Crunchy Farmhouse Bread Recipes

CRUNCHY FARMHOUSE BREAD

Steps:

• In large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle in yeast; let stand for 10 minutes or until frothy. Whisk in honey, butter and egg. With wooden spoon, stir in 2 cups (500 mL) of the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, oats, cornmeal, bran, millet and salt until smooth. Gradually stir in enough of the remaining flour to form slightly sticky dough.
• Turn out onto floured surface; knead for 8 to 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic, dusting with as much of the remaining flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease all over. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in warm draft-free place until doubled in bulk, 1-1/2 hours.
• Punch down dough; turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead into round loaf, stretching dough down all around and pinching underneath to shape. Dust top with flour; place on greased baking sheet. Cover with clean towel; let rise until doubled in bulk, 45 to 60 minutes.
• Using serrated knife, slash shallow grid pattern on top of loaf. Bake in centre of 375°F (190°C) oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped on bottom. Remove from pan; let cool on rack.
• Additional Information.
• Bread Machine Crunchy Farmhouse Bread: Choose whole grain setting; let baked loaf cool on rack.
• Bread Machine Fill-Up.
• The order of ingredients going into the bread machine differs from the handmade method. Generally, the machine should be filled as follows, unless, of course, the manufacturer's instructions say otherwise.
• Into pan of 2-lb (1 kg) bread machine, add (in order) wet ingredients such as water, milk, buttermilk, oil, butter, egg, yogurt, honey and syrup. Then add any sugar and salt. Next add dry ingredients such as flour, bran, oats, seeds, cornmeal and millet. Sprinkle yeast over top, without letting yeast touch liquid. Choose appropriate setting.

CRUNCHY FARMHOUSE BREAD (BREADMAKER)

Steps:

• 1. Choose whole grain setting or the dough setting. Put ingredients in pan according to your machines' instructions. - I prefer to use the dough method and finish it in the oven because the loaf is prettier and because the amount of dough is a bit too big for my bread machine at 2-lb. setting.
• 2. If using the dough method, when the dough is ready punch it down and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into a round loaf, stretching dough all around and pinching underneath to shape. Dust top with flour; place on greased baking sheet. Cover with clean towel and let rise until doubled in bulk (45 to 60 minutes).
• 3. Using a serrated knife slice shallow grid pattern on top of loaf. Bake in center of 350 degree F. oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped on bottom. (You can also check using an instant-read thermometer - 190-200 degrees.)
• 4. Remove from pan and let cool on rack before slicing. Makes one big loaf, 24 slices.

FARMHOUSE BREAD

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast and 1 cup warm water in a large mixing bowl. Let rest 10-15 minutes.
• Add salt, sugar, shortening and 3 1/3 cups warm water.
• Gradually mix in 10 cups of flour. Add up to 2 more cups until dough is no longer sticky.
• Knead for 10 minutes. Cover the bowl and let rise for 1 hour until dough doubles in size.
• Punch down dough, form into 4 loaves, place into loaf pans and let rise again until double in size(about an hour).
• Place in preheated oven at 375 degrees and bake until golden brown (about 35 Minutes).
• This recipe also works well halfed.
• For whole wheat bread, substitute 4 cups of whole wheat flour mixed with 6 to 8 cups of white flour.
• I cool slice and freeze the extra laoves for later.

RUSTIC COUNTRY BREAD

Steps:

• The day before making bread, place 3/4 cup spring water, 1/4 teaspoon bread machine yeast and 1 3/4 cup bread flour into pan of a bread machine. Select dough cycle and let knead for 5 minutes. Stop machine and let rise overnight.
• The next day, pour starter from bread machine pan into a non-metallic container. Reserve 1/3 cup for this recipe and freeze remainder for later use.
• In a large bowl, mix together 1/3 cup reserved starter, 1 cup spring water, 1/2 teaspoon yeast, 2 cups bread flour, whole wheat flour and salt. Select Dough Cycle; press Start. After 10 minutes, remove dough from machine and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a damp towel and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours. Deflate dough and let rise again until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form into a round loaf. Place loaf on a baking sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Spray loaf with water and place in preheated oven. Spray loaf again every two minutes during the first 10 minutes of baking. Bake for 40 minutes, until bottom of loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

EASY FARMHOUSE MULTI-GRAIN BREAD (FOR BREAD MACHINE)

Steps:

• Place all in bread machine pan in order given unless instructed otherwise by your machine's manufacturer. Bake on regular setting, medium or light color.
• Either use a scant cup of milk or add a couple or three tablespoons of flour to this to get the doughball the right texture. Keep your flour out and handy just in case, and watch the doughball after it's kneaded for a few minutes.
• Tip: If you have a kitchen scale, measuring flour by weight instead of by volume is not only much more accurate, it's faster and easier too.
• Tip: Never just throw the ingredients into a bread machine and leave it, if you can help it. Let the doughball form, then let the machine work it about five minutes more, then see what it looks like. If the paddle smushes through the bottom of the dough with every turn your dough is too wet. If your dough just spins around on top of the paddle or doesn't form at all, your dough is too dry. The ideal texture is soft enough to smush some of the time but firm enough to spin sometimes, then go off-center and smack the sides of the bread pan a lot.
• Enjoy!