The Essential James Beard Cookbook (58 page)

BASIC WHITE BREAD

MAKES 1 LARGE OR 2 SMALLER LOAVES

This is my idea of a good, simple loaf of bread—firm, honest in flavor, tender to the bite yet with a slight chewiness in the crust. It is also excellent for toast. Once you have mastered the procedures given here, you can go on to more complex recipes without difficulty.

There are many variables in bread making. As far as flours are concerned, for example, hard-wheat flour produces the best results in wheat breads but it is not always easy to find, so we’ll use a common, unbleached (or bleached) all-purpose flour. Compressed or cake yeast is also difficult to find and the active dry variety is everywhere, so we’ll use that. (See below.) Water may be used for the liquid; the milk used in this recipe makes a richer bread. The amount of salt may be varied according to taste: my rule of thumb (for this kind of bread) is 1 tablespoon for each pound of flour [
Editor: About 3¼ cups
]. Even the weather has an effect on bread making. The degree of humidity and warmth will govern the absorption quality of the flour and the action of the yeast.

One ¼-ounce envelope (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast

¼ cup warm (110° to 115°F) water

2 teaspoons sugar

1 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon plain salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3¾ cups unbleached or all-purpose flour, as needed

Softened butter, for the bowl

For the Egg Wash

1 large egg white

1 tablespoon cold water

To make the bread: In a small bowl mix the yeast and ¼ cup warm water; add the sugar, stir well, and set aside until proofed. It is proofed when fermentation is apparent: the mixture will swell and small bubbles will appear on the surface. (If it doesn’t proof at all, it means that the yeast is not fresh). [
Editor: This usually takes 5 to 10 minutes.
]

Meanwhile, heat the milk with the salt in a small saucepan and stir in the butter until it melts. Set aside to cool until it is no warmer than the yeast mixture. Put 2 cups of the flour in a large mixing bowl and stir in the milk mixture. Beat well with a wooden spatula, add the yeast mixture, and continue beating the dough until it is smooth, adding an additional cup of flour to make a firm dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and begin the kneading process, which evenly distributes the fermenting yeast cells through the dough.

Knead for about 10 minutes, kneading in additional flour as necessary, until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky, and blisters form on the surface. There are several kneading methods, but the basic one is to flour the dough and your hand lightly, then push the heel of your hand down into the dough and away from you. Fold the dough over, give it a quarter-turn, and push down again. Repeat pushing, folding, and turning until the motion becomes rhythmic. If you have a heavy-duty stand mixer with a dough-hook attachment, knead the dough with the hook and finish it off on the board. To test whether the dough has been kneaded enough, make an indentation in it with your fingers; it should spring back. If blisters form on the surface of the dough and break, this is another sign that the kneading is sufficient.

Butter a large bowl, transfer the dough to it, and turn the dough in the bowl until the dough is well coated with butter on all sides. Cover the dough with a dish towel and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 to 1½ hours, until it has doubled in bulk. To test further if the dough has risen properly, make an indentation in it with two fingers: if the dough does not spring back, then it is ready.

Butter a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan, or two pans that are about 8 by 4 by 2½ inches. Punch the dough down with your fist to deflate it; transfer it to a floured board and knead well for about 3 minutes. Pat it into a smooth round or oval shape and let it rest for 4 to 5 minutes. Then form into 1 large or 2 small loaves, by shaping the dough into an oval the length of your bread pan, then gently stretching, rounding, and plumping it in the palms of your hands, tucking the edges underneath and pinching them together. Lift carefully; drop the dough into the pan or pans and smooth out. Cover the dough with a towel and let it rise again in a warm, draft-free place for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until it has doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. To make the egg wash: In a small bowl, whisk the egg white and water together. Uncover the loaf or loaves, and lightly brush some of the egg wash over the top of the dough. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes; reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for 20 to 25 minutes longer, until the crust is well browned and the bread sounds hollow when removed from the pan and tapped on the bottom with the knuckles.

Flour and Yeast

Editor: Beard’s original bread recipes often call for hard-wheat, soft-wheat, or all-purpose flours. The type of wheat milled to make flour (hard or soft) is directly related to the amount of protein in the dough. When flour is moistened, the proteins form gluten; high-protein flour makes a dough with a high gluten content. The gluten content affects the texture of the finished baked product. Generally, high-gluten dough results in a chewy, firm texture, and low-gluten dough bakes into a tender crumb.

Hard-wheat flour
is no longer hard to find, and is sold in every supermarket as bread flour. Its high protein content means it’s ideal for yeast bread, whose dough must be strong enough to stand up to kneading. Unbleached flour has fairly high protein content, and although it is sometimes labeled all-purpose, it, too, is really best for yeast breads.
All-purpose flour
is a blend of soft- and hard-wheat flours, and is usually chemically bleached to prolong its shelf life. This flour is used for many cakes, cookies, and general cooking chores such as coating meat before cooking.
Soft-wheat flour
is a specialty of Southern mills (see headnote,
here
), and some bakers prefer it for biscuits and pastries where tenderness is important. (The Beard family and their Chinese cooks in Oregon made fine biscuits with Western all-purpose flour.) Cake flour is the softest flour of all, and many cooks use it to ensure cakes with a very tender crumb.

Compressed (cake) yeast
is still hard to find and is only manufactured and sold during the winter holiday and Easter seasons. It isn’t worth the trouble to locate it. The original recipes often used an envelope of active dry yeast containing a tablespoon of product. Over the years, and thanks to improved processing practices, the current envelope holds 2
¼
teaspoons with the same rising power as a tablespoon of the former yeast from Beard’s time. The recipes in this edition have been changed to use the modern yeast.

HOMEMADE WHOLE-WHEAT BREAD

MAKES 1 LARGE LOAF

Editor: With these hearty loaves, Beard uses the professional technique of baking the bread in a steamy oven to create a thick and chewy crust.

Two ¼-ounce envelopes (4½ teaspoons) active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1½ cups warm (110° to 115°F) water

2 cups graham flour

1 tablespoon plain salt

2½ cups unbleached flour, as needed

Vegetable oil, for the bowl

Yellow cornmeal, for the baking sheets

Combine the yeast and sugar in the warm water in a large bowl. Let stand 5 minutes and stir to dissolve. Stir in the whole-wheat flour a cup at a time, then the salt. Add enough unbleached flour to make a stiff dough. Turn out onto a floured board and knead, adding more unbleached flour as necessary, until the dough is smooth but still sticky, about 10 minutes. Shape into a ball, put in a large oiled bowl, and turn to coat the dough with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm spot to rise until it has doubled in bulk, about 1½ hours.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and shape it into a long French-style loaf with tapered ends, about 14 inches long. Arrange on a baking sheet heavily sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for about 30 minutes, until almost doubled.

Uncover the loaf. Using a serrated knife, cut 3 long, shallow diagonal slashes down the top of the loaf. Put the baking sheet on the center rack of a cold oven. Put a pan of boiling water on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F and bake until crusty, about 40 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Editor: Graham flour is coarse whole-wheat flour that is stone-ground from the entire wheat kernel. With typical whole-wheat flour, the germ (kernel exterior) and endosperm (kernel exterior) are separately processed, and then mixed together. Bob’s Red Mill and Hodgson Mill’s are good supermarket brands of graham flour.

RAISIN BREAD

MAKES 2 LOAVES

Editor: There are few aromas more enticing than that of raisin bread toasting in the morning. This recipe makes two loaves, so plan to freeze one or give it away to a deserving friend.

1½ cups golden raisins

¾ cup dry sherry or Cognac (optional)

One ¼-ounce envelope (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast

2 cups warm (110° to 115°F) whole milk

¹
⁄
₃
cup sugar

6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, 3 tablespoons at room temperature and 3 tablespoons melted, plus more for the bowl

1 tablespoon plain salt

5½ cups unbleached flour, as needed

2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest

½ teaspoon ground mace

Softened butter, for the pans

For the Egg Wash

1 large egg yolk

2 tablespoons heavy cream

Plump the raisins overnight in a bowl with the sherry.

In a large bowl, add the yeast to ¼ cup of the milk, let stand 5 minutes, and stir to dissolve. Add the remaining 1¾ cups of milk, the sugar, the room-temperature butter, and salt. Gradually stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead for about 10 minutes, until smooth, elastic, and glossy. Clean the bowl, butter it well, return the dough to it, and turn to coat the surface with butter. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free spot to rise until it has doubled in bulk—1½ to 2 hours.

Punch down the dough and knead for 3 minutes. Return it to the bowl and let rise again for 30 minutes. Divide the dough in half. Working with one half at a time, roll out each piece into a rectangle 7 by 20 inches. Brush with half of the melted butter. Drain the raisins well and mix with the orange zest and mace in a bowl. Sprinkle half over the dough and roll up tightly, tucking the ends under. Fit the roll, seam side down, in a well-buttered 8 by 4 by 2½-inch loaf pan. Repeat with the remaining dough, melted butter, and raisins. Cover the loaves with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot until the dough just shows above the tops of the pans, approximately 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk and cream together to make the egg wash. Uncover the loaves and brush lightly with some of the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue baking for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the top and bottom. If necessary, return the loaves to the oven rack without their pans to brown the bottom crusts. Let cool completely on wire racks.

DARK RYE BREAD

MAKES 1 LOAF

Editor: Make this bread when you want something extra-special for meat sandwiches.

½ cup warm (110° to 115°F) water

One ¼-ounce envelope (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast