Prepare your sponge: Into a warm 8-quart bowl or cast-iron pot place: Three c warm water 1/2 c cup sugar Scant 2 T active dry yeast. Stir a bit. Then add, cupful by cupful, enough flour to make a flexible and stretchy mud, beating well between each addition. When you have added sufficient flour, beat that mud 100 times! Cover the bowl/ pot and put in a warm, NOT HOT, location away from drafts. Let sponge double in bulk (about 30 minutes), and then beat it down. Let sponge double in bulk again. Pour 1/8 c oil on top. Sprinkle scant 2T salt on top of dough; Using a strong wooden spoon, slowly mix in flour until the sponge stiffens and starts pulling away from the walls of the container. Flour the board and turn your sponge out onto it. Scrape the bowl and add the scrapings. Now, knead a little, add a little flour. If your fingers start collecting dough, flour your fingers and rub the dough off. Do not try to add the flour all at once; this dough firms up a lot slower than a cake mix and you have to go slow in order to develop the gluten and to find out when to stop adding flour. This step takes me about ten minutes. Then grease the original 8-quart pot/bowl again, place the dough in it, turn the dough over so the greasy side is up, cover it, and let it rise until double in bulk (about thirty minutes).
Always remember to maintain the integrity of the dough: lightly knead every unit (loaf, pita, pretzel) a time or two before shaping so that it will acquire its own identity: it should not look ragged and torn off. The best way to grease a bread pan is with the oil sprays, like PAM, but a thin coat of oil will do just fine.
Adjust the ingredient quantities to:
Proceed to knead and proof as above. When the dough is ready to be shaped and baked:
Let rise for the last time and then bake at 350 degrees F until cooked.
Let cooked bread rest for ten minutes and then turn it out of the pan. You will now have a beautifully shaped loaf that separates very easily into individual "slices" of bread.
Very tasty alone or dipped into olive oil and herbs or used as sandwich bread.
Pita breads are made from 2" diameter balls of dough, well kneaded and rolled out to 1/3"- 1/2" thick. Allow to rise until double: cook in pre-heated 475 degree oven or toaster oven for 5-10 minutes, until puffed and brown.
Make pizza by rolling a piece of dough 1/4"-1/3" thick. Place on greased pan. Cover with sauce, top with shredded, whole-milk mozzarella cheese. Cook in pre-heated 450 degree oven 10-15 minutes.
Two French cooks who have become very fond of pizza (suggest spreading pizza dough on parchment paper on top of a cooking sheet, pricking it with a fork to aerate it, and cooking it at 550 F for 8 - ten minutes.
Pretzels will not have the authentic texture and taste you want unless you boil them briefly in a bath of water and baking soda.
Pain du chocolat is a roll with bittersweet chocolate in the center.
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