Yeast Breads in Breadmaking

Nov 4, 2008

Bread and life, home, and hospitality are inextricably associated in the human imagination and experience. Old as history, breadmaking was one of the first culinary arts practiced -and at a time when home itself was little more than a few flat stones arranged around a fire.

Now most of peoples of the earth have breads characteristically their own. In our country we have no single traditional bread. We have instead welcomed the traditions of all peoples that have come here and made them our own.

Made with or without leavening, bread appears in a hundred different, delightful guises -as soft loaves and crusy loaves and crusty loaves, holiday breads and coffee cake, waffles, griddlecakes, popovers, muffins and doughnuts, and in other forms too numerous to mention.

Here are some definition we might want to know:

–

Yeast: Grows in the presence of a given amount of moisture and sugar at a temperature of about 80 degress F, Producing in the process tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas which leaven the bread dough. A ddough must be leavened and to rise and become light.

Compressed Yeast (moist cake)-Grayish tan though may be slightly browned at edges; breaks with a clean edge and crumbles easily between the fingers when fresh; must be kept in refrigerator  and used within a week for best results; soften in lukewarm liquid (80 degrees F to 85)

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Olive-Oil Dough

Sep 17, 2008
The Washington Post, September 17, 2008
Summary:

You can press harder with this dough, which is meant for savory pies and tarts, and you will need to, because it is much more elastic than a butter-based dough.

Makes enough dough for a 10- or 11-inch single-crust pie or tart

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups flour (spoon flour into a dry-measure cup and level off)
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
  • 2 tablespoons water

Directions:

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse several times to mix well.

Add the oil, egg, egg yolk and water. Pulse 4 or 5 times, then turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and form it into a 1/2-inch-thick disk. (Overmixing may cause the oil to separate from the dough, making the dough hard to handle later on.)

Use immediately, or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to several days.

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