easy basic bread recipe - comfort food
DESCRIPTION
Basic Bread recipe from Alton Brown. Comfort food at it's best. Just need some jam to go with it.TRANSCRIPT
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Home / Recipes & How-Tos / Very Basic Bread /
Very Basic Bread116 Reviews
Prep:Inact ive:Cook:
Total Time:13 hr 30 min
30 min12 hr1 hr
Yield : 1 loaf breadLevel: Intermediate
CATEGORIES
Side Dish, Bread Dishes, Baking
SHOW:EPISODE:
Good EatsDr. Strangeloaf
Recipe courtesy of Alton BrownRecipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2005
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Ingredients
1 pound bread flour, plus extrafor shaping
1 teaspoon instant rapid riseyeast
2 teaspoons honey
10 ounces bottled or filteredwater
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 quarts hot water
Vegetable oil, for greasing therising container
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
DirectionsCombine 5 ounces of the flour, 1/4 teaspoon of the yeast, all of thehoney, and all of the bottled water in a straight-sided container; coverloosely and refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours.
Place the remaining 11 ounces of flour, remaining yeast, and all thesalt into the bowl of a stand mixer, and add the pre-ferment from therefrigerator. Using the dough hook attachment, knead the mixture onlow for 2 to 3 minutes just until it comes together. Cover the dough inthe bowl with a kitchen towel and allow to rest for 20 minutes. After20 minutes, knead the dough on medium speed for 5 to 10 minutes oruntil you are able to gently pull the dough into a thin sheet that lightwill pass through. The dough will be sticky, but not so sticky that youcan't handle it.
While the dough is kneading, pour half of the hot water into a shallowpan and place on the bottom rack of your oven.
Grease the inside of a large straight-sided container with the vegetableoil. Place the dough ball into the container and set on the rack abovethe pan of water. Allow to rise until doubled in size, approximately 1 to2 hours.
Once the dough has doubled in size, turn it onto a counter top, lightlydust your hands with flour, and press the dough out with yourknuckles; then fold 1 side in towards the middle of the mass and thenthe other, as if you were making a tri-fold wallet. Repeat the folding asecond time. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and allow to restfor another 10 minutes.
Flatten dough again with your knuckles and then fold the dough in ontoitself, like you are shaping something that looks like a jellyfish. Turnthe dough over and squeeze the bottom together so that the top
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surface of the dough is smooth. Place the dough back onto the counterand begin to roll gently between your hands. Do not grab the doughbut allow it to move gently back and forth between your hands, movingin a circular motion. Move the dough ball to a pizza peel or the bottomof a sheet pan that has been sprinkled with the cornmeal. Cover withthe kitchen towel and allow to bench proof for 1 hour, or until you pokethe dough and it quickly fills back in where you poked it.
Place an unglazed terra cotta dish upside down into the oven and heatthe oven to 400 degrees F.
Combine the 1/3 cup of water and the cornstarch in a small bowl.Uncover the dough and brush the surface with this mixture. Gentlyslash the top surface of the dough ball in several places, approximately1/3 to 1/2-inch deep. Add more of the hot water to the shallow pan ifit has evaporated. Slide the bread onto the terra cotta dish in the ovenand bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Once the bread has reached aninternal temperature of 205 to 210 degrees F, remove to a cooling rackand allow to sit for 30 minutes before slicing.
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116 REVIEWS
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tboland90277
fastfed
Brian_F
Your Rating: (Required)
Tasty? What do you think?
I use this as the basis for my everyday bread. One thing I have noticed is that Alton Brown always bakes HOT - meaning that his *finishedinternal temperature* is too hot, and therefore dry, for my tastes. This is true for his breads,cakes, cookies, muffins, quickbreads, you name it. Because he always lists the donenesstemp, you can adjust as needed - Yey Alton - instead of the blind "bake for 45 minutes oruntil done" instructions. I like it pulling this bread out at 185 F. It usually coasts up to 190 F with residual heat, thenslowly recedes in temperature over the next couple of hours. As an experiment, leave theoven probe thermometer in the bread for the entire cooling cycle. Alton always accounts for residual heat when cooking meat. I don't remember himmentioning it at all in baking.
2 Apr 2 people found this helpful.
I love Alton, like most of us.. But every single one of his recipes always calls for way too longof cook times.. Whether its frying, or baking, it always seems long. I just made this recipe for the first time, Ihave a NORMAL, non convection oven.. Pre-heated to 400 degrees, within 15 minutes thecrust already had a nice brown finish.. Nice to the point of it being done. I rotated the pan at that time and let it go another 15 minutes (30 minutes in At 30 minutes, I had enough, the bread was turning black.. I checked its temp and it wasalready at 210 degrees. Its cooling now on the counter on a rack, but I must say, it looks BURNT! and its annoying,after spending so much time on something to have it look black. This bread was in the over for less than HALF of what was called, I would love to send apicture to Alton and ask him "What is up dude?!" BTW, this is a brand new oven, not 3months old.
25 Mar
Years ago I had a fairly high-end bread maker and tried dozens of different recipes and boxmixes. None of the scratch recipes ever came close to the best of the box mixes, but thegood boxed mixes were nearly as expensive as a loaf of bakery bread. This recipe with the flavor and texture developed by the pre-fermentation is better than any
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Sandidni
nellirene_13009465
k_mckinish
jhbolis_12474077
muidaq
bread I've previously done, better than the bread my mother or grandmother used to makewith much finer grain structure and more flavor. I didn't use the mixer, but rather kneaded the bread by hand for about 10 minutes using arams-head kneading pattern that I use for kneading ceramic clay. Didn't have a terracotta dish, and wasn't excited enough to figure out how to get one homefrom a home store on my motorcycle, so i just threw a kiln shelf in the oven from my smallerkiln and it worked perfectly,
30 Jan 13 1 person found this helpful.
I have prepared this recipe 5 times recently and I love the bread's flavor and its crust. It is sodelicious! Also, it's a perfect size for our 2 person household. I prefer to omit therefrigeration step leaving the starter on the counter for 4-6 hours; then I proceed exactly asspecified. For the final proof step, I place the dough on parchment paper which moves easilyto the oven where I bake it on our pizza stone. It is usually done in 25 minutes. The instantread thermometer is very helpful, too. Tasty!
27 Jan 13
Tasty but tough to handle. I used bread flour, weighed ingredients, carefully followed each step, added extra flour tohandle (about 1/3 c in all, kneaded appropriate times, allowed to rest appropriate times, andstill I get a spreading blob at final step. The 'tighten up' never happens. I get a nice lowprofile free form loaf that tastes good. Oh, well. Pans for me and no nice crust.
4 Jan 13
Thank you Alton! I am 61 and been baking bread for years. I have Williams Sonoma breadbaking book but without your techniques i could never get a nice, crusty, brown, tall, loaf ofbread. Even williams sonoma says splitting the top is decorative. As you showed me that isnot the case. What is smooth and elastic? what does that look like? You showed me. Thecornstarch wash makes a perfect crust. Thank you!
23 Oct 12 1 person found this helpful.
the best bread I have ever made. Made some mistakes and did not have the terra cotta base(its winter and the local hardware is out dah but it still had an excellent chew. The youtubevideos (pt 1-2 is invaluable in helping to explain the steps. Alton was/is always spot on withhis cooking instructions
26 Dec 11
Tastes good, but yes it's basic. This was my first bread and it was probably a good starterrecipe, but I'll likely look for something more adventurous for next time. I didn't have a pizza stone or ceramic pot base, so mine baked on the bottom of a large castiron skillet turned upside down. I also don't have a pizza peel, so I did the final rise onparchment and slid it off a poly cutting board. Both of these substitutions worked out quitewell.
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Goatenheim
breadahead
12 Nov 11
Tastes good, as far as basic bread goes. I agree with Alton on soaking the flour overnight asa preferment, to help hydrate the gluten, instead of using the straight dough method. But heis really over complicating a simple bread recipe.
11 Aug 11
This recipe was simply fantastic. Google the video on youtube and watch it - definitely helpsto see the technique and what the dough should look like at various stages.
12 Jul 11 2 people found this helpful.
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