This delicious dinner bread is perfect for dinner, lunch, snack, dessert, and even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Try it with delicious homemade cinnamon butter or pumpkin homemade probiotic cream cheese. Remember to let it cool overnight to slice in smooth, unbroken slices. Waiting may be difficult – this bread is too delicious to wait to eat.
Ingredients:
- 8 cups unbleached and non-bromated flour (you can substitute 1/4th of this with whole wheat flour)
- 6 tablespoons coconut sugar
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- ¼ cup butter (8 tablespoons) softened
- 3 tablespoons active dry yeast
- 3 whole eggs, plus one for glaze
- 3 tablespoons butter (for glaze)
- Olive oil spray for pastry board, rolling pin, bowl, and loaf pans
- 2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar
- 2.5 cups of water
- 3 tablespoons coconut sugar mixed with 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Supplies:
- Whisk
- Pastry brush
- Plastic pastry board
- Wooden spoon
- 8-quart bowl with lid
- 4-quart bowl with lid
- Rolling pin
- Measuring spoons and cups
- 4 bread loaf pans or rectangle cookie sheets (or combination thereof)
- Bread Knife
Directions:
- In the small bowl, mix 3 cups flour with the sugar, yeast, and salt using the whisk.
- Cut in the 1/4 cup butter using the whisk until the mixture resembles lumpy sand.
- Add the three eggs, 2 ½ cups of water, and 2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar. (It gives it a sweet and lightly sour-dough flavor, plus adds trivial amounts of probiotics.) Stir vigorously with a whisk (or with a mixer) for about one minute, until it begins to resemble a sticky gel.
- Begin adding remaining flour, about one spoonful at a time, and stir it in with a wooden spoon until it begins to form a dough. Scrape dough from sides when the dough begins to stick together, to make it easier to handle.
- Dust hands with some flour and keep remaining flour nearby and easy to access. Begin to lightly dust dough and bowl and then begin the kneading process. Knead gently as the bread will turn out according to how it is treated.
- To knead dough, gently scoop one hand under dough ball and bring it up and fold it into the middle. Turn bowl and repeat, adding flour as necessary to keep it from sticking to hands. Do not over-flour the dough and cause it to become dry. Knead for less than five minutes, just until dough becomes springy and has a velvety sheen, like clean baby skin.
- Spray the larger bowl with olive oil spray, including the underside of the lid. Place dough ball into the bowl, adding any dough scraps and tucking them into the center of the ball. Cover with the lid.
- Allow the dough to rest in a room temperature location far away form microwaves, televisions, or wifi hubs. The yeast is very sensitive and too much radiation from any electronics will cause it to taste off or not rise at all.
- The dough must be allowed to rise for at least an hour, but up to 3 hours, depending on barometer pressure and room temperature. Cooler temperatures will lengthen rising time and warmer ones will speed it up significantly.
- When dough has begun to lift the lid off of the bowl, or at least doubled in size and does not bounce back when pressed with a finger, it is time to put it into the loaf pans.
- Generously spray loaf pans or baking sheets with olive oil spray, or grease them with butter. Also, lightly grease pastry board and rolling pin.
- Carefully and gently dump the dough out onto the pastry board and divide it into fourths. Return three of the four dough chunks to the bowl.
- The piece of dough remaining on the pastry board can now be gently rolled back into a ball and then rolled out flat using the rolling pin. Lightly grease the surface to keep it from sticking. We use oil or butter to prevent sticking because it will make the bread softer compared to using flour.
- Starting at one end, roll up the bread and then tuck under the ends and carefully place this into a loaf pan with the folded ends tucked under the loaf. (Do not tuck the ends under if placing the dough into a cookie sheet, instead, roll the dough slightly until a uniform “loaf” is achieved.) Handle the dough as little as possible to prevent it from becoming tough.
- Repeat this process with the other three dough chunks.
- Melt the remaining butter and gently brush the butter into the bread loaves.
- Using a clean whisk, beat up the remaining egg until frothy and brush the egg unto the bread.
- Generously dust the bread loaves with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.
- Preheat oven by turning it on to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about two minutes. Turn it off and place all of the bread in the oven. Make sure to leave room above the bread between the top and the second racks so it can rise.
- Allow bread to rise for 30 to 45 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.
- Immediately turn the oven on to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Bread is done when it is lightly browned on top and it sounds hollow when the pan is tapped on the bottom.
- Allow the bread to cool in or on the pans for at least two hours, then place them into the refrigerator overnight before slicing. By chilling the bread overnight, it will be easier to slice in thin, uniform slices.
- Each loaf produces 20 to 30 slices and will last about 30 days in the freezer and about a week in the refrigerator. It will last only two days if left out on the counter because it does not have preservatives or chemicals and has not been irradiated or microwaved to kill off bread mold spores.
