oldcoot
Senior Cook
All this talk about the problems of hand mixing caused me to give it another try. [Being innately lazy, I preferred the KA] But with a twist:
Since dough consisency seems the major factor in a successful loaf, I decided to forget flour measurments altogether and go with only a liquid measure - in this case, half and half milk. One cup exactly. And then add flour as needed to get a soft dough..
So here's the recipe:
\
1 cup Half-and-half, heated to 100 F (microwave)
1 tsp Active dry Yeast
1 tsp salt
Pour in about a cupful of flour right from the packeage., stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed.
Continue stirring, and add flour, a little at a time, until dough "cleans" the bowl. (Very soft, a little sticky)
LStick your hand in the flour sack and take out just enough to lightly flour the board. Spread the flour evenly with the other hand. This flours both hands.
Dump the dough onto the floured board and begin kneading - fold and press, fold and press. Add flour as dough bigins to stick, and continue for a full ten minutes.
Wash bowl with hot water, dry, and spray with Pam. Put ball of dough into warm bowl, cover with cloth, set in a warm place to at least double in bulk.
(About an hour at 72F)
Again flour board as before.
Punch down dough and form into roll the length of the loaf pan. I used Pyrex (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3 inches) "Pam" the pan, put in the dough, and let rise until above the rim of the pan. [Dough weighes 1.2 lbs]
Place in cold oven (center rack) and set oven for 335F and 40 minutes.
Turn out on rack to cool.
Here's my result:
Pillow-soft loaft, light, tender interior, good flavor. Weight after baking: 1.1 lbs.
All th mixing and kneading used about 15-18 minutes, including cleanup. This was delightfully easy, and for once I am truly proud of the result. Sometimes I get lucky!
Since dough consisency seems the major factor in a successful loaf, I decided to forget flour measurments altogether and go with only a liquid measure - in this case, half and half milk. One cup exactly. And then add flour as needed to get a soft dough..
So here's the recipe:
\
1 cup Half-and-half, heated to 100 F (microwave)
1 tsp Active dry Yeast
1 tsp salt
Pour in about a cupful of flour right from the packeage., stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed.
Continue stirring, and add flour, a little at a time, until dough "cleans" the bowl. (Very soft, a little sticky)
LStick your hand in the flour sack and take out just enough to lightly flour the board. Spread the flour evenly with the other hand. This flours both hands.
Dump the dough onto the floured board and begin kneading - fold and press, fold and press. Add flour as dough bigins to stick, and continue for a full ten minutes.
Wash bowl with hot water, dry, and spray with Pam. Put ball of dough into warm bowl, cover with cloth, set in a warm place to at least double in bulk.
(About an hour at 72F)
Again flour board as before.
Punch down dough and form into roll the length of the loaf pan. I used Pyrex (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3 inches) "Pam" the pan, put in the dough, and let rise until above the rim of the pan. [Dough weighes 1.2 lbs]
Place in cold oven (center rack) and set oven for 335F and 40 minutes.
Turn out on rack to cool.
Here's my result:
Pillow-soft loaft, light, tender interior, good flavor. Weight after baking: 1.1 lbs.
All th mixing and kneading used about 15-18 minutes, including cleanup. This was delightfully easy, and for once I am truly proud of the result. Sometimes I get lucky!
