promising bread recipe in Family Circle mag

[Guest guest]

In the just-released February 2010 issue of Family Circle I stumbled on a

trad-food type bread recipe I'm hoping some of you can help perfect. It's on

p.198-199, and I made my first batch this afternoon. Here's the recipe:

3 c. white wheat flour

1/2 t. yeast (yes, that's only 1/2 teaspoon!)

2 3/4 t. salt (I'd cut it down to 2 t. salt next time)

1 1/2 t. sugar

1 1/2 c. water, room temp. (I warmed mine up a little)

1 T. white vinegar (I used raw ACV)

The directions say to mix the above in a bowl until all loose flour is wet, and

then let it sit for 18 hours. I left it for nearly 24 hours, and it's a goopy

mess that is then stirred for another 10 seconds. FC says to place the " loaf "

on parchment paper and set it into a preheated dutch oven and bake at 450 for 30

minutes with lid on, and 15 min. with the lid off, but I just poured the batter

into a loaf pan, let it rise for 2-3 hours, and kept foil on top instead of a

lid when I popped it into a 450 oven for the times they specified.

It turned out fairly well for a first try and my modifications, but I'm hoping

some of you bakers can give me a way to modify this recipe to make it even more

" trad-food friendly " . Could I wait to add the salt and sugar until after the

18-24 hour soak is complete? I wish it were a little less goopy of a batter,

but at least I don't have to knead it!

[Guest guest]

I'm hoping some of you bakers can give me a way to modify this recipe to make

it even more " trad-food friendly " .

Commercial yeast is a product of the industrial age designed to speed up the

process of bread making. Your recipe which would undoubtedly yield a better

tasting bread than most recipes would not produce any thing nearly as healthy as

real sourdough. The yeast present in sourdough is entirely different than

commercial yeast. To make this recipe more friendly you would eliminate the

yeast and replace it with sourdough. At that point the vinegar becomes

unnecessary so I would advise you simply begin with a good sourdough recipe and

forget this one all together.

[Guest guest]

I'm hoping some of you bakers can give me a way to modify this recipe to make

it even more " trad-food friendly " .

Commercial yeast is a product of the industrial age designed to speed up the

process of bread making. Your recipe which would undoubtedly yield a better

tasting bread than most recipes would not produce any thing nearly as healthy as

real sourdough. The yeast present in sourdough is entirely different than

commercial yeast. To make this recipe more friendly you would eliminate the

yeast and replace it with sourdough. At that point the vinegar becomes

unnecessary so I would advise you simply begin with a good sourdough recipe and

forget this one all together.