Sour Milk Peasant Bread Recipes

MY MOTHER'S PEASANT BREAD: THE BEST EASIEST BREAD YOU WILL EVER MAKE

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, and instant yeast (I love SAF Instant Yeast). Add the water. Mix until the flour is absorbed. (If you are using active dry yeast, see notes below.)
• Cover bowl with a tea towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for at least an hour. (In the winter or if you are letting the bread rise in a cool place, it might take as long as two hours to rise.) This is how to create a slightly warm spot for your bread to rise in: Turn the oven on at any temperature (350ºF or so) for one minute, then turn it off. Note: Do not allow the oven to get up to 300ºF, for example, and then heat at that setting for 1 minute - this will be too hot. Just let the oven preheat for a total of 1 minute - it likely won't get above 100ºF. The goal is to just create a slightly warm environment for the bread.
• . Grease two 1-qt or 1.5-qt oven-safe bowls (see notes below) with about a tablespoon of butter each. Using two forks, punch down your dough, scraping it from the sides of the bowl, which it will be clinging to. As you scrape it down try to pull the dough toward the center (see video below for guidance). You want to loosen the dough entirely from the sides of the bowl, and you want to make sure you've punched it down. Then, take your two forks and divide the dough into two equal portions - eye the center of the mass of dough, and starting from the center and working out, pull the dough apart with the two forks. Then scoop up each half and place into your prepared bowls. This part can be a little messy - the dough is very wet and will slip all over the place. Using small forks or forks with short tines makes this easier - my small salad forks work best; my dinner forks make it harder. It's best to scoop it up fast and plop it in the bowl in one fell swoop. Some people like to use flexible, plastic dough scrapers for this step.
• for about 20 to 30 minutes on the countertop near the oven (or near a warm spot) or until it has risen to just below or above (depending on what size bowl you are using) the top of the bowls. (Note: Do not do the warm-oven trick for the second rise, and do not cover your bowls for the second rise. Simply set your bowls on top of your oven, so that they are in a warm spot. Twenty minutes in this spot usually is enough for my loaves.)
• Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375º and bake for 15 to 17 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and turn the loaves onto cooling racks. If you've greased the bowls well, the loaves should fall right out onto the cooling racks. If the loaves look a little pale and soft when you've turned them out onto your cooling racks, place the loaves into the oven (outside of their bowls) and let them bake for about 5 minutes longer. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

SOUR MILK PEASANT BREAD

Steps:

• 1. In a bowl big enough to make your bread in, get the starter going by sprinkling the yeast over the sour milk & honey {or whatever sweet you use to feed the yeast beasties}. Set aside in a warm place, covered with a bit of plastic wrap & a towel until ready to finish the bread. This process doubles as proofing your yeast, but keeping yeast in your freezer makes it last almost indefinitely {Well, I had yeast in freezer for almost 10 years anyhow!}.
• 2. Preheat the oven to 350-375°F {Glass, preheat to 350°F}. Grease 2 baking vessels well-again, I use lard as nothing works as well for bread as lard does.
• 3. Add the remaining ingredients to your starter and work until you are happy with it. -Can leave it relatively wet & unkneaded {this is for those days where everything hurts & you wanna just cry; results in a more crumbly quick bread}. -Can do a full out workout kneading until nice, smooth & few crevasses in the bread {this holds up well for hearty sandwiches}. This is a great option for teaching new bread bakers how to knead bread; there is an art to it & poking it is - not - kneading it!!
• 4. Divide your dough in 2 & place in greased vessels, turning once to coat dough so it will not dry out or stick. Cover dough ball with plastic wrap-not the vessel itself. Drape a towel over it all {plastic wrap keeps your towel from being incorporated into the dough & getting nasty}. Place in a warm area. Let rest & raise until doubled in size.
• 5. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown; longer if you want crust to be darker or crunchier.
• 6. Remove from oven to cool. If you wish, you can brush a bit of melted lard on the top of the crust to soften it a bit. If you want hard crusty true peasant bread, leave the lard off the the crust.
• 7. NOTES: -Glass needs to be cooked at a lower temperature because it conducts the heat so well. -I use lard for baking bread as there is no comparison in the end result. Lard is slowly creeping into everyday life for me, while shortening & margarine are becoming curse words in my household; & lard is probably better for you than butter too. Lard is being used in almost everything I make or bake these days. -If you are doing little to no kneading & therefore have a very wet dough, use meat serving forks {they are bigger than a normal eating or a carving fork & work very well for this} to divide dough & move to baking vessel. -I bake the majority of my breads these days in bowls. The bowls I use are 2 ½ quart Anchor Hocking bowls as they are a bit more straight sided and work better for sandwich making. Depending on the thickness you cut it, 1 slice, cut into 2 top to bottom, works for a hearty & filling sandwich. Pyrex bowls work too, but I got the Anchor Hocking bowls at the thrift store dirt cheap!! -If you want a more rustic round of bread, or if you have a well kneaded, smooth ball of dough, just bake on a flat pan lined with parchment paper with a bit of cornmeal thrown on it to keep from sticking.. -If you want a traditional sandwich loaf, by all means, bake in a normal bread pan.