Some of my favorite breads

Years ago, I was one of those people who swore that they'd never, ever, stoop to what I considered to be the epitome of laziness - buying and using a bread machine. Over the years, I paid for my foolish opinion by not having frequent enough opportunities to enjoy a nice freshly made loaf of bread. Active people (or, at least this active person) don't have the time available on a regular basis to make bread by hand, regardless of how therapeutic an activity it might be. And let's be honest: there is no comparison between a home baked loaf of bread and one off the supermarket shelf. I don't know about you, but a loaf of WonderBread doesn't conjure up great gastronomically enjoyable images for me.

So, in the autumn of '95, hanging my head in shame, I went to the nearest wholesale club and took advantage of a great deal on a bread machine.

My machine will make loaves from 1 pound to 2 pounds. Generally I make 1.5 pound loaves. My machine also specifies that the liquid ingredients be added to the pan first, followed by the dry, followed by the yeast, with any "additions" added after the first knead. Judge accordingly for any process changes which might be required for your machine.

Any of the recipes I'm including here are just as easily made by hand as they are by machine, using the same proportions, although I'm not going to presume to go into any details relative to procedures for those using the therapeutic processes.

I'm including at this time some of the loaves that I make most often, as they are obviously the ones that I like best. I hope that you have an opportunity to try and enjoy them. And, I welcome any bread recipes that you might care to send me. All of that having been said, here are my recipes for Italian bread, Caper-anchovy bread, and tomato bread. Oh, and, BTW, I can't claim any originality for any of these but the Italian bread - the others were quite literally lifted from various bread machine books.

A few words about ingredients

As I've baked more breads, I've learned that there are two major ingredients with which one needs to be concerned: the yeast and the grain products (flours and meals).

Regarding yeast

As longs as it's fresh, the type seems to be immaterial.

Others may argue this point, but my experience has shown that whether you buy organic_new_age_yeast, Fleischmann's_by_the_foil_packet, or Red_Star_bulk, you will have pretty much the same luck, provided that:

1. It's fresh when you get it,
2. You keep it fresh under refrigeration, and
3. You use it within reasonable tolerance of its expiration date.

The bottom line here seems to be that unless you have experiential evidence to the contrary (or the recipe calls for a completely different type of yeast, like brewers yeast), don't necessarily believe anything that you may read in any particular recipe or cook book regarding the need for a particular type of yeast.

Regarding flours and meals

Except for bread flour, which is specifically made to contain a particular gluten (protein) content, you will find, normally to your dismay, that the results you achieve with some flours will vary from time to time. The reason for this appears to be simply that there isn't sufficient consistency in the makeup of, for example, all-purpose flours. I learned this by finding that one loaf of bread which rose and baked beautifully might later be followed by another loaf, using the same recipe and machine, which rose as nicely, but sunk like a stone shortly after the bake cycle began.

My older brother works for a commercial baking company and has years of experience with bread production. To him, my problem was no mystery at all. If there is insufficient gluten (protein) in the dough, even if the yeast has been robust enough to give you the rise required before baking begins, the bread is destined to fall as the baking begins, rather than blooming (rising a bit further with the increase in temperature which boosts the reproductive and digestive processes of the yeast before killing it) as it ought to.

The solution to this is a simple one. If the bread being made requires a white flour, the easiest thing to do is to simply use bread flour. If, like myself, you happen to keep multiple pounds of all-purpose flour onsite and would like to use that, the remedy is to supplement it with a substance known as Vital Wheat Gluten, which can be purchsed at places like GNC. For most flours and meals which are gluten-poor (i.e all except bread flour), the generally held beliefs seem to indicate that you want to add add somewhere between 1 and 3 percent by weight of Vital Wheat Gluten which works out to somewhere between 3/4 and 1.5 tsp per cup of flour/meal. If you have a good digital scale, such as a Pelouze Model PE5 or equivalent, you'll find the apportioning task a whole lot simpler, not to mention more precise. At this point in my experience, I'm unsure as to the level of precision that's required. For example, my brother (like most bread baking texts) indicates that the addition of too much gluten, which results in a crumb of too high a protein content, will produce for you a loaf which is nicely formed but tough. Personally, I've yet to see the loaf of bread that's too tough for me, but then, I really like chewy bread (refer to the WonderBread commentary earlier.)

In any event, keep in mind that this goes for any flour or meal, including rye, whole wheat, rice, millet, buckwheat, corn, etc. The bottom line is that if it's not a 100% bread flour recipe, use the VWG to keep your loaf from collapsing. Also, keep in mind that when using the following recipes, I am going to specify white flour indicating either bread flour, or all-purpose flour which assumes a supplementation with VWG, and that if the recipe calls for other flours or meals, it is your responsibility to supplement them with VWG. In other words, I am NOT specifying the added VWG in these recipes. Sorry.

As a final note on flour, for consistent results, try to use the same brand of flour once you've identified one that provides you with good results. I've had my best results with, and highly recommend, King Arthur Flour, which comes in a variety of types, including all-purpose, bread and whole wheat flours.

Real Italian Bread

When I was brought up in Syracuse, we used to get our Italian bread from the Columbus Bakery on Pearl Street, on the North side, which, to the best of my knowledge, is still there, and still baking great bread daily. [NOTE: I just received word that you can actually BUY Columbus Bakery bread online, if you like the price, but you can certainly make it yourself a lot less expensively using this method.]

The loaves were great! A golden brown crust which resonated when you rapped it with a knuckle. Thick and chewy, surrounding a light, airy bread which had air bubbles that ranged in size up to half an inch in diameter. And the taste!

You cut these loaves diagonally into slices about half an inch thick and toasted them for breakfast, or made a meatball sandwich with them, or used them to soak up the tomato juice, olive oil and oregano on your plate after a summer salad, or you just ate them with some provolone, or some salami, or even all alone!

Then I moved to New Hampshire.

For some reason, which I fail to understand to this day, the prevalent concept of what "Italian Bread" is, is a loaf that's kind of long and somewhat flattened and sold in a white paper bag. That's where the similarity to "Real" Italian bread ends, as far as I'm concerned.

This stuff is soft throughout, crust included. If you can find an air bubble in it larger than 1/8" I'll buy the loaf from you. And it doesn't taste any different than WonderBread, for my money. Feh!

For years (even before I got my bread machine) I looked for good Italian bread recipes. I tried many of them. I remained disgusted and waited for the rare occasions that I could get back to Pearl Street and buy several loaves to bring home, hoping I could freeze a few to preserve them in order to satiate me in a few more months when I so craved the real thing again.

Then, about six months after getting my machine, I decided it was time to solve this perplexing conundrum once and for all.

I remembered quite clearly something that was always printed in red ink on those long, slender, white paper bags from the Columbus Bakery:

Ingredients: flour, water, yeast and salt

So, given my experience with my bread machine, my knowledge regarding proportions (and my sense of the gluten issue), I bravely set out to try the following recipe which came out, dare I say, PERFECTLY!

• 1 1/4 cups water
• 3 1/2 cups white flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp yeast

Place all ingredients in bread machine pan in proper order. Use "white" cycle for either light or medium crust.

Caper-Anchovy Bread

Tomato Bread

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Last Updated 5/3/05 by JDB