Baking Bread with My Bosch Concept
When I first got my Bosch Concept I was so excited. I had read that you could make four loaves at a time in an hour! After I used it, I was very disappointed. Apparently, I could only make four bricks.
I ended up using it as a really expensive blender for a long while before guilt forced me to try making bread again. I found a few recipes on the web and adapted them so they used ingredients that I had on hand.
Now I really do make four loaves in just an hour, and absolutely love the results.
ColourfulThreads Whole Wheat Bosch Bread Recipe
Ingredients
16 cups of flour, approximately
6 cups of water, heated to 125F
1/2 cup milk powder (optional)
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
1/4 cup honey (or 1/2 cup sugar)
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons vital gluten
Directions
1. Making a Sponge.
(I found that a sponge makes lighter whole wheat bread. The extra time is worth it.)
Add the 6 cups of warm water to the Bosch bowl. Add the milk powder, oil, and honey. Measure out 6 cups of flour and 2 tablespoons of yeast into the bowl. Place the cover on and mix these ingredient on speed 2 or 3 for 20 to 30 seconds, until well mixed.
Let this mixture rest for twenty to thirty minutes. The sponge should be foaming and growing!
2. Making the Dough
Add the 1 tablespoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of vital gluten to the bowl. Turn the Concept onto speed 1 and steadily add about 10 cups of flour just enough for the dough to clean the sides of the bowl.
Then turn the speed up to 2 and knead the dough for 5-7 minutes until the gluten develops. I “window test” for gluten by pulling off a chunk of dough and stretching it out into a square. If the dough stretches like bubble gum and thin “windows” appear, than the kneading is done.
Take the dough out of the bowl and place on the counter. Cut it into four equal sections. Take each section, press it out flat and then roll it into a loaf. Place each loaf into a greased bread pan.
(Today, I used one of the sections to make a pizza dough. I usually make three loaves and one batch of cinnamon buns.)
3. Rising the Dough
I cover my dough with a clean dish towel rinsed in hot water and wrung out really well. Place the bread pans in a warm place for approximately 30 minutes, until they double in size. I usually turn my stove onto 100F, let it come up to that temperature and then turn it off. I place my bread inside the oven for twenty minutes. Then I take it out, place it on the stove top and preheat my oven to 350F
(Today, since I made a pizza dough, I rolled it out, covered it with plastic wrap and then put it in the fridge. I do not want my pizza dough to rise until I bake my pizza. So it will stay in the fridge until dinner time, when we add sauce and toppings and then bake it, without letting it rise!)
4. Baking the Bread
Preheat your oven to 350F. Bake the loaves for approximately 30 minutes. I often use a meat thermometer to check one of my loaves. The internal temperature should be 200F.
When done remove the loaves from the oven and let sit 10 minutes. Remove the loaves from the pan and let sit on a wire baking rack until cool, approximately 30 minutes. Slice and enjoy!
5. Storing the Bread
Fresh bread is best if eaten within a couple of hours. We eat at least a loaf a day in our home, so I will freeze the other two loaves. I store them in resealable freezer bags. You can slice the bread before you freeze it and then just remove slices as you need them.
Oh and here’s the pizza that I baked latter in the day!
Bread deals with living things, with giving life, with growth, with the seed, the grain that nurtures. It is not coincidence that we say bread is the staff of life. ~Lionel Poilane
“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.” –Robert Browning