Basic White Bread Part 2

Part 2: Le Gourmet TV tackles that most basic of staples... white bread.

I will just start to knead. Now, you need to knead for about 10 minutes. You’re going to know when you’ve had enough, it’s still little bit sticky but that’s okay. So, I’ve been kneading for about eight minutes, you’re going to find your own rhythm. You’re going to find what works. Even though I’m right handed, I usually use my left and then I curl it over with my right, press down, curl back, press down, curl back, you’ll find what works for you. But I’ve reached the point where the dough is now smooth and elastic. They have got a pretty good looking ball of dough there. So at this point in this recipe, it’s got to rest for about 10 minutes before we divide it up and make our loaves. So, into a bowl, cover with the damp tea towel or you can use surround wrap if you want, I like a damp tea towel. We’re just kind of let it sit for 10 minutes and then we’ll come back. One of the things I really like about this easy bread recipe is that first rise only takes 10 minutes and at this point we’ve almost doubled the batter in size. So, I’m going to turn it out under the board just a little bit of flour so we don’t stick. You don’t want to use too much and at this point you don’t really want to spend too much time kneading it. You don’t want to work it too much. Just kind of want to get it over the bowl, divide it roughly in half, you never going to do it exact just kind of get it. Now, we’re going to shape this into two loaves. Now, for the loaves I like to do it two ways. Today, I’m going to make one in this clay loaf pan, the other one I like in the big free form on this pizza stone. We’ll put that in the oven later. So, shaping loaves, this is somewhere that I’m—you know a little bit of a disaster. But that’s pretty much it. Just kind of want to shape it, lay it into your pan, set it aside somewhere to rise. And then you’re going to know that this one has risen enough when you’re about an inch above the lip of the clay pan. We’ll cover it with the damp tea towel. Let it rise for about an hour. It’s as simple as that. Cover it, set it aside. The free form loaf, I’m going to shape that pretty much the same way. We’ll just get it here, we’ll make sure that the seam is at the bottom kind of this is a really nice loaf. Now, I’ve got a piece of parchment paper on an up-trimmed cookie sheet. Use the backside of the cookie sheet. It would be really easy to slip it into the oven on top of the pizza stone. So, just kind of shape that there, same thing, we’re going to go for about an hour. We’ll just cover it with this damp tea towel. You don’t want the dough, the bread to dry out. And then at the same time that the elements right in will slip them both into the oven. So now, we’ve got about an hour to wait, preheat your oven. Make sure that it’s hot. Put the pizza stone in so that it’s hot when the bread slides on top. See you in about an hour. So about an hour is gone by and you can see how the loaf has risen pretty much an inch out of the pan. Same with our free form loaf, it’s risen quite nicely. So at this point, I just do—just tie a little score as you cross the top, just so the loaf expands in the initial heat inside the oven. Our oven is at 375, let’s go ahead and put those in. Okay, so oven is at 375, we can put both loaves in at the same time. Slip then the first one. The second one is on this piece of parchment paper on the back of the cookie sheet. And we’ll just kind of slide that off right onto your pizza stone, the pizza stone has been in the oven and it’s hot. We’re now going to wait for 35 to 40 minutes and they’ll be ready to go. So, our 35 minutes are up, the loaves are golden brown and ready to come out. Look at that, a wonderful loaf of bread. So, the free form loaf, you’ll know that it’s done because you just give a little top on the bottom, hear the holy sound, that means you’re done and ready to go—usually don’t sit on the cooling rack very long before they cut out and slide it with butter. Enjoy your bread.