Bread and Roll Recipe

I enjoy trying recipes that other bloggers post, so thought I would share a recipe that I've been enjoying.


This is a recipe for bread that I started making this winter. It is labeled "sourdough", however it doesn't taste like traditional sourdough to me.

I think it's much easier than the standard bread recipe, because you don't have to heat the yeast. Just dump the ingredients in a bowl, stir and let it rise overnight - then knead it the next morning and let it rise again a few hours and it's ready for the oven. It will take several days to get the starter going, but once it's established, you just need to feed it every 5 days. When you feed the starter, you remove enough starter for 2 loaves.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sourdough-Starter-I/Detail.aspxail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sourdough-Bread-I/Detail.aspx

I have been using Gold brand "better for bread" flour and have had good results. Occasionally, I have substituted a bit of wheat flour for the white flour.

The recipe works well for cinnamon rolls too.


But my favorite is the regular rolls and loaf bread.

This is 1/2 the recipe (1/2 cup starter, 3 cups flour, etc.) After the dough has been left to double overnight, divide into 16 equal parts, roll and place in greased pan and let rise until doubled. Bake at 350 for around 25 minutes.. just til the top begins to brown and when tapped, they sound hollow.

Two things that I will note, it does take quite a bit of flour to knead the dough, and the longer i let it rise, the better. The last loaf i made rose overnight initially, then after kneading it and shaping into a loaf, I let it rise for about 8 hours and it was the best loaf yet! (i know it sounds like a lot of time to make a loaf of bread, but i really had only about 10 minutes or so invested.. the rest of the time it was working and doing it's thing without me.)
I had to sample a few rolls as they came out of the oven... I'd hate to serve them to anyone if I weren't absolutely sure they were ok. (it's hard to tell by just trying one.. or two.. or...goodness, how many did i eat?)