My previous foray into bread making was not a resounding success. Keeping with my new philosophy of follow the recipe, I found a few new bread recipes to try out.
First up is a simple two pound white bread recipe from a bread machine book. Total easy mode. Go out and get a bread machine and follow the basic white bread recipe. Bread machines really make this easy but of course the ingredients can be combined in a mixing bowl and cooked in a regular oven just as easily.
Stepping it up, I found an historic beer bread recipe called trencher bread. The ingredients include eight cups of rye flour, seven cups of spelt flour, and two cups of beer. A half ounce of dry yeast is proofed into one cup of warm water. I've talked about proofing yeast before. The recipe finishes up with an additional quart of water and two tablespoons of salt. My grocery store has many things but didn't have these varieties of flour but I found them at the food co-op. To make this bread, mix the flours together and split off half of the mix to rise overnight with the beer, yeast, and water. The rest of the flour gets salted and mixed back together the next day. It rises and gets kneaded again and formed into almost a dozen small loaves which rise one last time before they're baked. Of course, we should be able use our yeast starter to make an ale for the beer in this beer bread recipe. I'll report back on how that goes.
