One of my first T&T bread recipes was similar to your recipe, except I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour for the first amount of flour in the recipe. Bread freezes well when there is honey in the recipe. Have you found that true with this recipe? I would make 1 loaf of bread and then use the other half of the dough to make burger or hot dog buns, dinner rolls or cinnamon rolls, whichever I needed for the freezer at the time.

-Grainlady

Tami or grainlady, I am interested in this 175 degree F. rising approach. I see that the yeast percentage is high for a faster rise, but I would have thought that 175 would be too high even for a full loaf and would certainly be lethal for thinner items like buns. Do you drop the heat for the buns?

Grainlady, it never lasts long enough to try freezing it! Sorry I can't answer you.

Chas045, I have made buns with this recipe and had no problem with the 175f rising. It is for about 30 minutes then the oven gets turned up to 350F for 30 minutes bake time.

Tami

A lot of breads benefit from cold start ovens--something which can be stymied by modern fast preheats. It sounds like this recipe is sort of in the middle. 175ð F might have been the lowest temperature the author's oven would go. Some only go down to 225ð F! But doing the shaped rise in a warm but not hot oven might be a good work around to gradually warm the dough.

Just speculating...

Whenever there is a bread making "rule", you'll find an exception to it, and this recipe is one of those exceptions. If it works, fine, but some of those exceptions can also be the cause of failed recipes just as easily.

Personally, I would never use a 175-degree F rise because yeast begins to die at 140-degrees F and starches begin to gelatinize between 140-160-degrees F and this can affect the oven spring. It wouldn't surprise me if the loaves shred on the side from using this method. I've made a few cold oven recipes, but each oven heats differently so they can often go right - or wrong - depending on each oven.

I can bake two loaves in my Sharp Convection/Microwave oven without preheating and bake them in 20-25-minutes, but that's the design of the Sharp - I've never try that in my regular oven with or without the convection feature.

-Grainlady

I have no clue to the sciences behind bread. I just know this recipe works for us, and tastes good too!

Tami

This is an interesting recipe.
Just to be clear, you mix 3/4 cup flour into the liquid, then the yeast etc then add another 5-7 cups.

I just checked my oven and it goes down to 170 so I can make this.

One thing I'm worried is the moving the bread around in the pans. I think I'm deflating my dough putting it into the oven or something. They haven't been as risen as they should when they're done baking.

Let the dough rise in the oven, remove them to preheat the oven, and then bake. I hope they don't fall on me.

jasdip; I think you misread the procedure. It is essentially a standard double rise method except that the rises are unusually short, once in the bowl and then once in the pan in a 175 degree oven for ~30 minutes, followed by ~30 minutes baking at 350.

Yeah, I was just wondering if my bread will fall on me, taking it out of the oven to preheat it to 350, and then putting it back in again. Vs putting it in the oven once, when the oven is already hot, after rising on the counter.

It's just me and my weird mind, over-thinking a simple process. Don't mind me :-)

OK, so maybe I misread the recipe... I took it to mean that you leave the loaves IN the oven during the transition from rising heat to baking heat? Also, when you say 1T salt, is that Tablespoon or teaspoon? (Ditto with the yeast?) Sorry for all the questions... I'm still learning :^)
Edie

Tami, sorry to jump in for you if you are almost ready to post, but again, I think the recipe is actually clear, if a little unusual. Yes edie, 'you leave the loaves IN the oven during the transition from rising heat to baking heat'. And 1T (tablespoon) is perfectly reasonable for salt. Standard bread machine recipes are often for three cups flour with one teaspoon salt. This recipe could easily be nine cups flour, or three times more. The yeast, at 1.5T or 4.5t is double that for the bread machine, but yeast is not usually raised in proportion like other ingredients. Yeast should be high for quick rise like used here so it makes sense as well. I suspect even more might not be too much.

That's where I was confused too Chas!! You leave the bread IN the oven?? Ok, so I don't need to worry about the bread falling after it's risen, taking it out to preheat the oven, and then putting it back in again.

Wow, I was thinking the bread would burn preheating the oven so I wa sure it had to be taken out.

jasdip: well, yes but I'm still not sure we are on the same page yet. The first rise is in a bowl, presumably at room temperature. Then the oven is turned on to begin warming up to 175. (BTW, my 7 year old oven has its lowest setting at 175). The bread is still not in the oven. Now you deflate, shape it and place in the pan and THEN put it in the presumably now 175 degree oven for ~30 minutes. Presumably, this time may be slightly modified so that the rise is acceptable. Then the bread, of course, remains in the oven while the temp. is raised to normal baking temperature.

I will add, if Tami does have better info, that if you have a newer, fast pre-heat oven that throws all it's heaters on at once to raise the temperature, and if the fast preheat will go on even though it's been heated to 175ð for awhile, it might be a problem. Something to watch for at least.

Thanks for clearing things up for me. I am sorry I didn't get back here for possible questions. Been a little under the weather but fine now. Remind me not to eat so much chicken paprikas! Too much sour cream.

Yes, you raise the dough once at room temp in the bowl. Deflate, roll our the air bubbles and form the loaves, put in the pans, and let rise again in the preheated 175ðF oven. Leave the dough in the oven and turn the temperature up to 350ðF and bake for an additional 30 minutes once the dough has risen to fill the pans. My stove/oven is about 5 years old and has the option to convection bake or regular bake. I use the convection option, but follow all bake time suggestions. I have even done the second rise at room temp because I had to leave the house for a short time, but too long to do it in the oven, and it came out fine, even if it was slightly over risen.

Tami

I would use instant yeast if you want to try this -- from what I understand it dies off at a higher temp and may do better in this recipe. I think you need to know if your oven will cycle on the broiling element when doing a large increase in temp (the way most do when doing an initial preheat, but might not for a temp increase once the preheat has been met). You don't want to turn the oven off and back on set to the higher temp to raise to 350.

This is also likely to be a bread with a yeasty flavor. Some folks equate that with homemade bread and prefer it while others like more subtle flavors that develop with a slow rise. I remember someone commenting about the lack of flavor in a slow ferment bread and thinking this is probably what they were looking for instead. Just something to keep in mind.

Hahaha! I'm sorry! This ended up not being so "easy", even though the execution actually is. Just makes me laugh because I'm an over-thinker!

OK, thank you for clarifying. I was wondering about the salt... the recipe I used last weekend for oatmeal bread called for 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt (which is what this recipe works out to be per loaf) and it tastes a little overly-salty to me. So I just wanted to be sure. Another question: AP flour or bread flour (and could I mix in some portion of white whole wheat or would that really mess up the rising or the texture?)
Edie

Edie, I have used both, but usually just use AP.

Alex9179, I am sorry it didn't work for you.

Tami

Tami, I'm definitely going to have to try this, I've never risen the bread in the oven before. I'm wondering if I could knead it using the bread machine, then add to the pan and stick in the oven for the rising portion.

Hmmmm, I feel an experiment coming on!

Annie

I just took them out of the oven. What an easy recipe!!! I was stunned at how much it had risen in the first 30 minutes, it was to the top of my bowl.

If this tastes as good as it looks (and bread has to taste awful for us not to like it) this might be my regular go-to bread recipe. I've never used oil in bread, so this is a first.

On the 1st rise now, getting ready to grease pans. I'll be back to let you know how it turns out! I'm so excited!!!
Edie
Ok, we're on the final bake. Jasdip, I sure hope mine come out looking as pretty as yours.

Out of the oven and on cooling racks. OMG I can't begin to describe the incredible aroma. This just might make DH a believer. I did explain to him the reason I want to start baking my own bread -- I read him the list "ingredients" (chemicals) that are in that storebought bread he is so fond of!

I have pictures on my cellphone - how do I get them from there to here?

Jasdip, are yours cool enough to cut yet?

This post was edited by ediej1209 on Sun, Nov 9, 14 at 14:50

edie, I don't have a phone that takes pictures, but I load the pictures from my computer onto Photobucket, and from there I can "link" to post them here.

If you search, there was a tutorial about posting pictures with a free online tool of some type, darned if I remember what it was, though.

Good luck on the bread.

Jasdip, yours looks perfect, I'm betting it tasted wonderful.

Annie