Cookbook:Basic Bread Dough

Basic Bread Dough
CategoryBread recipes
Time1 ¼–3 hours
Difficulty

Cookbook | Ingredients | 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 edit

Ingredient Count Volume

[note 1]

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 [note 2] 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 edit

  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. [note 3]
  5. Bake until lightly brown and firm. Cooking time will vary with altitude (20–40 minutes).
  6. Cool and enjoy.

Variations edit

  • 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).

Conversion notes edit

  1. Original recipe text and ingredient order preserved. Weight conversions from USDA National Nutrient Database. Milliliter values were ignored. Honey was presumed in the range of 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon.
  2. The minimum amount of yeast will result in a slightly strong yeast flavor, and increase with higher values. To reduce this flavor, it is recommend to use no more than 0.75% instant dry yeast expressed as a baker's %, alternatively, 2.5% cake yeast (compressed) or 1% active dry yeast, although you can expect fermentation time to increase somewhat.
  3. There is no proofing time specified.