Friday, October 24, 2008

Zoe's 1-hour bread





Fresh from Zoe's latest post over at Morning Toast, I decided to give this recipe a try. I've baked my fair share of bread in the past, but my production rate has dwindled over the years. Partly it's a matter of general laziness, but at times the three hour commitment is too much.

The recipe looks so easy: combine flour, water, yeast, salt and honey, and in one short hour, voila! fresh bread. Right now it's rising for 20 minutes, then it's in the oven for 20 minutes, then it's in my belly with butter and honey.

From Simple, Green, Frugal:

Preheat oven 450℉. Combine 1 1/2 cups warm water, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 T dry yeast, 1 T honey in a bowl and sit until yeast is obviously active. Add 3-4 cups flour, stirring in with wooden spoon*, until it's no longer really sticky. Shape into a log. Let sit, covered, for 20 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes. Take out and after resisting for 5 minutes, slice off a chunk and eat with butter and honey slathered on.

Results: Just finished my second piece. Loverly. Chewy, moist, a bit crusty. I probably should have left it in a few more minutes, but I can handle slightly underdone bread. Thanks, Zo.

* because making bread requires using a wooden spoon. That's how my mom and dad did it, and that's how my children will do it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah! I'm so glad you liked it too!
And I'm glad I can comment on your blog now! Watch out, or I'll comment on everything! With a MILLION exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!

Brenton said...

So, you didn't knead your bread at all? I had to to get it feeling like it was uniform in texture. Also, that's quite a bit of yeast, but it didn't taste really yeasty, which was nice.

Anonymous said...

Nope, I didn't knead, although I was sorely tempted to. I just rolled it around in the bowl to make sure I picked up all the flour.

Also, I forgot to note in my post that I used sugar instead of honey, and that I forgot the salt. It would have been better with salt, but I was all, salt in with the yeast? no way! salt kills yeast! i'll add the salt to the flour... and then I forgot. It still tasted good, but then again I was slathering it in salted butter...

Brenton said...

I'm going to try again tomorrow. My mom is in town and I just told her about the recipe. She told me that there is so much yeast in the bread that I shouldn't eat it too often.

Brenton said...

My mom tried the recipe yesterday while visiting, and it turned out a little underdone. I left mine in for a few minutes longer than it called for, and it was perfect. I would suggest a 22-23 min. baking time rather than the recommended 20.