I'd hoped to come up with something for Instant Yeast that would be, well, both instant and worth eating. Ok, the last recipe works alright - but when you try to replace your basic white and wheat flours with other grains, it doesn't seem to make much difference what gets tried: the moisture content is always wrong, and the dough simply doesn't rise. I've concluded that Instant Yeast is only good for white and whole wheat flour (and obviously, bread flour), but nothing else. A sadness.
When I was very, very little, my mom used to bake the most wonderful loaves of wheat and whole wheat bread, and sometimes other variants, you could ever taste. While others have the corner on novelty breads, such as artisan breads and sour dough or French... There isn't anyone I've ever met (and we really are talking a LOT of people, many of whom are great cooks/bakers) who could make a basic wheat or whole wheat loaf of bread that even held a candle to my mom's. Hers was more fragrant. It had better gluten structure. It didn't need butter or jam... And it always came out just right the first time, every time.
Unfortunately, as I got older, mom didn't have the time for real baking projects like that, so I think the last time I had real bread was probably 25 years ago. Honestly, everything else by comparison is just cheap and bland: boring. Stupid, really. Anyway, I don't actually remember how she made it, nor do I have her recipe. Thus, I get to try to, somehow, figure this thing out - and make it mine in my own way. I kinda gave up on the Instant Yeast, so I went for the Active Dry Yeast. Mainly because I've already learned that, apparently, though it's more work, it's said to have a better scent once baked, and it's just... A stronger, more "alive" yeast, on the long term. I think the main problem with Instant Yeast is that it's short-lived: it doesn't really "last" long enough to make it through an entire realistic recipe preparation time span. Anyway, I also know that my mom never used Instant Yeast (I distinctly remember her telling me that "regular" yest is always better), so Active Dry Yeast it is.
In my search for the Holy Grail of bread making, I opted to skip the experimentation and stick with what's known to work. I referenced a bread recipe on the back of a bag of stone ground wheat flour at Wal-Mart (I didn't buy it 'cause I have too much wheat flour already, and I forgot to write down the product name), and the instructions/info on the back of a 3-pack of Active Dry Yeast. I've simply melded those together into the following:
Starter Ingredients
1 pkt or 2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1 1/8 C Water, 112 degrees
2 tsp. Fair Trade Sugar
Dough Ingredients
1 T Oil
1 1/2 C White Flour
1 1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 Tablet Vitamin C, crushed
1 tsp. Salt
Instructions
1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in water and proof for 5 minutes.
2. Add other ingredients, in order, and mix into a soggy mass.
3. Kneed 8 - 10 minutes using more flour.
4. Rise at room temperature, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
5. Punch down, reshape, and let rise again, 30 to 40 minutes.
6. Reshape again, place in bread pan, and let rise another 30 to 40 minutes.
7. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Bread should sound hollow when bottom is tapped.
8. Allow bread to cool. Can be frozen.
Eventually, I'll play around with other flours, as I do remember that this can be done successfully without too much trouble. I'm just going to do this recipe first and see if I have any real luck with it. 'Cause to be honest, I'm kinda guessing that the recipe mom used was actually fairly basic/common place. I suspect she just kneaded it longer.
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