Cookbook:Basic Bread Dough

Basic Bread Dough
Category	Bread recipes
Time	1 ¼–3 hours
Difficulty

Cookbook | Recipes | Ingredients | Equipment | Techniques | Cookbook Disambiguation Pages | Recipes | Bread

This recipe makes a little more dough than enough for a 1-pound loaf of bread. It is intended to be kneaded in a bread machine, and baked in an oven.

Ingredients

Ingredient	Count	Volume	Weight	Baker's % (optional)
Warm water (heated for about 40 seconds in the microwave)		1 cup	237 g	86.5%
Sugar		2 teaspoons (10 mL)	8.4 g	3.07%
Salt		1 teaspoon (5 mL)	6 g	2.19%
High-gluten (strong/bread) flour		2 cups	274 g	100%
Active dry yeast		1-4 teaspoon (5-20 mL)	4-16 g	1.46-5.84%
Honey		1 tablespoon	7-21 g	2.55-7.66%
Total			536–562 g	196–205%

Procedure

1. Add ingredients to a 2-pound capacity bread machine in the order listed, select dough cycle, and press start.
2. Remove when cycle is complete.
3. Preheat oven to 400 °F (200 °C)
4. When dough is finished, form into desired shape on a floured surface, and place on baking sheet or pizza stone.
5. Bake until lightly brown and firm. Cooking time will vary with altitude (20–40 minutes).
6. Cool and enjoy.

Variations

• To make a twist loaf, roll dough into a cylindrical shape with your hands, but make one end of the cylinder thicker than the other. Then divide the cylinder with a knife down the center of the thicker end, creating a ring with a protruding cylinder. Braid and bake.
• Brush loaf with an eggwash (1 egg + a scant amount of water) or egg white, melted margarine or butter, or olive oil for a crisper crust.
• Sprinkle brushed loaf with minced garlic, chopped herbs, ground spices, grated cheese, ground pepper and/or kosher salt for flavor.
• Toss or roll into a flat disc and top with tomato sauce, olive oil, chopped meat, vegetables and/or grated cheeses to create a pizza (bake until cheese is melted).