Master Recipe For American Loaf Bread

(Food Processor Version)

1. Adjust oven rack to low position and heat oven to 200 degrees. Once oven
temperature reaches 200 degrees, maintain heat 10 minutes, then turn off
oven heat.

2. Mix flour and salt in bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade.
Add liquid ingredients; process until rough ball forms. Let dough rest 2
minutes. Process 35 seconds. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and
knead by hand, adding a little more flour if needed, until dough is smooth
and satiny, 4 to 5 minutes.

3. Place dough in very lightly oiled bowl, rubbing dough around bowl to
lightly coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; place in warm oven until dough
doubles in size, 40 to 50 minutes.

4. Form dough into loaf (there’s an illustration, but I can’t reproduce it
here – sorry), placing in greased 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan.

5. Cover with plastic wrap; set aside in warm spot until dough almost
doubles in size, 20 to 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350 degrees, placing empty
loaf pan on bottom rack. Bring 2 C water to boil.

6. Remove plastic wrap from loaf pan. Place pan in oven, immediately
pouring boiling water in empty loaf pan; (again, I can’t put the
illustration here…..) close oven door. Bake until instant-read
thermometer inserted at an angle from short end just above pan rim into
center of loaf reaches 195 degrees, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove bread
from pan, transfer to a wire rack, and cool to room temperature. Slice and
serve.

A few variation:

Whole wheat: Substitute 1 1/3 C whole wheat flour for 1 1/3 C all-purpose
flour. Increase first first to 50 to 60 minutes, and second rise to 40
minutes.

Oatmeal: Bring 3/4 C water to boil in small saucepan. Add 3/4 C rolled
oats; cook to soften slightly, about 90 seconds. Follow above recipe,
decreasing flour from 3 1/2 C to 2 3/4 C, adding the cooked oatmeal to
flour and omitting the warm water from the wet ingredients.

Cornmeal: Bring 1/2 C water to boil in small saucepan. Slowly whisk in 1/4
C cornmeal. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens, about 1
minutes. Follow above recipe, decreasing flour to 3 1//4 C, decreasing milk
to 3/4 C, and adding cornmeal mixture to flour (before incorporating
liquids).

Anadama: Follow cornmeal loaf recipe, substituting molasses for honey.

Now, then, I tried to master recipe (white bread) over the last weekend,
and found that it turned out a wonderful tasting loaf, but the crust turned
out much too chewy for me. I will try it next week, brushing the crust with
butter to see if that makes a difference. The magazine article deals with
trying to recreate American sandwich bread, but I don’t think this quite
succeeds. It is, however, a nice bread made with minimal effort and no
bread machine. (I love my bread machine, but slicing those cylindrical
loaves is maddening sometimes…..)

from COOK’S ILLUSTRATED 6/96