This recipe came originally from the Bread Dad web site. My objective was to find a recipe that used instant dry yeast instead of active dry yeast, yet does the baking in a conventional oven.
I modified the recipe directions to suit me, which means some directions from the original recipe have been removed or changed.
I also changed the ingredients to replace some of the bread flour with gluten to increase the percentage of gluten to 18% instead of using the 12.7% gluten content of only bread flour. The reason is I prefer a more chewy and soft bread.
I changed unsalted butter to plain butter as I also like more salty bread.
I added a steaming step to the baking using boiling water poured into a hot cast iron skillet. That produces a superior, crispy crust on the baked bread.
I sure am pleased with the results. The bread looks great and tastes great too.
Ingredients: (makes one, 1 1/2 pound loaf of white bread)
1 1/3 cups of whole milk (warm)
5 1/2 tablespoons of Butter (softened)
3 cups of King Arthur® bread flour
1/2 cup of Anthony's Premium® Vital Wheat Gluten
2 tablespoons of white granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of instant yeast
1 to 2 tablespoons of canola oil (to coat the dough before it rises)
Equipment:
5" x 9" Bread Pan
12" diameter cast iron skillet
Cooling rack for the baked bread
Instant read thermometer
Directions:
Use the paddle accessory with a stand electric mixer.
Pour the milk into the mixing bowl and then add the other ingredients, except the canola oil.
Place the instant yeast in last, and the yeast should not touch the liquid (until the electric mixer is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed). The easy way to do that is to form a depression in the top of the flour and put the yeast into it.
Mix the dough ingredients on low speed until the dough forms/comes together.
Exchange the paddle accessory for the dough hook and knead the dough for 7 to 8 minutes.
Put the dough into a three quart bowl that has been lightly coated inside with canola oil.
Roll the dough around in the canola oil to coat it, to prevent the dough exterior from drying during the rise.
Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 60 to 90 minutes until it doubles in size. I do this in a 100 degrees F proofing oven, but a warm kitchen is fine.
Shaping the Dough:
Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of flour on/around the surface of a large wood cutting board.
Remove the dough from the rising bowl and place it on the cutting board. Lightly roll it around in the flour.
Press down on the dough with your hands and create a “flattish” rectangle with the dough. The dough should be roughly 1 inch thick.
Roll up the dough into a tight “jelly roll”:
Pull one dough edge over the dough and lay it down 2/3 of the way across the dough. Flatten the dough back to a 1" thickness. Pull two corners of the dough you have just flattened to form triangles with bases that meet in the middle of the dough, left to right. Flatten the dough. Roll up the dough into a jelly roll shape, starting from the point of the dough, tightly pressing on the dough surface right before rolling over it. Do this about every inch until the jelly roll is done. Gently form the roll into the internal length of the bread pan. Place the rolled up dough into the bread pan.
Press down on top of the dough so the edges of the dough press out to the sides of the bread pan. This will avoid gaps between the dough and the bread pan. That helps the bread to form a nice loaf shape without misshapen edges. Make sure that the top of the pressed down dough is roughly level (so one side isn’t higher than the other).
Lightly spray the top of the dough with Pam® in order to prevent the dough exterior from drying out during the second rise.
Do the second rise of the dough:
Loosely cover the top of the bread pan and dough with plastic wrap. Set the covered bread pan aside (or into a proofing oven) for 60 to 90 minutes for the dough to rise into a loaf shape. Once the dough has risen 1 1/2" above the rim of the bread pan, the dough is ready to be put into the oven.
Note: You want the dough to fully rise during this stage. Don’t try to shorten this rising time. If the dough is still significantly rising while it is in the oven, it is likely there will be undesirable crust/seam cracks or “bursts” form on the top of the loaf of bread. But note that using a lame to put shallow slits in the top of the loaf before baking will usually avoid cracks in the crust.
Bake the Bread:
Put a 12" diameter cast iron skillet into the oven on a low shelf.
Preheat the oven to 350 F about 20 minutes before you plan to put the dough into the oven. Make sure you have one shelf in the middle (top to bottom) of the oven to bake the bread. Use a baking stone on that shelf if you have one.
Note: Set a timer to go off 40 minutes into the second rising period. Given variability in the dough rising time, this can be a little early, but it is better to be early versus being late, and as needed you can wait until the second rise of the dough is complete. More importantly you can tell when to start preheating the oven so it is ready for baking the bread when the second dough rise is completed.
Use a lame or a very sharp knife to put shallow slits in the dough, side to side, one every inch along the length.
Use a 16 ounce Pyrex® or similar glass measuring cup and put 1 1/2 cups of water in it.
Microwave the water until it boils, then remove the measuring cup from the microwave oven.
Place the bread pan into the (preheated) oven on the middle shelf of the oven.
Pour the one and one half cups of boiling water into the cast iron skillet and quickly close the oven door. This creates the steaming environment that will yield a nice crispy crust.
Bake the bread for 37 to 42 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Rotate the bread pan in the oven 180 degrees after the first 20 minutes of baking to ensure an even browning on the surface of the bread.
After the first 37 minutes of the baking period, check the internal temperature of the middle of the bread with an instant read thermometer. The temperature should be between 190 degrees F and 200 degrees F. If it is, remove the bread pan from the oven, wearing oven mitts or using hot pads.
If the temperature is too low then bake for another 5 minutes and check again. Repeat if necessary until the internal bread temperature is at least 190 degrees F.
Gently empty the loaf of bread from the bread pan on to a wire cooling rack and stand the bread upright.
Brush some melted butter on to the top of the crust with a pastry brush. Butter “basting” helps to create a golden, buttery and tasty crust.
Allow the bread to cool on the wire rack for 1 to 2 hours before cutting it.
Slice some bread with a bread knife about 3/4" thick and spread soft butter on the slice.
Enjoy!