The Basics of Bread

• 3 ½ cups of flour
• 2 tsp of dry yeast
• 1 ¼ cups of liquid
• 1 - 1½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ - 2 Tbsp of sweetener

The recipe is more or less the same for every bread recipe. Sometimes you use a mixture of flours and other whole grains to equal 3 ½ cups; sometimes you use milk, other times water and sometimes you only use 1 cup of liquid and add an egg instead or put in 2 -3 Tbsp of butter or olive oil or both. Sweeteners can be sugar, honey, maple syrup, or molasses; depends on the flav you are looking for.

If you use a bread machine add the liquids first followed by the salt, then the other dry ingredients ending with the sugar and yeast on top. Almost any traditional bread recipe can be put into a bread maker.

For breads made by hand or in a mixer, first sprinkle the yeast on the warm liquid then mix the dry ingredients together, except the sugar. Add the yeast and sweetener at the end. Then you need to let it rest in a bowl for an hour or so until it doubles, “punch” it down and make it into the form you want and let it rest again for about an hour, then bake ,usually at 400 degrees for an hour. You can make bread sticks, pretzels, foccacia, pizza dough, etc by following these guidelines.

• Banana Bread
• Brioche
• Cinnamon Raisin Bread
• Corn Bread
• County Oat Bread
• Hearty Yogurt Nut & Seed Bread
• Yogurt Oat Bread
• Sandwich Rolls
• Whole Wheat Cheese & Apple Bread
• Stromboli
• A Basic Loaf of Bread