Soup and Salad for dinner and I wanted fresh bread. I tried to go to Artisan bread store on Washington St. but they were closed. I could have had Lenny go to Harris Teeter while the soup was cooking, but I was thinking. I have time. I thought I remembered that this was a quick yeast bread to make. Well it's not and we'll find out in 40 minutes if adding extra yeast and skipping the 2nd rise was critical to the taste.
I also don't know who Miss Davenport is. I always that she was a neighbor, but when I pulled mom's recipe out instead of using mine, her recipe is one that was printed in a magazine.
Miss Davenport's Easy Real French Bread
1 pkg quick acting yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
4 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
Dissolve yeast in one cup of lukewarm water. While yeast softens sift flour, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl, then stir in the dissolved yeast. Add just enough of the second cup of water to hold dough together. Mix until you have a soft, rather sticky dough. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise until double in size. This takes 2-4 hours depends upon warmth of kitchen.
When dough is high and spongy, punch it down with your fist and give it a good sound beating with your hand. Divide the dough into 2 parts and place each in a greased 6 inch round baking dish (glass casserole is perfect.) cover again with cloth and let rise until it reaches top of the baking dish. Preheat oven to 400, brush the top of the bread with melted butter (gives lovely flavor to the crust) and bake 1 hour.
Mom's notes dated 6/98. Used 3 smaller casserole dishes, cooked for 45 minutes. Yummy good crunchy crust. (couple shakes garlic powder with parsley)
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