Hey!!! Sorry I missed this! It's actually sunny & nice in the PacNW & I've been out taking advantage of every second! I scored some tarpaper off craigslist & am putting a real roof on my chicken coop! Yeah!
So my 'recipe' comes straight from Laurel's Kitchen, I just presoak the flour. It's a basic 2 loaf recipe... but I've been working with it for years. If your arms can handle it, I don't see why you couldn't double it.
3 cups warm water (I seperate 2 1/2 cups & 1/2 cup remainder to proof the yeast) You can use potato water, whey, buttermilk, cream... any liquid that will make the yeast happy
)
1 Tbsp salt (I use a generous mounded Tbsp)
1 Tbsp brown sugar (I use honey or molasses depending on my mood. Sometimes I'll add up to 1/4 depending on what I want my bread to be)
6 cups whole wheat flour (If I'm baking for company I'll use 1-3 cups bread flour, depending on how I know they like their bread
)
Before I go to bed I sift the flour & salt & soak it with 2 1/2 cups liquid. I leave it out on the dryer (safe from cats) overnight, along with the 1/2 cup remainder that I'll proof in the a.m.
In the morning I make coffee & proof the yeast in the liquid/sugar mixture & have breakfast
After breakfast I mix up the thick dough with a big metal spoon. Heresy, I know, but the metal cuts through the thick dough better than wood.
I add flour to my hands & add a few handfuls of flour to the dough so I'm able to pick it up. I sprinkle my counter with flour & start to work it out.
I knead about 10 minutes. I let the dough as sticky as I can handle it.
I let it rise on the bookshelf in my living room. Usually I go run errands, come back, punch it down & set it in pans for second rise.
Then we either have lunch & the dough's ready or we have lunch & a nap & it's ready. Depends on the weather.
I bake it in a
preheated oven 375 & check it at 45 minutes. Sometimes it takes up to an hour.
Do you have a meat thermometer? I swear I couldn't "get bread right" until I started using a meat thermometer to test for doneness. I like mine done at about 180, but no less. I take it out @ 45 minutes, remove it from the pan & poke through the bottom to the middle. If it stops at 170 put it back in & test in about 7-10 minutes.
Anyway, as you can see, my "recipe" is pretty open. I think I've been doing it so long now that I've gotten through most of the mistakes to be made.
I'm always adding in whatever I have that might make the dough nice... leftover hot cereals, leftover flax seeds in with the liquid ingredients, whatever.
Here's a 4 loaf recipe that's a little different on a website I adore: Old-Fashioned Low-Yeast Bread (scroll down for recipe)
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/familybread.htm
Let me know if it turns out for you. For some reason I have never had luck with sourdoughs. It's totally embarrassing... I mean, you basically let it set. Anyway, give me tips if it works for you!!
