My Mothers Bread Recipes

MY MOTHER'S PEASANT BREAD

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (4 cup), Kosher Salt (2 teaspoon), Granulated Sugar (2 teaspoon), and Instant Dry Yeast (2 teaspoon).
• Add the Water (2 cup).
• Mix until the flour is absorbed.
• Cover bowl with a tea towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for at least an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees F). Grease two oven-safe bowls with Butter (2 tablespoon).
• Using two forks, punch down your dough, scraping it from the sides of the bowl, which it will be clinging to. You want to loosen the dough entirely from the sides of the bowl, and you want to make sure you've punched it down.
• Then, take your two forks and divide the dough into two equal portions. To do so, eye the center of the mass of dough, and starting from the center and working out, pull the dough apart with the two forks. Scoop up each half and place into your prepared bowls.
• Let the dough rise for about 20-30 minutes on the countertop near the oven, or near a warm spot, until it has risen to just below or above the top of the bowls.
• Bake for 15 minutes.
• Reduce the heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees F) and bake for 15-17 minutes longer.
• Remove from the oven and turn the loaves onto cooling racks. If the loaves look a little pale and soft when you've turned them out onto your cooling racks, place the loaves into the oven, outside of their bowls, and let them bake for about 5 minutes longer.
• Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

MY MOTHER'S BREAD

Steps:

• Stir the yeast into the warm water and let stand until creamy and foamy, about 10 minutes. Add the yeast mixture to the flour and mix well. Add in the salt. Add as much water as needed, until dough comes together and is smooth. Move to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with towel and let rise in a warm spot until double in size, about 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Butter and flour 3 bread pans. Remove risen dough from bowl and punch down. Divide dough and put into prepared pans.
• Bake bread for 45 minutes, until it is blond in color. Lower the oven temperature to 275 degrees F and continue baking for another 45 minutes, or until nicely browned.

MY MOTHER-IN-LAW'S PLUM BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper.
• Sprinkle chopped plums with 1 tablespoon of flour in a bowl, and toss to coat. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat the margarine, white sugar, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. In another bowl, sift together 1 1/2 cup of flour with salt and baking soda. Stir the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, alternating with yogurt until the mixture forms a smooth batter. Lightly stir in the flour-coated plums, and pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the top of the batter with brown sugar.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool in the pan 10 to 15 minutes before removing from pan for slicing.