A CRASH COURSE IN BREAD BAKING

The simple philosophy in making Robert's Bread is no fat, no sugar, but anything else goes. The procedure is quick and efficient, demanding about 15 minutes of your time to mix the dough and then attention for just a couple of minutes at a time as you attend to the following steps. Total time from concept to lip-smacking enjoyment is less than two hours.

Utensils

R 1 oven

R flat cookie sheet/s

R 1 large bowl for mixing

R 1 heavy wooden spoon with which to stir

R 1 table knife

R 1 serrated knife with which to slice the finished product

Ingredients

R flour: unbleached white, whole wheat (or graham), rye, barley, buckwheat, or oat. White is used as majority in all the breads.

R texture: bran flakes, linseed (flax), toasted buckwheat seeds, amaranth seeds ...

R spices: caraway, fennel, anise, carom (also known as adjwain, available at the Souk)

R yeast, dry or fresh (bulk dry available at the co-op)

R salt

R crust texture ideas: white poppy or sunflower seeds spread on the surface before baking

A BASIC RECIPE

Note: For the result of a field experiment, see the end of this paper.

1. Pour 3­4 cups of hot water (about 130°F) into the bowl. If fresh yeast is used, the water should only be about 100°F).

2. Add one cup of rye (or other alternate) flour to the water, stir with wooden spoon five seconds, add one more cup of rye flour, stir another 10 seconds, etc. Continue doing this until you have something that resembles oat porridge but is fairly fluid.

3. Add 1 - 1½ tablespoons of salt (no kidding).

4. Add 1 tablespoon of dry yeast (or 1 package).

Some notes about the rising process:

~ The less yeast used, the longer the rising time.

~ Rising time is also influenced by the type of flour used. See flour qualities, on the next page.

~ Yeast is a living organism. A certain amount of heat is needed to activate it. But too warm of a temperature kills it. Adding the yeast at this step of the process has proven to provide a good temperature. The initial hot water starts the natural rising qualities in the flour.

5. Add spices if desired. For now, use 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds. Can be ground, crushed, or just the seeds au naturel. Stir.

6. Add 2 cups of white flour, stir, add one more cup of flour, stir again, etc. The thicker the dough gets, the more difficult it will be to stir, so the flour will have to be added in smaller quantities. The final result should be firm but still somewhat sticky. If you have a large bowl and a heavy wooden spoon, you could get away with not kneading at all.

Note that some breeds of bread bakers with memories from the past use their dirty fingers to mix the dough. This can actually at times be preferable, especially when the dough gets thicker. Note also that this recipe does not call for excessive kneading; only stir the dough to mix the ingredients, not to get muscle pain.

~ If you knead, be sure that your hands are absolutely dry when you start (otherwise the dough will immediately stick to them). Try to keep some flour between your hands and the dough.

7. Cover bowl and let rise for approximately 45 minutes, until it is about double in mass.

8. To test the dough, prod it with one finger. The finger depression should fill in somewhat. If not, let rise a little longer.

If the dough has risen too long (when it has begun to ooze and flow around the edges), knead it some and let rise again.

9. Lightly flour flat baking sheet. Using the table knife, divide dough into 3­4 sections, and place them on pan without further kneading.

If you used too little flour, it might be obvious already now. (Are the four hunks becoming one? Is the dough flowing over the sides?) You still have the chance to mix in more flour and let rise again.

10. Turn on oven to 350°F.

11. Place pan into oven and bake for 25 minutes (this time assumes putting the dough into a cold oven. If the oven is already hot, reduce time to 20 minutes). Then increase heat to 450°F and bake another 10 minutes. This gives a harder crust [note: oven thermometers are not very accurate. Times will depend on the oven used].

12. Remove the bread immediately from the pans and turn upside down to cool (this is to reduce condensation). Spray a light coating of water on the bread while still piping hot if you want an even crustier crust.

13. Slice the bread with the serrated knife and enjoy!

Note: If the bread is too low (hasn't gained much altitude but now covers an extensive surface area), there is not enough flour in it, and if it tastes dry when it is cold, there is too much flour in it. If it is still moist in the middle, the dough probably didn't rise enough.

Flour qualities

white (unbleached, all-purpose) flour is used in almost all recipes. It rises very well and holds the bread well together. The dough gets very elastic with a high percentage of white flour. White bread doesn't keep very long.

whole wheat has similar qualities to white flour but it takes slightly longer to rise and has a stronger taste. Bread will keep somewhat longer. You can make bread using only whole wheat, but it will tend to disintegrate into bread crumbs when sliced.

rye flour has a good, strong taste (my favorite) that goes particularly well with caraway. Rises fairly well and keeps better than whole wheat.

barley flour is a poor baking flour (does not seem to rise at all; don't use more than 40% barley flour in any bread) but has a very good taste. Goes well with fennel or anise seeds.

oat resembles barley but is inferior in taste (my personal opinion).

buckwheat is dark and has strong taste (no need for spices with this flour). Good baking qualities; bread keeps fairly well.

millet flour I have tried only twice, since I didn't particularly like the taste of the bread.

triticale is strong-tasting but good; don't use too much (try 15-20%).

bran is not a flour but good for you. Tastes good; can be mixed with most any flour combination.

linseed (flax) has qualities like bran.

Some suggestions:

- rye and plain (see A Basic Recipe). Use 25­50% rye flour; try also to add 10% bran.

- barley and plain. Use 25­40% barley flour (it won't rise well with more barley flour).

- oat and plain. Use 25­40% oat flour.

- whole wheat and plain. Use 50% whole wheat (or even more) and use some anise or amaranth seeds in the dough. Spread optionally 1 tablespoon white poppy seeds on the dough before putting it into the oven.

- buckwheat and plain. Use only 20­30% buckwheat the first time (because of its strong taste) and no spices. Then experiment.

- 40% barley, 20% whole wheat, and 40% plain flour. Add fennel seeds.

Also try these:

1. Mix 50% rye flour and 50% whole wheat flour - this is the only recipe without plain flour ! Don't add any spices. This bread normally takes several hours to rise, and will probably be less sloppy than other doughs (and won't rise as much) when you put it into the oven. Bake at 400° F for 35­40 minutes; no need to increase temperature.

I think that this bread tastes better cold than warm and it will keep twice as long as the other recipes ... and is delicious if you like a heavy bread.

2. Put about 40% rye flour in the bowl. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over it; don't stir but make sure that the water penetrates the flour. Now leave for 36 hours or so. Then add salt, some more boiling water, stir, the yeast, optionally a little caraway, and the white flour. The dough will be very difficult to stir and will take long to rise. You have made sourdough bread.

Wishing you good luck and would appreciate a comprehensive coverage of your technique and results.

Spices:

anise tastes kind of like licorice

fennel less sweet and licoricy than anise, but otherwise similar

caraway robust, nice taste

carom very strong taste -- don't add too much. Goes particularly well with heavy wines

toasted buckwheat is very different from buckwheat flour. Good and crunchy

amaranth small, crunchy, interesting taste

A Field Experiment

These are notes from a field test, in which ingredients were actually measured.

F R 4 cups of hot water

were poured into a large bowl (hot tap water, which in the afSandeberg residence is a bit warmer than most places).

F R 5 cups of barley flour

R 1 cup of wheat bran flakes

R 1 cup of white flour

were added to the water, one cup at a time, stirred slightly with a heavy wooden spoon.

F R 4 tsp of linseed

R 2 tsp of anise seed (rubbed between the hands)

R 3 tsp of salt

R 1½ tsp of yeast

were stirred into the dough.

F R 4 more cups of white flour

were added, stirring between each cup.

F At this time, the wooden spoon was abandoned, hands were washed and thoroughly dried. If the hands are still moist, flour will stick.

The dough was dusted with more white flour, and was then kneaded with the flat of the hands. The dusting and the subsequent kneading was repeated several times.

F The large bowl was covered with a lid to rise. During the prevailing climactic conditions, one hour was deemed an appropriate rising time.

F A flat oven pan was dusted with white flour. The dough was divided into four pieces and put onto the oven pan. The oven (a convection oven was used) was turned on to 350°F and the pan was immediately inserted into the oven. After 25 minutes of baking, the temperature was raised to 450° and the bread baked for another 10 minutes, after which time it was removed from the oven and immediately voraciously consumed.