Our Daily Bread

Have you ever bothered to read a bread label? I think the last time I did, I recognized maybe the first five ingredients. Call me crazy, but I like to actually know what I'm eating. I have found a few good brands. Trader Joe's carries a Whole Wheat Tuscan Pane bread that has, I think 4 ingredients. I will have to look it up to confirm, but I believe they are: Wheat Flour, Water, Yeast & Salt. That sounds pretty much like what I put in my own bread, so I am comfortable buying it. Ideally, I would always make my own bread, but that's not always practical. Bread is not exactly a quick and easy throw together...is it?

let me preface this by saying Mom's homemade bread is the best. Amazing. Can't touch this. I have fond memories of bowls of bread dough rising ont he radiators under tea towels, homemade dinner rolls, hot, perfect scones (fried yeast bread ~ not dry little biscuity scones, which still seem foreign and odd to me). I like to make Mom's bread with the girls. It's a great way for us to connect with our food, and with each other. There's something about kneading dough and forming loaves that makes me feel a part of an ages old tradition, that sets my place firmly in the universe. We are breadmakers. We bake bread and eat it slathered with butter alongside a big. steaming bowl of navy bean soup. This bread is a way of life...and it involves a pretty much day-long commitment. Don't let that put you off making it ~ it is as fabulous as it sounds.

The fact remains, however, that i don't always have an entire day to set aside for breadmaking (as much as I would like to), so I have found some alternatives. Now, I know, bread is like a dirty word int he dieting world ~ especially white bread ~ but there is something whole and good and comforting about it. I know I should learn to make a decent...oh, I don't know...sprouted 9-grain bread of some sort...but, sometimes, I just want a big slab of crusty white bread. Sue me. And, I figure, by making it at home, I am keeping it a little more "real," as it were. Right? I have made peace with bread. Like chocolate and coffee: I like it, and that's okay. I don't always, however, have time to make it. Luckily for me, I have discovered a couple of fabulous recipes that allow me to have delicious homemade bread, in short (ish) order.

The first is my beer bread recipe. I have adapted it over time, and have experimented with different beers. I like Pabst Blue Ribbon. Yes, in general. I like to drink it, but here I meant that I like to use it in beer bread. It is inexpensive and seems to work well. This is a quick bread recipe, so, as the name implies, it mixes up quickly and easily, and is ready in less than an hour, so it is a great one to make when you, say, you just realized that pot of chili or soup would be even better with a big hunk of homemade bread. Beer bread, IMO, is especially delicious with chili.

BEER BREAD


Ingredients

* 3 cups self rising flour
* 3 tablespoons sugar
* 12 ounces warm beer
* 3 tablespoons melted butter

Directions

1.Make sure beer is room temperature.
2.Mix flour and sugar.
3.Add beer, stirring just until blended.
4.Pour into well greased loaf pan.
5.Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.
6.Brush with melted butter.

Serve hot!
Can be baked in 2 quart casserole dish as well.

If you don't have self-rising flour, you can make it like this:

1 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt.


Okay, so that's my go-to recipe for nights when I want to throw together bread while dinner cooks. If I want to spend a little more time, but can't quite make the commitment to kneading (yeah, I'm lazy), I rely on a recipe I discovered many years ago in the New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. Well, sorta. Mines slightly different, maybe, but not significantly. Here's what I do:

QUICK ITALIAN BREAD

In a large bowl, combine:

3 cups warm water
2 envelopes baking yeast (or about 2 TBS)
2 TBS sugar
2 TBS oil

Let sit for about 5 minutes. Whisk in 4 cups unbleached flour and 1 tsp. salt, then stir in 4-5 cups more flour (just enough for dough to form and not be too sticky). DO NOT KNEAD. However, you might find it easier to mix in the flour by hand, as the dough gets stiff. Just proceed gently and cautiously ~ you do not want tough bread. The key is to avoid overworking your dough. Just incorporate the flour. I often find I can't quite work in 4 cups, and that's okay.

Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let rise until dough has doubled in size.

Punch down dough and divide into two balls. Flatten each ball into a long rectangle-ish/oval-ish shape. Take hold of one of the long sides and gently roll it to form a long, thin loaf. Pinch edges to seal (you know ~ make it sort of look like a baguette).

Dust a cookie sheet with cornmeal (or lightly oil it, if you don't have cornmeal). Place the loaves, seam side down, on the cookie sheet and slash tops in 3 places. Let rise 30 minutes.

Pour boiling water into a 9"x13" pan, and place in the bottom of a cold oven (I put it on the lowest rack inside my oven). Put the loaves in the oven, close the door and turn heat to 400℉. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until crust is nicely golden, and bread makes a hollow sound when you knock on it. Brush tops with butter or margarine, if desired, and let cool on a rack.

This makes EXCELLENT garlic bread, and is great for sopping up sauce (yum!). The kids love it sliced thickly and smeared with butter. If you have never baked bread, give this recipe a try. It has never failed me.

Enjoy!