Homemade Thursday- Daily Bread- Part 1

1. Gather what you need

2. Spray a spatula and bowl with cooking spray

3. Get three cups warm water

4. Add 1 1/2 Tbsp. yeast

5. Add 1Tbsp. sugar, stir mixture to incorporate.

6. Let sit until Bloom forms (5 to 10 minutes)

7. While waiting for your yeast mixture to "Bloom" add 6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose white flour to your mixing bowl (you may mix by hand, hand mixer or a free-standing mixer with a dough hook)

8. Add yeast mixture to flour and mix until just blended

9. Add salt and blend just until a sticky dough forms, do not knead (I add salt at this stage rather than earlier to avoid the salt "killing" the yeast and thus preventing a good rise.)

10. Transfer dough to prepared bowl and cover with plastic wrap

11. Let sit for about 2 hours (until dough flattens on top or starts to fall) and then refrigerate for three hours. (This is a sticky dough. The refrigeration will allow you to be able to shape the dough easier. You can shape a loaf immediately though.)

Homemade Thursday is hosted by http://shipfullofpirates.com/

I have found that with this bread recipe I can keep my family in bread on a daily basis. It is easy and requires very little "hands-on" time. Best of all- it turns out great every time! I adapted this recipe from the basic recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Herzberg and Zoe Francois. I've added sugar to it and changed the directions to my liking.

This recipe makes 4 lbs of bread dough (recipe may be doubled also) and may be kept in a refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. You may freeze it also in individual loaf portions.

Check back tomorrow for part two- shaping and baking the loaves. I will also post tomorrow's post to next week's Homemade Thursday.

Lewis Daily Bread:

3 cups warm water
1 1/2 Tbsp. yeast

1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar (I find that my yeast blooms better with some type of sweetner to feed on.)

1 1/2 Tbsp. coarse kosher salt

6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose white flour

See also www.petersonclan.com/2009/02/some-seriously-good-eating.html . She just posted about making the original recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.