The Wheat
First, I begin by gathering the flour I'm going to use for my bread. I have a great post that explains what I've learned about wheat and why I use the flours I do. Personally I like to use Honeyville Hard Spring Wheat Berries and grind them myself. I have a WonderMill wheat grinder that works beautifully but I also like the NutriMill grinder. One cup of wheat berries will produce about a cup and a half of flour so be careful not to overfill your grinder. I grind about 6 cups of berries at a time.
I also prefer to buy Honeyville Unbleached Unbromated white flour which you can read more about in the same post I mentioned earlier. Usually I use 40 percent wheat flour and 60 percent white flour in my recipes to keep the bread light and fluffy. The more wheat flour you use the denser the loaf will be. I don't mind the taste or texture but I've found my kids prefer the bread to be lighter and fluffier and I'm in the business of making food my kids will eat in their lunches and not dump in the trash.
Making The Dough
When I first started making bread I had a Kitchen Aid mixer. But I soon found that the motor on the Kitchen Aid couldn't handle the amounts of bread I was making. So I returned it to Costco and bought a Bosch mixer. The Bosch hasn't disappointed me yet.
For this example I'm making pizza dough. It's a simple recipe but perfect for demonstrating the process. I start with my yeast that I fed the night before and left on my counter covered gently with the lid. I fed it around 10:00 pm and it was ready to use at 7:00 am.
I put 2 1/2 cups bottled water into the mixer and then dumped in all of my yeast leaving untouched what was on the sides and bottom of the jar.
Next I added 2 cups freshly ground wheat flour and 3 cups unbleached unbromated white flour.
Then I turn on the mixer for just a minute or two to blend the ingredients.
I then let the dough sit in the mixer to autolyse for up to 10 min.
While the dough is autolyzing I feed my yeast and gather the rest of the ingredients I need for my recipe which in this case is only salt and coconut oil.
When feeding your yeast at this stage remember to scrape down the yeast from the sides of the jar. Mix the yeast with 1/4 cup bottled water and 1/4 cup or more flour.
Don't forget to mark the jar with the rubber band and gently place the lid on top.
When you're ready add 2 Tablespoons coconut oil, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 more cup white flour to the dough.
Next turn your mixer on low speed for a minute or so to blend the ingredients then run it at a middle speed (I run the Bosch at 2) for up to 10 min.
After about 4 or 5 minutes stop the mixer and test your dough. If it feels really wet and leaves dough sticking to your fingers add a little more white flour. If you notice dry chunks or white flour that isn't mixing in your dough may be too dry and you might need to add a little water. The dough should feel sticky and stretchy without leaving too much residue on your fingers.
When the dough is done mixing get your fingers wet and pull the dough out of the bowl. Shape it into a nice tight ball by tucking the sides underneath.
Put the ball of dough into a pregreased large plastic bowl. I bought this extra large bowl from a really great company called The Weekend Bakery from the Netherlands. You may want to check out their website they have great recipes, tools and tips for making bread.
Cover your bowl with pregreased wax paper.
I also like to put a towel over my wax paper. Then I place my bowl to an empty counter where it will sit for the next 6-10 hours (depending on the temperature of your home).
This particular dough sat on my counter for 9 hours. Your dough should more than double in size and you may even see large bubbles on top. The recipes that have honey or molasses in them seem to form larger bubbles during the first rise.
When the dough is ready scoop it out onto a clean surface and divide it into however many loaves you are wanting to prepare. This particular recipe makes four large pizzas. (Most of my bread recipes make three 32 oz loaves). I divided the dough in half and weighed each half using a food scale to make sure they were even. Then I repeated the process with each of those halves.
Once you have your dough divided into even sizes you can shape them into loaves or roll them out as I did here. Then cover your loaves or pizzas with greased wax paper and let them sit for an hour for the second rise.
Most loaves bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees (or 375 degrees in a convection oven). This pizza I bake in my convection oven at 425 degrees. It bakes in about 20 min. Your loaves are done when they reach an internal temperature of 180 degrees (usually 30 min for bigger loaves and 20 min for baguettes and rolls). Let your loaves cool for 2 hours before cutting. They will continue to bake as they cool. However, we usually dive right into these pizzas while they're still scorching hot! They're irresistible!
The Recipe for Natural Yeast Pizza Dough
In case you would like to find it quickly, here is my recipe for Natural Yeast Pizza Dough.
2 1/2 Cups water
2 Cups white flour starter
2 Cups wheat flour
4-5 Cups white flour
2 Tablespoons coconut oil (I've also used olive oil and avocado oil and they've both had great results)
2 teaspoons salt
A Few Final Tips
Your bread loaves have a great shelf life. They can sit on your counter for up to three weeks without getting moldy. I actually haven't seen a loaf get moldy yet but at the same time I don't think we've had one sit on the counter for more than two weeks and those are the heels. Why does no one ever like the heel? Your loaves will dry out though so keep them in plastic bags closed with twist ties.
If you aren't going to use all of your loaves in a three week period they can be frozen! Once they've cooled completely place them in a plastic bread bag and seal with a twist tie. To thaw a frozen loaf place it in the fridge overnight. You can then leave the thawed loaf on your counter. There is no need to keep the bread in the refrigerator.
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