Basic White Bread (Hand Kneaded)

hi I'm Kevin welcome to my kitchen today because we all need to learn how to be at least somewhat self submission I'd like to show you how to make a loaf a very basic but very delicious white bread I made this loaf last night and then had to summon all of my willpower not to cut into it anyway the recipe is very simple and the only special equipment you'll need is a mixing bowl a loaf pan and at least one impeccably clean hand and into the mixing bowl goes 1/3 cup of very warm water this is about 110 degrees Fahrenheit then add two and a quarter teaspoons of active dry yeast here it is and if you don't have any active dry yeast just hold off on this recipe until you do then we're going to add one and a half tablespoons of regular granulated sugar give this a quick whisk then add one cup of lukewarm milk and this has been scalded and then cooled and so that the bread has a moist crumb you want to add one and a half tablespoons of shortening and I'm using a regular old Crisco finally actually not finally we have a couple more things add one and a half teaspoons of salt salt is for flavor and then add three and a half cups of all-purpose flour I'm going to stir this together and I'm going to stir this in one direction when you stir in one direction it helps the stirring in one direction helps the strands of gluten to form or so I have been told and you just stir until the dough becomes so stiff that you cannot stir it anymore it's great off the sticky dough from the spoon and we're going to tip this on to a non floured work surface and then we have to knead the sucker but before we do that we're going to cover this with a towel and then quickly wash out and dried the mixing bowl going to wash it dry it and grease it I'll be right back okay here's my cleaned and dried and grease the bowl I just sprayed the bowl with nonstick vegetable spray that's a perfectly good grease for bread and now unto kneading the dough first roll up your sleeves and remove any jewelry I cannot remove my wedding ring because it won't come off we need to knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic and not at all sticky it's going to be very sticky at first but do not be tempted to add any flour my bench scraper now when you need dough the idea is to fold them fold it over on itself and then push it out with the heel of your hand if the dough is too sticky like mine is lift it up and slam it down about ten times yeah I learned this little trick from a French maker in Paris there's less sticky already this kneading work may take about ten minutes we shall see I don't know if I'm going to shorten the kneading job visually anyway we shall see if you've never made bread before and certainly if you've never needed bread before will probably be very helpful for you to watch the whole process what we're doing is manipulating the dough so that strands of gluten form gluten is the protein that gives bread its elastic texture I always laugh when I see bakers keep adding more and more flour while they're kneading dough and when you keep adding flour you trick yourself into thinking that the dough is no longer sticky and it is therefore needed enough when indeed it has barely been kneaded at all to just keep working the dough will lose its stickiness I actually learned how the need when I was a little boy my mother was a major bread bakery actually she still is and in fact before she met my father she worked at a wheat lab in Spokane Washington this would have been in the mid 1950s and this what this lab did was took in various strains of wheat the local farmers grew and they would test the wheat they would test it for gluten content for protein content for taste the texture and they would mill the wheat and then turn it into bread and then my mother would participate in the taste testing which was a very serious job and they would analyze the bread for all of its various qualities and then they would grade the wheat yeah this dough is already becoming less sticking look nothing on my hand almost nothing on my hand and just keep working it one other thing I'd like to mention is that if you are watching this video in April of 2020 we are in the myths as you know of a global pandemic and it's very hard to find active dry yeast in supermarkets since I'm getting low on yeast I actually went online to Amazon and I looked and of course you cannot buy just a jar of yeast but I did find a 10-pound bag of active dry yeast for $59 and change which is highway robbery but I went ahead and ordered it anyway when it arrives I'm going to do a vlog to show the yeast and then I'll show you how to test yeast to make sure that it is alive and active that might be fun to do and if this $59 yeast is very old and not active I'm not going to be very pleased anyway we're getting there let's test this dough so you can tell that you've kneaded the dough long enough if you pull out a section and it doesn't tear easily the mine is starting to tear so I'm going to knead it just a little more I hope this kneading portion of the video was helpful to you probably my banter is not helpful at all fling it down a few more times sorry about the noise you just have to treat the dough very roughly oh yeah now it's becoming can you see that it's becoming very springy yeah even if you have a bread machine or you have a standing mixer with the dough hook it's very helpful to know how to knead dough by hand because you will get a feel for the dough the electricity ever goes out you will still be able to make your own bread we're supposed to during this pandemic we are supposed to stay out of grocery stores as much as possible so if you can make your own bread well that's one less thing you'll have to buy and believe me homemade bread is always superior to sore okay now we're gonna do that little test oh look yep this is good look at this so I can pull this it doesn't tear the dough is very smooth and now form it into a ball by just tucking me sides of the dough under like this a smooth ball and then drop it smooth side down into the ball and then flip the dough to grease the other side and hang on I have to grab a sheet of plastic wrap there so cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then put this in a warm location until the dough doubles in volume that's going to take 90 minutes to two hours so we'll be back Oh Bobby Joe is rising select your loaf pan you can use an 8-inch pan like this or a 9-inch pan and let me show you yes today we fix a camera here I baked this loaf in an 8-inch pan and it worked just fine but the bread kind of looks like I don't know a Bigfoot in a little shoe so today I'm going to use the 9 inch pan and you have to grease the pan I'm going to use shortening you got it on the bottom spread it on the bottom and the sides there I'll see you when the bread it with I'll see you when the dough is ready alright nineteen minutes later my dough has definitely doubled in volume so remove the plastic wrap but be sure to save it because we're going to need it later on and then we need to deflate the dough and you can do it two ways gently like this or with brute force like that make a lot of difference how you deflate it drop it on the work surface which again is not floured and then form the dough into a ball again just turning the sides underneath this is a very nice-looking dough check it out and then Pat it out into a disc a rough disc okay and we want the gist to be the same diameter as the loaf pan let's check it out yep this is about nine inches hey tiger my sorry my kitty cat is complaining for some reason what's the matter tiger and then pop forgot Mickey Mouse ears stretch out to sections of the dough let me see if I can move the camera better for you yeah pull out two sections from the upper part of the dough and then there Mickey Mouse ears are back wins your choice and then fold them in to make a triangle so it looks like I'm making a paper airplane at this point and then got that out and then let's say I'm gonna move I want you to really see what I'm doing here okay and then roll the dough and push with your thumbs roll push roll push push yeah we did the same maneuver when we made sweet orange rolls last week the camera again roll push roll push when you get to the end karate chop yeah to make a seal a robber to seal the what do I want to say to seal the scene that's it and then pinch the scene yes pinching is always a fun job and the reason we rolled the dough that way was to create surface tension we want to have a smooth top and then and it goes to the low coups well that didn't work out too well did it okay we're gonna try this again into the low pen like this and then want to cover this with plastic wrap and keep in mind that this dough is going to rise up it's going to form a crown and you don't want the dough to stick to the plastic wrap so I'm going to lay my wrap loosely cover the pan and then put this in a warm location and let the dough sorry moving the monitor let the dough rise until it has doubled in volume and this will take about 45 minutes also pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit see you soon all right here's the loaf after 43 minutes of rising okay and this is the reason I grease the plastic wrap so that it would slip right off without tearing the top of the dough so then this goes into the preheated 425 degree oven until the top Browns beautifully and that will take 25 to 30 minutes see you men alright let's have a look the bread has been in the oven for 25 minutes it's bronze then beautiful and begging to be eaten however we cannot eat it just yet the bread has to cool to room temperature and here's what I like to do is brush the top with melted butter and the butter makes the crust extra delicious yeah you're better off letting the bread cool to room temperature and if at all possible wait 24 hours before you cut into it we'll have a much much better textview that way and it will slice much easier now I have that loaf that I made yesterday so let's get into it I think I'm gonna move the camera for this yeah I want you just see how this bread looks it's a beautiful crumb hey tiger and let's see how thinly we can slice this [Music] very thin slices mean fewer carbs jin chen has a lovely moist crumb the crust the crust is slightly crisp I hope I don't have crumbs all over my lips and it has a terrific yeasty weedy aroma well you cannot buy bread of this quality at the supermarket commercial bread tends to be too soft and too cake like in my opinion this bread has terrific body it's great for sandwiches it's great for toast you can grind it up for bread crumbs and as you've seen it's not at all difficult to make and you only need very basic ingredients and you're impeccably clean hands so I hope you'll give the bread a try and I hope you'll post a comment below let me know if the recipe was helpful to you and I hope that my kneading segment was not too long I'll see you next time with another delicious recipe bye for now

Channel: Kevin Lee Jacobs

Views: 150,124

Keywords: how to knead bread by hand, homemade bread

Id: jhpLGxfsNS4

Length: 23min 17sec (1397 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 09 2020