Ingredients for bread making

If there is one food that the world can agree upon, it is the love and appreciation of bread in all forms. The great culinary artist, James Beard, remarked in his 1980 publication, Beard on Bread, that "Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter is the greatest of all feasts". Whether bread is leavened with yeast, or unleavened without a rising agent, each culture has a type of this basic food to claim as number one. In Jamaica we have our hard dough bread; Barbados, salt bread; the Italians have ciabatta, the Ethiopians injera; the Lebanese, pita; Indians have naan; the French, the baguette; Americans sour dough and the Irish soda bread.

Bread can be made from regular white, wholewheat, rye, bran, millet, spelt, rice and oat flours. It can be plain, or be filled with nuts, cheese, herbs, seeds, olives and dried fruit. It comes flat or risen, shaped in rounds, logs, small rolls, sticks and squares. It can be pale, light or dark brown. Bread is chewy and dense, or light and cake-like. Whatever your preference, there is one available for you.

Can you imagine a life without bread? There would be nothing to dip in your soup, mop up the savoury juices on your plate or to make a quick sandwich with. This great creation was made popular when the 4th Earl of Sandwich, Kent in England, very hungry and not wanting to disturb his card-playing, placed a piece of roast meat between two chunks of bread. There is evidence of this style of eating before, but as it is with most things, if someone of society embraces something they often get credit for it, whether this is fair or not.

Today, I am going to share with you, two basic bread recipes, one for white and one for wholewheat. I will also give one for raisin bread. I know many types of recipes for breads, but I was trying to go for what is easiest for you as well as cheap to produce. As I am typing this article for you, the homey scent of fresh baking bread is wafting through my kitchen.
With the continuing threat of rising fuel prices which in turn affects the price of food, I think it is time for us to go back to the basics and try to become more self-reliant. We are blessed with many wonderful bakeries here in Jamaica, and thankfully, the threatened increase has been put on hold by the government. Sometimes though, it is just plain fun to make good-old fashioned home-made bread crafted by your own hands. It is a satisfying feeling when you see the end result and enjoy the compliments from those who are eating it. I tend to bake bread in batches and freeze them until ready to use.

Bread is the only food in the world eaten by people of every race, culture and religion.

Bread is an ancient food which has survived millennia and will continue to thrive as many societies cannot function without it. It is every person's basic right to afford a loaf of bread.

Here are some fun bread facts I gleaned off the website (www.oldschoolbakery.com):

. Bread is the only food in the world eaten by people of every race, culture and religion.

. Breaking bread is a universal sign of peace.

. Murphy's Law dictates that buttered bread will always land buttered face down.

. Early Egyptian writings encouraged mothers to send their children to school with lots of bread and beer.

. It takes one bushel of wheat to produce 73 one-pound loaves of bread.

. Each American, on average, consumes 53 pounds of bread a year.

. An average slice of bread contains one gram of fat and between 70 to 80 calories.

White Bread
Ingredients:
4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups tepid (lukewarm) water
4 1/2 tsps dry yeast
1 tbsp butter or shortening
1 tbsp sugar

Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl. In another, dissolve yeast in water. Add butter.

In stages, add wet ingredients to dry until a ball of dough forms. This can be by hand or in a food processor.
Flour a board lightly, and turn out ready dough.
Knead with the heel of your hand until the dough is smooth and elastic, about six minutes.

Grease a bowl, add the dough, turning so all areas are greased, and cover with a clean cloth until the dough has risen to twice its size. This is called proving. It takes about an hour.

When the dough has proved, punch it and knead again slightly to aid the fermentation and cut in half. Form each piece into a loaf shape and place in greased loaf pans.

. Allow for a second rise which will take another hour, and bake for 25 minutes in a preheated oven of 375ºF until golden brown.

. If you want to add cheese or another filling, such as sun-dried tomatoes, you must add before the second rise.

To make raisin bread, use this recipe plus 2 extra cups of flour, 2 extra tablespoons of butter, 3/4 cup of sugar, 1 cup of lukewarm milk, 1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon and 1 cup of raisins.

The process changes slightly in that you cream the butter and sugar together, add the wet ingredients, the cinnamon to the dry, and gradually incorporate the ingredients together to form the dough. After the dough has risen, you add the raisins and allow to rise again. You can form as two loaves or make balls which turn into rolls.
Wholewheat Bread

Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups wholewheat flour
1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 tsps equivalent)
1/2 cup tepid water
2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup scalded milk, cooled to a lukewarm temperature
2 tbsps canola oil or butter
2 eggs

Method:

Dissolve yeast in water.
Mix honey, milk, oil and eggs together.
Add wet ingredients to flour in batches, the dough will be very sticky, not to worry.

On a floured surface, place the dough on top and sprinkle some flour on top and knead gently for three minutes.

Grease a bowl, add dough, turning over for it to be well greased, cover, and allow to rise to double its size.

When risen, punch down, roll dough on floured surface into a rectangle, using the rolling pin, place inside a 9 by 12 inch baking tray and roll it into a Swiss roll shape, and seal ends.
Cover again and allow to rise again.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.
Remove from pan and cool.

Happy Bread Making. Bon Appétit!
Jacqui Sinclair is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef/food stylist & hotelier. She has worked in the world of food photography and film in Europe. A bon vivant, she is passionate about sharing her food secrets with enthusiastic home cooks

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