flour, sugar, salt, yeast and powdered milk. Pour the hot water into the dry ingredients and beat by hand to blend thoroughly. Add the shortening and continue beating. Add 1 cup flour and with a wooden spoon beat 100 vigorous strokes. Continue adding flour, 1/4 cup at a time, and stirring with a wooden spoon until it becomes a shaggy mass. Work more flour into the dough with your hands if it is sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and begin to knead with a strong push-turn-fold motion. Occasionally bring the dough down hard against the work surface with a sharp whack. Do this several times during the process. If the dough continues to be sticky, add light sprinkles of flour. When properly kneaded, the dough will be soft and elastic. It can be pulled into a thin sheet.

Adding too much flour will make a hard ball that will behave poorly. If this happens, work 1 or 2 tsps of water into the dough. If the dough is wet, slack and difficult to handle, add 1 or 2 tbsp of flour.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap to retain moisture, and leave at room temperature until the dough has doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. (If prepared with fast-rising yeast and at the recommended higher temperatures, reduce rising times by about half.)

Turn back the plastic wrap and punch down the dough. Turn it onto a floured surface and knead for a moment or so to force out any bubbles. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 pieces with a sharp knife.

Shape each piece into a ball and let it rest on the work surface for 2 or 3 minutes. Form a loaf by pressing the ball of dough into a flat oval roughly the length of the baking pan. Fold the oval in half, pinch the seam tightly to seal, tuck under the ends and place seam down in the pan. (Sprinkling poppy or other seeds in the loaf pans before placing loaves in makes for a tasty and attractive bottom.)

Cover the pans with wax or parchment paper and leave until the dough has doubled in volume, about 45 minutes at room temperature in a draft-free area.

Preheat oven to 400 ° F about 20 minutes before baking.

Place the loaves in the hot oven for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 ° F for an additional 25 to 30 minutes. Midway through baking, turn the pans around so the loaves are uniformly exposed to the heat.

Turn out onto wire racks to cool. If you want a soft, tender crust, brush the hot loaves with melted butter or margarine. Finally, if this is your first loaf, stand back and admire your creation.

Send your favourite Christmas recipes to mamuqcolumn@yahoo.ca, fax to (867) 979-4763 or write to Nunatsiaq News, Mamuq Column, Box 8, Iqaluit, NU, X0A 0H0.