Baking Bread: tips and tricks for the little old ladies who stumble upon my blog.

So I’ve started a bread baking learning experience. For my team’s lunches I’ve been experimenting with creating our own bread. After the first two days of experimenting I think I’ve come upon a solution that will make this feasible.
The Recipe:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon yeast
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup honey (substituted maple syrup to make it vegan)
*Mix, knead, oil bowl. Let rise for 1 hour, punch it down, and let it rise for another hour. Shape into a loaf and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. (High altitudes, increase liquids by 1-2 Tablespoons).

So in order to use the correct amount of yeast, triple the recipe. This makes the yeast 3 Tablespoons or 4 packets. The recipe needs to be tripled in order to have the correct amount of yeast using full packets. To proof the yeast I stirred all the yeast with a cup of water and a Tablespoon of brown sugar. Then I let that proof for ten minutes, before adding all the other ingredients, kneading it, and allowing it to rise.

For the bread to rise I put the bowl full of dough in a pot full of hot water, and placed it on top of the fridge, to keep it out of the way.

Now the bread, while delicious is difficult to slice. Especially considering we want to use it for sandwiches. So tonight’s batch I’m going to shape into rolls. These should be perfect to cut and turn into scrumptious sandwiches. I’ll have to adjust the temperature and baking time as well.