This bread recipe is a great starting place for all sorts of home-made foods. We use this recipe to make sandwiches buns, loafs, pizza, calzone, and flatbread. The recipe is the following (it can be easily be cut into half):
- 2 cups luke warm water - if it is too hot it will kill the yeast.
- 1 tablespoons dry yeast.
- about 5 cup flour (all purpose or bread flour)
- 2 - 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt (we use Hawai'ian sea salt)
- 2 - 4 tablespoons sugar
First, warm the 2 cups of water and add the yeast slowly and mix. let this mixture stand for 5 to 10 minutes as the yeast is activated with the water.
Then, by hand the mix the water/yeast mixture with the flour until a dough starts to form.
Next, kneed the dough with the dough-hook attachment for the KitchenAid. Add the the 1 tablespoon salt and 2 - 4 tablespoons sugar (fresh herbs and spices are also nice to add at this point). Mix for 10 - 15 minuets, or until the dough becomes elastic and smooth. Pay attention to the dough forming - if it looks too wet add a little flour. Elasticity and smoothness are indicators that the
gluten in the flour has binded. If you have the time and the strength the mixing stage can also be done by hand. Here is a great video of how to mix dough by hand -
Here. Once the dough is mixed, 1 tablespoons of olive-oil is coated over the dough. Cover the dough and let it sit for about an hour or until it has doubled in size.
The loafs are then placed on a baking pan. Make sure to coat the pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil so they do not stick. Then take the remaining olive oil and coat the loafs (I sometime sprinkle the loafs with a little sea salt). Cover again, and let the loafs double in size again (about 45 minutes). Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Bake for 12-13 minutes or until bread starts to get a light tan. Finally, while the bread is still in the oven, turn the temperature up to 500 F and bake for 5 more minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool, and enjoy.
Bread for the next few days.
