Hungarian Recipe Of The Week: Homemade Bread

  • 10 Dec 2010 12:00 AM
Hungarian Recipe Of The Week: Homemade Bread
"Now I know why in olden times they made bread only once or twice a month… This recipe takes a long time to make, but it is well worth every minute. Everyone will like this tasty, crunchy bread.

Ingredients:
1000 g flour
Ca. 400-500 ml water
50 g fresh yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons salt
Topping:
Oil or lard

Preparation time: 3-3.5 hour

Difficulty: ☺☺☺

Preparation:

Dissolve yeast in 200 ml warm water, add sugar, and let stand in a warm place, until yeast begins to foam.

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Stir in the yeast liquid and remaining warm water to get a manageable but not sticky dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead well – by hand – until dough is smooth and elastic, about 60-90 minutes.

Place the loaf on a baking tray, and use a sharp knife to score the bread so that it opens up nicely in the oven. Cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, for about 1-2 hours.

While the bread is rising, preheat oven to 200 ºC. Bake it for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 170 ºC and bake for 50 more minutes. Lightly oil the top of the bread when it starts to turn red, and for the last 10 minutes turn up the heat again to 200 ºC.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.
A perfect compliment to any meal all week long, but I highly recommend trying it hot, just by itself.

Hint:

* Work with warm ingredients in a warm kitchen, otherwise the dough will not rise.
* Add water to flour little-by-little, to avoid getting too soft of a dough. If it does become too soft, add a little bit more flour. If dough is too thick, add a few drops of water and knead well.
* Give all your power to kneading!
* Bread-crust will be red and crispy because of the oil on top of it."

Source: puszta.com

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