Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Maita's quick yeast bread

Posting this here so it will stop being an email in my inbox:

Tripling this recipe yields 1 pika.

Ingredients
5 cups white all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons yeast (or 2 x 7g pkts)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups warm-hot water
1/4 cup cooking oil

Mix the warm-hot water together with the yeast and the sugar in a bowl. Leave this until it gets nice and foamy.

Then, mix in the flower, salt, and oil. You want to add enough flour so that the dough is no longer sticky, but not more than that--the amount may be slightly different from the given 5 cups. You can use up to half wheat flour/half white flour---no more. You may need a bit more water if you're using some wheat flour.

Knead for 5 minutes until dough is "elastic and smooth."

Leave in bowl covered with a damp towel until the dough has doubled in size--around a half hour.

Punch the dough down and divide into two pieces. Form these into loaf-like long cylinders and place on a baking tray.

When the loaves have risen again--poken them gently with a finger leaves a little dent---slit them open on top with a sharp knife for that artisinal look. You can also sprinkle on a bit of flour.

Bake at 400F for 40 minutes. At the beginning and a couple times during baking, spritz the bread/pans with water, which allows them to expand more (since the crust doesn't set as quickly) and makes for a crispier crust.

This recipes was inspired by this one.

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