Yummy bread recipe.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/three-cheese-bread

Made this over night I'm told it was lovely but there was none left by time I went for a slice at 8am ! That's a sure test of a good tasting loaf.

I swapped Swiss cheese for a strong cheddar.

Re: Yummy bread recipe.

The cheese, esp Parmesan will give good flavour to any bread but as a recipe I don't like it very much. The hydration is very low at 47% and will make for a dense tight crumb, i.e. heavy loaf. I would up that to 65 to 70 percent hydration. The recipe also makes the loaf very quickly (bread machine!) as opposed to being long fermented so it will be harder to digest and less healthy.

I would reduce the yeast to just 1g, a tiny amount and make the dough without the cheese and leave it to proof overnight on the kitchen counter. In the morning gently add the cheese and incorporate it into the dough, shape the loaf, leave another 30 mins to rise a bit more and then bake in the oven. I would also add ground fennel spice to the mix too as this goes great with a cheesy bread. Bread maker really not required here. Equally sugar is not required to make good bread so I would leave that out too.

Re: Yummy bread recipe.

Sounds delicious - will give it a try.

Re: Yummy bread recipe.

Made it again last night and got up early it is yummy I can now attest. It's a close textured bread but that's part of its appeal not everything has to be airy fairy to be nice. It's also designed for a bread machine you never put as much water in the mixes I've found.

So by all means make realists recipe and it may be very nice but it's the one at the top I make and everyone loves so only one I can say is lovely.

Re: Yummy bread recipe.

Close textured ?! That's a bit like describing a heavy "brick" cake as "richly dense" !

47% water is nowhere near enough for a decent loaf unless that loaf has other liquids in it. It will always create a dense "brick" of a loaf and doubtless it is because of that fact that the recipe then piles other things in it to try and make it softer and somehow lighter, like butter and sugar.
The sugar is in there to "feed the yeast" and try and extract more yeast activity. In truth it is totally unnecessary and a little pointless. The yeast will feed on the natural sugars in the dough and they will reproduce themselves every 90 mins. You can't speed that process up.

I appreciate this, but at the same time it demostrates just how limiting and poor bread machines actually are. They really don't save you anything and at the same time they produce poor loaves that are dense, small and which are effectively "forced" quickly through the process.

The flavour of good bread, of any kind, comes from the natural fermentation of the yeasts in the dough and the production of LABs (lactobateria). TIME is the key element in making any decent loaf. Time for the dough to properly ferment, to convert the startches to sugars, to allow the yeasts and LABs to multiply, create ethanol and carbon dioxide and for the gluten to develop.

Really the only difference in your own personal time between a bread machine loaf and a hand made oven loaf is the mixing of the dough in a food mixer (3 to 5mins) and the shaping of the loaf (30 secs) shortly before it goes in the oven. Like I said, a bread machine really saves you nothing and severely limits what you can make and how it is made. Why limit yourself and make inferior loaves?

I guess most see them as an "easy life" but really they are no easier than making your own loaf.

It would be a good experiment actually to try the loaf again without the machine and mix the dough yourself in a food mixer and let the dough ferment overnight and then bake it next morning.

Here's a recipe to try:

Strong White Bread Flour : 500g
Fresh Yeast : 1g
Salt: 5g
Water: 350g

Mix those ingredients in the mixer on slow for 2 mins to incorporate everything and then turn the speed up to high and mix for another 3 to 5 mins until you can hear the dough slapping against the sides of the mixer bowl.

Put the dough into a large tuppaware (plastic) box (or equivalent) with a lid and leave on the kitchen counter overnight. Box or bowl doesn't matter so long as it is covered. You could use a bowl and cling film. Be sure there is plenty of space for the dough to at least double in size.

Next morning the dough will be incredibly bubbly and will smell lovely too. Gently tip it out onto a floured board and gently stretch it out into say a rough rectangle (we'll make a log loaf). Try not to be rough with it, we want to keep the air pockets that have developed.

Once stretched out, sprinkle the various cheeses over that you want and some ground fennel if you have it and then roll the dough up from the short side to make a kind of swiss roll. Now roll the ends of the log with your palms to make them slightly tapered and to seal them. Transfer the loaf to a loaf tin and leave to rise again for 20 to 20 mins.

At the same time switch the oven onto its highest setting (prob around 240C) to warm up and place a deep roasting tray in the bottom of the oven so it gets hot too. Grab a mug a fill it with water and have it ready by the oven.

When the 20 to 30 mins rising is up, pop the loaf in the oven as quickly as possible so as not to lose any heat, and at the same time throw the cup of water into the roasting tray and shut the door. This should create steam which will help the loaf rise and spring well. Turn the oven down to about 200C and bake for 30 mins or until golden brown.

You should end up with a lovely golden loaf which is slightly crispy on the outside, soft and flavoursome on the inside and with a good "crumb", i.e. not dense, but with plenty of nice holes.

Good luck

Re: Yummy bread recipe.

We've been down this road before I put my ingredients in and go to bed, get up next morning and nice loaf is awaiting us. I can put it on and go to work nice loaf waiting when I get home. If I wanted less sleep or not to work I may give up the machine but it works for me. Your method works for you neither are right or wrong just different.

Re: Yummy bread recipe.

Yep. But you could just as easily mix your ingredients first thing (takes less than 5 mins !), then leave it till you come home, and then bake it. No loss of sleep, no loss of work time, a better tasting loaf, a better developed loaf and a healthier loaf.

Or you could mix your ingredients on a Friday evening, go to bed, then in the morning bake your loaf. Same result, a better tasting healthier loaf.

Lots of options, just takes the will to try something different.

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It's no healthier not using a bread machine ! If you use decent ingredients it's exactly the same machine or by hand. Way I organise my life is my business too if I want to go to bed knowing my breads doing nicely that's my business. You do what you find best I do what I prefer. I can't see why you can't get that in your head.

Re: Yummy bread recipe.

That's a totally ignorant comment I'm afraid. If you were to take the time to learn properly about bread making, dough rheology and method then you would understand. It's not about the ingredients, it's about the process. Any old fool can lob some ingedients into a machine without thinking.

Making healthy bread is about understanding what is going on in the dough, what the starches, sugars, yeasts and LABs are doing. Understanding how the dough changes over time, what chemical reactions are going on inside and the impact of time, temperature, hydration etc are the elements that are needed to be able to know what is a healthy bread.

Have you ever sprouted wheat grains for a healthier bread? . . . .

Up to you whether you care to go learn those things.

Re: Yummy bread recipe.

I'm that any old fool realist I just want to feed the family food they enjoy without too much fuss. It's hard enough feeding a man with ocd and a young man with no time because he's working shifts plus a child that I don't want to learn to be fussy from her dad. I do my best thought some may like this bread recipe that's all.

If you don't that's fine I'd never call you names for not agreeing. But if you can't accept not everyone has time of inclination to do what you do them you'd in for a frustrating time.