MellyBrelly's White Bread

[fitfool]

Four years ago, mellybrelly posted an entry that made baking bread from scratch look doable. There were many many photos that demystified the process. As soon as I saw her instructions, I had to try it for myself. The very next Saturday, after about 8 hours in the kitchen, I had tired arms, messy counters, and tons of bread. Loved it!







Instructions:

1. Make the starter. In a small bowl, combine these ingredients:
   1/2 tsp sugar
   3 Tbsp yeast
   1 cup warm water
   
   
   
   
2. In a separate large bowl, mix together these items:
   4 tsp salt
   1/2 cup butter (or margarine or oil)
   3/4 cup of white sugar
   1/4 cup of brown sugar
   
   
   
   
3. Into that large bowl, mix in:
   2 eggs
   2 cups hot water
   1 cup milk
   2 Tbsp lemon juice
   
   
   
   
4. Go back to the big bowl of combined wet ingredients. Start adding flour, a cup at a time. Mix with a wooden spoon. Keep adding flour and mixing. When the yeast and water mix is looking bubbly and smelling yeasty (takes about 10 minutes), mix that in with your dough. Continue kneading in a cup of flour at a time until it's smooth.
   
   [I found that vague instruction rather distressing. How smooth is smooth? About how many cups should I use? Am I kneading enough? Am I kneading too much? After about 7 cups, it was looking doughy. I spread some flour on the counter where I planned to knead the bread. After 9 cups, I removed it from the bowl to the floured surface. I kept kneading and adding flour until I had added 12 cups of flour. This took me a long time. Maybe as much as 45 minutes to add in all the flour.]
   
   
   
   Left to Right: 3 cups flour added, 7 cups flour, 9 cups flour (then poured it out onto floured surface to knead), and the final ball of dough after 12 cups flour
   
   
5. Get a big clean bowl and butter/grease the sides. Put the dough in there and butter/grease the top of the bread as well. Cover the top of the bowl with a tea towel or sheets of wax paper. Let it rise for 2 hours.
   
   
   
   L to R: 1. dough first put in bowl 2. After 1 hour 3. After 2 hours
   
   
6. Punch the dough down and separate it into 4 sections. Shape the dough into desired shapes. I made one into a French Bread loaf and a round loaf, one went into greased loaf pan, one was made into dinner rolls, and one was made into another long loaf and some assorted raisin rolls.
   
   
   
   Here's the dough formed into various loaves. The top left is in a greased loaf pan. The rest are on greased baking sheets that have been sprinkled with cornmeal.
   
   For the dinner rolls, I greased a muffin tin and then made three little balls of dough for each muffin tin section.
   
   
   
   These puff up over the edges when they're done.
   
   
7. Set the shaped dough aside and cover. Allow to rise another 45 minutes.
   
   
8. Bake 350F for 30-40 minutes.
   
   
9. When crust is nicely browned, cool bread on wire racks. Enjoy!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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Ingredients
1/2 tsp sugar
3 Tbsp yeast
1 cup warm water

4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup of brown sugar

2 eggs
2 cups hot water
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp lemon juice

~ 12 cups flour

1. Mix starter of yeast, a little sugar, and warm water. Set that aside for about 10 minutes.
   
2. Add flour a cup at a time until smooth. Start in big bowl with a wooden spoon to mix. When it becomes doughy, transfer to floured surface and continue adding flour and kneading. (total for me was about 12 cups flour)
   
3. Butter/grease a big bowl and the top of the dough.
   
4. Cover dough and let rise for 2 hours.
   
5. Punch down. Divide into 4 parts. Form into desired shapes for the loaves or muffins.
   
6. Place in greased pans.
   
7. Cover shaped dough and let rise 45 minutes.
   
8. Twenty minutes before baking, pre-heat oven to 350F.
   
9. Bake in 350F oven for 30-40 minutes.
   
10. Cool on wire racks.
    

Links to the original posts:
http://community.livejournal.com/food_porn/2058118.html
http://mellybrelly.livejournal.com/608165.html

Thread in bakebakebake: http://community.livejournal.com/bakebakebake/2632266.html