Creating Brick Oven Style Bread At Home With Clay Baker Cookware By Terry Retter At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Using clay bakers creates bread as close to that found in a brick oven bakery. The taste and quality can be duplicated at home! And I will give you one secret tip as well! My wife has a basic bread recipe that she loves. It can be amended in a variety of ways depending on what the bread will be used for!

People always think making bread is a chore. Honestly, we make several loaves a week using the Bosch Universal Plus Kitchen Machine. There is no other mixer that kneads dough as well as this appliance. Remember the ingredients can vary. It is not an exact science, but something to have fun and experiment with.

Basic Bread Recipe

o 5 ½ cups sifted or pre sifted flour
o 2 cups milk, heated to about 100 degrees, or can use half milk and half hot water to simplify things
o 2 Tablespoons fast rise yeast or two packets
o 1 Tbsp sugar
o 2 Tbsp butter
o 1tsp salt

Dissolve the butter and yeast in the warm milk and sugar, and allow it to proof. If you are new to bread making this means that the mixture will get foamy.

Place 3 cups of the flour and salt into the mixer bowl. Add the proofed yeast and milk mixture. You can either use a dough hook and electric mixer or stir it with a wooden spoon until well mixed. You will notice that the mixture looks slightly elastic.

Add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time. You can knead by hand on a lightly floured board. It should be soft but not sticky; you might need to add more flour. Or, if using an electric mixer to mix and knead, stop when it is a solid ball on the dough hook. Do not over do when using an electric mixer.

After kneading set dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover with a towel and set in a warm but not hot place until doubled, about one hour.

Punch down, let set ten minutes, then shape and place in clay baker and let rise about another twenty minutes. Place in a cold oven. set the oven at 375 degrees and bake.

Shaping variations and cooking times:

We use clay bakers for all of our bread and I strongly suggest it.

Dinner Rolls - you may shape them and set them individually in a round clay baker bread pan. Lightly brush with butter prior to and after removing from the oven. Bake approximately 18 minutes

Loaves - Romertopf clay bakers come in a choice of a regular loaf baker, a French/Italian sized baker, and a round bread baker. Shape into a loaf by punching down and pulling the ends under. Place dough in baker shape of choice and bake approximately 25 minutes.

Some variations

o Add instant mashed potatoes for part of the flour, use ½ cup in place of 1 cup of the flour in the initial mixture.
o Add an egg with the milk mixture and add about ½ cup more flour.
o Use 2 cups rye flour and 3 ½ cups regular flour
o Use 100% whole wheat flour
o Add raisins or other dried fruit

Remember I promised you a secret at the beginning of the article. Well here it is! About ten minutes before the bread is finished, throw a handful of ice cubes onto the bottom of your oven and quickly close the door. Allow the steam and clay to do their work! You will be rewarded with excellent rolls!

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