Simple Bread Recipe Request and a Question

[KatWrangler]

We are completely out of bread and I don't have a car (single car family and hubby is at work). So I want to make bread today. I need a simple recipe.

Question - I see recipes with bread flour. I am all out of bread flour. I have regular all purpose flour. Out of wheat flour too. Can I substitute white flour in recipes? If so do I need to make adjustments?

I have yeast, sugar, honey, etc.

[Llyra]

All-purpose flour will work fine. The gluten content is lower, so that you may not get the high rise and airy texture you'd get with bread flour, but it'll make perfectly good bread. I do find that lower-gluten flour needs a bit more kneading.

My favorite simplest bread is 1 1/4 cups warm water, two teaspoons yeast, two tablespoons of fat (butter, olive oil, lard, whatever you like), a half teaspoon of salt, and enough flour to make a good dough that's not sticky but still a little tacky-- three to four cups, usually. You can shape it in different ways- long and thin like an italian bread, in rolls, in little bread sticks, in a hearth loaf, flat like a focaccia, whatever. It needs a long first rise (maybe two hours even) because you're not adding any sugar, honey, etc. to feed the yeast. I brush the dough with more melted fat (I like butter best!) before I put it in the oven. It bakes about a half hour at 400.

[ambereva]

My super simple recipe is:

2 cups tepid water
1 TBSP yeast
1 tsp salt
~4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in water then add salt and most of the flour, stir until kneadable, then knead and add the rest of the flour (may need slightly more or less) till dough stops sticking to your hands. Let rise in a covered, oiled bowl about an hour then shape into a loaf on a bread stone or in a bread pan, let rise another hour, then bake about an hour at 375.

[CookiePie]

This is what I'd do ~Recipe for Artisan bread in five minutes a day from Mother Earth News

[KatWrangler]

Originally Posted by CookiePie

This is what I'd do ~Recipe for Artisan bread in five minutes a day from Mother Earth News

Yep. I have this recipe. But it needs to be refrigerated I thought for at least 24 hours before using. Isn't that right? Because we need bread today.

However, I am going to go ahead and mix up a batch.

[Frisha]

I generally go ahead and fix at least one loaf when I mix up a batch. When it has finished it's first rise, then refrigerate the rest. When I fix a batch of the 5-min A Day recipe.

[CookiePie]

I also, usually make a loaf after the inital rise.....hth