If you have never made bread before, I would suggest that you try a white flour bread first because it is much easier to knead the dough to a smooth and elastic texture. (Yes, of course I know that white bread lacks vitamin E, roughage, etc. But making white bread before whole wheat is like crawling before walking. You don’t have so far to fall.) Use finely ground whole wheat for better textured dough, and higher risen breads.
It makes enough dough for four loaves and a pizza or a pan of schnecken sweet rolls . (Obviously you can scale it down or up…)
Ingredients
1 package active dry yeast (or 1 Tbl bulk active yeast)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup water 100 F (37 C)
6 cups water, 100 F (37 C)
1 Tbl molasses
1 tsp salt (more or less, depending on taste)
9-12 cups whole wheat flour, finely stone ground. (I am embarassed to say
I buy mine from the ADM corporation. Embarrassed because they are a huge agribusiness corporation…)
vegetable oil
Equipment
small drinking glass (to start the yeast)
whisk
bowl, 1 gallon (4 liters)
2 gallon enamel or stainless pot with lid (8 liters)
Four medium sized bread pans (approximately 4 inches (10 cm) wide at bottom)
Directions
Starter Ingredients
Adding Yeast
Suspended Yeast
Start the yeast: Warm 1/4 cup water to 100 F, dissolve 1/2 tsp sugar, stir in Tbl active yeast to suspend. Set a side for 10-15 minutes. It should foam up in that time. If not, get some good yeast.
Warm 6 cups of water to 100 F, add to bowl, whisk in the molasses and the salt. Add the foamy yeast, whisk in.
Whisk in flour, 2 cups at a time until it is too stiff to easily mix with the whisk. Clean dough off of whisk. Add another cup or two of flour on top of dough, work down along the sides with your fingers so the dough does not stick. Continue adding flour until dough begins to “come together.” (Gets slightly firmish…)
Add Molasses
Add Yeast
Add Flour
Sprinkle a cup or two of flour on a clean kneading surface (porcelain counters work great), and turn out dough onto the flour. Loosen stuck spots in the bowl by rubbing with flour. Sprinkle flour on top of dough, and lightly bring in edges with your fingertips, folding over on top. Every time you see a wet spot, hit it with a little flour, keep folding over and turning on itself. Continue until there are no more major wet spots.
Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic: Fold the dough in half, press down and roll with the heel of your hand, turn the dough a quart of a turn.
Repeat these steps over and over, adding small amounts of flour to prevent sticking either to the board or to your hands. Do not add so much flour that the dough gets tough or hard.
Notice that the actual amount of flour added depends on the nature, grind, amoung of glutin, etc. of your flour. This is the art of bread making: you kneed in flour until it is the correct consistency.
Kneading dough
Kneading dough
Correct consistency of kneaded dough.
Brush the 2 gallon pot with a small amount of oil to prevent the dough from sticking, and turn the dough in to the pot. Turn the dough over several times to coat all sides with oil.
Dough in Pot
Cover the pot, let sit in warm place until double in size, about an hour or so, depending on how warm the spot is. Do not let it get above 105 F
Punch the dough down, knead briefly to bring back together, and weigh out four pieces of 1 3/4 lbs each.
Reserve the remaining 1 pound of dough for either a pizza, or schecken sweet rolls.
Knead each of the four loaves until they are smooth and elastic.
Let rest for a few minutes, then shape each into a loaf.
Press out into a rectangle about 6 x 8 inches.
Roll snuggly along the long dimension, and pinch the end edge against the body of the loaf.
Roll snuggly along the long dimension, and pinch the end edge against the body of the loaf.
Press each end with the side of the hand about 1/2 inch from the end and turn each flap under the loaf.
Gently transfer the loaf to a lightly oiled bread pan so that all seams are on the bottom, and it is centered in the pan.
Repeat for the other three loaves.
Place on a carrying rack.
Wet a clean, white non-terrycloth dish towel, and wring out as much water as you can. Cover the four loaves with the damp towel, and place the rack in a warm place until doubled in size.
Do not let the loaves over-rise, or they will fall, and you will have “flat top” bread… This is especially a problem with coarsely ground flour.
Pre heat the oven to 360 F before the loaves have doubled in size. With the oven preheated and the loaves doubled in size, place the loaves on a rack in the middle of the oven (top rack and bottoms racks often burn edges). Ensure equal circulation of hot air around all sides of each pan. Check after 20 minutes to be sure they are evenly baking. Rotate loaves if you see some more done than others.
After 30-35 minutes, remove the most done looking loaf with hot pads/mitts. Remove it from the pan. Sometimes it takes a sharp rap of the corner of the pan on a hard surface to free it. Thump the bottom of the loaf with a sharp rap of the finger. If it sounds hollow, it is done. If it sounds muffled or sodden, bake it 5 minutes more and test it again.
As loaves sound hollow, remove from the oven, and place on a cooling rack which allows air circulation so the steam can escape. This is a good time to taste the heel with a slab of cold butter…
When the loaves have thoroughly cooled, place the in a large plastic bag, close to seal, and store in the refrigerator.
Fermentation has been used by mankind for thousands of years for raising bread, fermenting wine and brewing beer. The products of the fermentation of sugar by baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (a fungus) are ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. (Here is a page on the chemical reactions involved in glycolysis and fermentation.) Carbon dioxide causes bread to rise and gives effervescent drinks their bubbles. This action of yeast on sugar is used to ‘carbonate’ beverages, as in the addition of bubbles to champagne).
We will set up a fermentation in a closed system and capture the generated carbon dioxide to carbonate our home made ginger ale. You may of course adjust the quantities of sugar and/or extract to taste. Note that the lemon called for in step eight is optional. And if you want a spicier drink, you can increase the amount of grated ginger. As with any yeast fermentation, there is a small amount of alcohol generated in the beverage (about 0.4%).
Equipment
Clean 2 liter plastic soft drink bottle with cap (not glass: explosions are dangerous.)
funnel
Grater (preferably with fine “cutting” teeth
1 cup measuring cup
1/4 tsp and 1 Tbl measuring spoons
Ingredients
Cane (table) sugar [sucrose] (1 cup)
Freshly grated ginger root (1 1/2-2 tablespoons)
Juice of one lemon
Fresh granular baker’s yeast (1/4 teaspoon)
Cold fresh pure water
Directions
Lay it out all the listed ingredients and equipment.
Use fresh ginger root (purchasable at most large supermarkets, or Asian food shops).
Add 1 cup sugar to the 2 liter bottle with a dry funnel. (Leave the funnel in place until you are ready to cap the bottle.) NOTE: Many have asked about bottling ginger ale in glass bottles. I do not recommend it because ginger ale is a very aggressive fermenter, producing high pressure fairly rapidly. Plastic bottles can be felt to judge pressure. Glass cannot. Tardy refrigeration can lead to explosions. Exploding plastic bottles are messy. Exploding glass botles are dangerous…
Measure out 1/4th teaspoon fresh granular active baker’s yeast. (Fleishman’s etc. We buy ours in bulk from the health food store.)
Add yeast through funnel into the bottle, shake to disperse the yeast grains into the sugar granules.
Grate the ginger root on a fine “cutting” grater to produce 1 1/2 Tablespoon of grated root. (Look at the large picture of the grater. This style of fine “cutting” teeth works MUCH better than the style with the sharp pointy piece of metal which crumble food. The design is also less likely to shred your knuckles. I have had to look far and wide to find a fine “cutting” grater. Mine says “Stainless Steel Denmark” on its handle…)
Place grated ginger in the cup measure.
Juice a whole lemon. (Lemon is optional, giving a little tartness to the ginger ale. Try it both ways to see which you prefer. I like them both.)
Add the juice of a whole lemon to the grated ginger.
Stir the lemon juice and grated ginger to form a slurry.
Add the slurry of lemon juice and grated ginger to the bottle. (It may stick in the funnel. Don’t worry, the next step will wash it into the bottle.)
Rinse containers with fresh clean water.
Fill the bottle to the neck with fresh cool clean water, leaving about an inch of head space, securely screw cap down to seal. Invert repeatedly to thoroughly dissolve sugar. (The ginger root will not dissolve, of course.)
Place in a warm location for 24 to 48 hours. (Do not leave at room temperature longer than necessary to feel “hard.” The excess pressure may cause an eruption when you open it, or even explode the bottle!)
Test to see if carbonation is complete by squeezing the bottle forcefully with your thumb. If it dents in as in the picture, it is not ready.
Once the bottle feels hard to a forceful squeeze, usually only 24-48 hours, place in the refrigerator. Before opening, refrigerate at least overnight to thoroughly chill. Crack the lid of the thoroughly chilled ginger ale just a little to release the pressure slowly. You do not want a ginger ale fountain!
Notes
Do not leave the finished ginger ale in a warm place any longer than the time it takes for the bottle to feel hard. Leaving it at room temperature longer than two days, especially in the summer when the temperature is high, can generate enough pressure to explode the bottle! (Speaking from experience here…) Once it is thoroughly chilled, there is little danger of explosion.
Filter the ginger ale through a strainer if you find floating pieces of ginger objectionable. These are found in the first glass or two poured, and, since most of the ginger sinks to the bottom, the last glass or so may require filtering too. Rinse the bottle out immediately after serving the last of the batch.
There will be a sediment of grated ginger and yeast at the bottom of the bottle, so that the last bit of ginger ale will be carry ginger fibers. Decant carefully if you wish to avoid this sediment.
The gas will develop faster in ginger ale than in home made root beer, presumably because there are more nutrients in it than in root beer extract.
David Fankhauser 