Super easy bread recipe and how to make slow cooker yogurt- Vanity

[Daffynition]

This is the bread recipe I swear by; [baking stone required]:

Charles Van Over’s The Best Bread Ever

One 1 1/2 pound loaf

• 3 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 2 tsp fine sea salt
• scant 1 1/4 cup filtered water

1. Place the flour, salt, and yeast in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. With the machine running, pour all but 2 tablespoons of the water through the feed tube. Process for 20 seconds, adding the remaining water if the dough seems crumbly and dry and does not come together into a ball during this time. Continue mixing the dough another 25 seconds, for a total of 45 seconds. Your dough should be in a sticky, shaggy ball.

2. Remove the dough from the processor and place it in a large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours. This will allow a slow, cool fermentation. The dough may increase in volume somewhat, but not very much.

3. After the fermentation time has passed, remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to sit at room temperature for at least half an hour. When it has warmed, turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Shape into a boule. Line a colander with a cotton (not terrycloth) towel and sprinkle with flour. Place the boule seam side up in the colander, lightly sprinkle the exposed dough with flour, cover with the edges of the towel, and let rest for another two hours. This is the final proofing stage, and most likely your dough will almost double in bulk. When your dough is done proofing, it will be softer to the touch than before, and will spring back slightly when touched.

4. One hour before baking, put the oven rack on the second shelf from the bottom and place a baking stone on the rack. Place a small pan (I use a pie plate) with one cup of water on the oven floor. Preheat the oven to 475°F.

5. Uncover the loaf. Place it seam side down on a peel or on the back of a baking sheet that has been lightly sprinkled with cornmeal or flour. Sprinkle the loaf lightly with flour, and slash the top several times with a sharp knife razor blade. I find that slashing a tic-tac-toe pattern works nicely.

6. Carefully pour another cup of warm water into the pan on the oven floor. Slide the loaf onto the baking stone in the oven. Reduce the heat to 450°F.

7. Bake the loaf for 40 to 45 minutes, adding water periodically as needed. When it is done, the crust will be golden brown, and tapping the loaf will result in a hollow sound. Or, insert an instant-read thermometer into the bread, and if the internal temperature is 205°F to 210°F, the bread is done. I get very impatient/hungry, so I prefer to rely on the internal temperature.

8. Remove the bread from the oven and immediately place the loaf on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing or storing.

If you want to make an herb bread, add 2 tablespoons fresh herbs to the dry ingredients at the very beginning (in the food processor). If you want to add something a little more substantial (like olives or sun dried tomatoes), fold them into the dough with a scraper on a lightly floured surface before you put it into a bowl to ferment in the refrigerator.

And that’s it! The majority of the time is spent just waiting; it probably takes longer to read through the directions than it does to perform the steps.

[hattend]

Don’t forget to enter your recipes here

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2694984/posts

[deport]

I couldn’t find the bread recipe.

---

Click on this link which is page 2 of 9 in the article and continue on through the pages as far as you need to go for the recipe and info.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx?page=2

[Daffynition]

That’s it! Easy as can be!

I recently purchased a dehydrator; the sparse direction booklet says you can make yogurt with it. Have you ever heard that? Don’t know why I’d try, since the method you describe works great.

[paulycy]

I recently purchased a dehydrator;

Are you going to make jerky? That's almost as good as bacon.

[Lees Swrd]

I had been eating the store bought kind which I found to be mostly grease and salt LOL then I got hold of some homemade and you are right it is good and some does taste as good as bacon.

[paulycy]

[goodwithagun]

Have you ever read the ingredients in some of those fancy artisan breads? My grandmother never made bread with modified corn starch and maltodextrin, lol!

[Lees Swrd]

Man that looks good! Do you make that yourself.

[Texas Fossil]

The Master Recipe: Boule

(Artisan Free-Form Loaf)

Makes 4 1-pound loaves

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1⁄2 tbsp granulated yeast (1 1⁄2 packets)
1 1⁄2 tbsp coarse kosher or sea salt
6 1⁄2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour
Cornmeal for pizza peel

[Daffynition]

Did that...it wasn’t bad.

Gonna make some venison jerky.

Still in the learning process. The fruits were pretty awful. The puppy pulled down the bags of goodies that were dried and ate them ALL! LOL...little fiber in his diet.

[paulycy]

Man that looks good! Do you make that yourself.

No, I just swiped the picture off the interwebs and started drooling over it. Then I started googling recipes for homemade jerky. I don't have one of those cool dehydrator gizmos. Apparently you buy a london broil or a flank steak, cut it into strips, marinate it for 8 hours and bake it at the lowest setting in your oven for 6-8 hours. Easy? Sounds like it. Delicious? I bet it is...

[paulycy]

The puppy pulled down the bags of goodies that were dried and ate them ALL!

I'll bet you used to like that little puppy... ;0)

[Texas Fossil]

My wife made the mistake of buying Walmart bread once. It was simply awful.

When we buy bread from a store (I bake), we normally by from Allsups Convenience Store. Their bread is pretty good and is $1.20 for 2 loaves.

I have been the family baker for 35 years. We like fresh homemade bread of all types. (I don’t own a bread machine)

[Daffynition]

The d@amn dehydrating process went for 48 hours straight. It’s not a hobby I aspire too.

We bought a bag of duck jerky for $10. in PetSmart....pup LOVED it. We thought we’d set up making it when duck season comes and make him a bunch of batches, and svae a ton of $$$$. Meh.

[paulycy]

The d@amn dehydrating process went for 48 hours straight.

That seems extreme. Like I said in the post above you can do jerky in the oven in about 6 hours. Maybe you can do fruit too. I'll look it up.

[EDINVA]

Thanks. I’m going to try the yogurt. Even if it isn’t cost-effective, would definitely be worth trying.

There’s little better than home-made bread, gonna try that too. I may halve the recipe as I work to reduce carbs, so bread is a fairly rare treat.

[paulycy]

Here’s an interesting page I found pretty quickly:

http://farmgal.tripod.com/Dehydrate.html

[Daffynition]

Extreme dehydrating! I LOVE IT! Is that anything like extreme ironing?

WAIT! Maybe I can iron the slices of jerky meat between two paper towels to speed things up! ;-P

[paulycy]

You need to iron beef to get flat meat when making sandwiches with flatbread.