Cookbook:Basic Bread Dough

Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes

| Bread

This recipe makes a little more dough than enough for a 1-pound loaf of bread. It is intended to be kneaded in a bread machine, and baked in an oven.

Ingredients

Volumetric [note 1]	Grams	Baker's %
1 cup (heated for about 40 seconds in the microwave) water	237	86.5%
2 teaspoons (10 mL) sugar	8.4	3.07%
1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt	6	2.19%
2 cups high-gluten (strong) flour (bread flour in the U.S.)	274	100%
1-4 teaspoon (5-20 mL) active dry yeast [note 2]	4-16	1.46-5.84%
1 spoon full of honey	7-21	2.55-7.66%
Formula	536.4-562.4	195.77-205.26%

Procedure

1. Add ingredients to a 2-pound capacity bread machine in the order listed, select dough cycle, and press start.
2. Remove when cycle is complete.
3. Preheat oven to 400 °F (200 °C)
4. When dough is finished, form into desired shape on a floured surface, and place on baking sheet or pizza stone. ^{[note 3]}
5. Bake until lightly brown and firm. Cooking time will vary with altitude (20-40 minutes).
6. Cool and enjoy.

Variations

• To make a twist loaf, roll dough into a cylindrical shape with your hands, but make one end of the cylinder thicker than the other. Then divide the cylinder with a knife down the center of the thicker end, creating a ring with a protruding cylinder. Braid and bake.
• Brush loaf with an eggwash (1 egg + a scant amount of water) or egg white, melted margarine or butter, or olive oil for a crisper crust.
• Sprinkle brushed loaf with minced garlic, chopped herbs, ground spices, grated cheese, ground pepper and/or kosher salt for flavor.
• Toss or roll into a flat disc and top with tomato sauce, olive oil, chopped meat, vegetables and/or grated cheeses to create a pizza (bake until cheese is melted).

Conversion Notes