Outrageously Easy BIG Bread
2 (1/4 ounce) packets yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups hot water
3 tablespoons turbinado
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups + 3 cups flour, divided
1/3 cup vegetable or corn oil
1. To proof yeast, pour warm water into a small ceramic bowl and add the yeast, but do not stir. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, pour hot water over the turbinado and salt; stir with a wooden spoon to completely dissolve. Combine 3 cups flour with the hot water mixture. Pour the oil on top of the dough mixture then add the yeast mixture on top of that, but do not stir.
2. Top with the remaining 3 cups flour and mix well. (I begin mixing with the wooden spoon but I very quickly have to move into squishing the dough with my hands.) At this point, the dough should be pliant and moist, but not gooey. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and set aside to rise for at least 45 minutes. (I've left it for almost two hours.)
3. On a lightly floured cutting board or countertop, divide the dough into half. (This is when I recruit someone to knead the dough, but the recipe actually calls for no kneading; I've done this recipe many times without kneading anything, and it always turns out really good.) Flatten each half into roughly an oval/rounded rectangular shape, about 1/2-3/4" thickness.
4. Roll the dough lengthwise and place on an ungreased, but very BIG, cookie sheet. (If you don't have a very large cookie sheet, use two cookie sheets, one for each half of the dough.) Cover the dough with a moist towel and set aside to rise again for another 45 minutes (or longer).
5. After the dough has risen the second time, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and bake for exactly 23 minutes. If you can keep everyone from digging in right away, allow to cool for about 15 minutes and then enjoy. (Also, before the bread bakes, you can slit the top of each lump of dough a couple of times and brush lightly with some kind of egg substitute. The glaze helps the bread come out with a slightly crunchier crust. I don't usually bother.)
Source of recipe: Whenever I go to potlucks, I bake this bread and it disappears within minutes. I've even had special requests for it. At a family Christmas, after I found out that store-bought rolls (ick!) would be served with the Christmas Eve dinner, I announced that I would make homemade bread. Since dinner would be served in a little less than two hours and since my family knows how much I absolutely detest cooking, my mother thought I was lying. She couldn't believe that I could make "respectable" bread without any kneading and in time for dinner. I made this bread and, as usual, it vanished almost instantly. My mother got this bread recipe from me. I think the dogs got the store-bought rolls.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
i've made this recipe several times and it is a huge hit with everyone, every time. i rarely bake because i find the precision of baking to be annoying, but this bread is so incredibly easy to make!! my favorite part about this recipe is the short amount of time needed to allow the dough to rise.
outrageously easy, outrageously delicious.
My bread wasn't outrageoulsy big because it stuck to the damp towel and by the time I peeled it off it had collapsed. When mixing the first three cups of flour I added about a half tablespoon of garlic powder, a half tablespoon of onion powder, two tablespoons of Italian seasoning, and three tablespoons of nutritional yeast. It tastes pretty good that way. Maybe it's a bit garlicy.
could applesauce be substituted for the oil in this recipe??? I notice a lot of people do that in other things and i was thinking about trying it here?
Oil does different things in yeast breads than baking soda/powder baked goods. You can try it, but if you're worried about oil, I'd just eliminate it & use a bit more water. It'll just dry out/go stale a bit quicker.
could applesauce be substituted for the oil in this recipe??? I notice a lot of people do that in other things and i was thinking about trying it here?
This recipe was my first foray into bread making. It was fabulous!
so, if anyone read the ultimate veg chili reviews and noticed my comment about the funky version of this bread...here it (sort of) is.
I used about 2 cups of unbleached flour, then ran out (bad planning ahead on my part) but still really wanted to make the bread, so I scrounged my cupboards and the rest was mostly gluten flour, and about 1/2-1 cup of chick pea flour. I added the other ingredients the same as usual since I'd already measured out the yeast, water, sugar etc and mixed it. I was afraid this would be a total failure, but it was DELICIOUS ! I already love this bread as is, but the 'funky' version was very chewy and tasty - so much so, in fact, that my friend who baked it with me thinks we should try to replicate it and get the measurements right so we can keep making it. To which I agreed. The only thing I'd change would be to reduce the sugar.
Anyway....this actual recipe is so easy to make and the bread is so tasty, I've baked about 5 loaves in the past couple of weeks. mm.
I just made this...it is delish!!! Wow! The only other breads I've made are yeast free spelt (very crumbly) and an old recipe of my mil's which was tasty but more work. I used spelt flour here and it is still really tasty!!! I also used half of the dough to make cinnamon buns...I just spread with margerine and sprinkled with a mixture of 1 tbsp of cinnamon and 1/4 cup of turbinado....they are by far the best too!!!! Thanks for posting!
I was beside myself yesterday when my bread machine up and died on me. I really wanted to make bread and saw the great reviews this recipe received so I decided to give it a go. I followed the recipe exactly, but I did use 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour and 4 cups white flour. I brushed the loaves with water before baking and baked one on a cookie sheet, the other in a bread pan. The cookie sheet one is wider than it is taller and the bread pan one was kind of on the small side. No bother as they were so good! I saw how everyone said that i their reviews, but we couldn't stop eating it. I can't wait to play around with this recipe and add some of my own touches. When I mentioned to my husband that I was looking to buy another bread machine, he asked, "Why?" I guess he likes it!
I've got to say it ... this is the BEST bread recipe ever! My husband (who does NOT like change!) still talks about how great this bread is each time I make it. Raves about it! No more shop bought bread for him.
TLotus
For me, 1 T of salt is way too much, and a half just doesn't cut it, so I'm going w/ 3/4 of a T salt from now on. And I always always always add 1/2 T of sugar to my yeast concoction, it proofs better.
Pages