1 cup hot water
2 tbsp honey or sugar
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1 1/2 cup sourdough starter
4 cup (to 6) flour
1 cake yeast
2 tsp salt(optional)
Directions
Mix hot water, honey or sugar, butter or margarine in a large ceramic
mixing bowl. Cool to lukewarm and add yeast, sourdough starter, salt
and flour a cup at a time enough to make a stiff dough. Turn out onto
a floured board and knead for 5 to 8 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl
and cover; let rise until doubled in bulk. Punch down and let rise
for 30 minutes. Turn dough out onto a floured board and let sit ten
minutes. Form into long or round loaf, or into rolls and place in a
well greased pan or cookie sheet and let rise again until doubled.
Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until
brown. Makes 1 large loaf or 8 to 12 rolls. SUGGESTIONS: The bread
will rise more quickly if salt is omitted. Use only ceramic or wood
bowls and utensils as metal spoils sourdough.(I use a large
corningware bowl and a plastic whip to mix, then rinse and reuse same
bowl to let kneaded ball rise in). Wash utensils promptly as this
stuff sets up like cement when left to dry! This recipe will make 4
thin baguette loaves, two small regular loaves or one MONSTER loaf in
a regular bread pan. Grease pans generously with crisco or other
shortening. From The Dough Boys Bakery in San Francisco
Servings: 1 servings
Never Fail Sourdough French Bread Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads; French
The History of Recipes
Historians have traced the existence of recipes far back into history, in fact as far back as the Egyptians, and quite possibly further than that. Having said that, generally, these early cookbooks were just very simple hieroglyphic instructions for preparing meals.
Fascinatingly, the most ancient recipe in existence, according to food historians is a collection of stone tablets in Sumerian which show the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made drinkers feel blissful and exhilarated. As we move into The time of the romans around 25BC a roman called Apicius created a few scripts showing how to cook the recipes cooked by the Romans. In his scrolls, Apicius tells us how the roman meals were split into starters, entrees and desserts, a style of dining still practiced today. He also recounts how the chefs of Roman times made use of many different herbs and spices, including some familiar names such as basil, fennel and parsley. Later, in the fifteenth century, people returning from the crusades brought us a variety of spices and herbs from the Middle-East, including spices such as parsley, basil and rosemary. The introduction of these new herbs and spices was responsible for an outbreak in books on cooking, many of which are now in private cookery archives. During the following few hundred years, the families of Europe strove to offer the most exotic banquets, and as a result chefs and their collection of recipes were greatly in demand. Even so, it was during the 1800s that fine cooking and recipe collections became really popular. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, dedicated the best years of their lives to collating, verifying, and writing down popular recipes of the day. By the advent of the 20th century, cookbooks were greatly in demand mostly due to increased literacy, increased leisure time and having more money. The revolution that is television gave us TV chefs and the accompanying recipe books. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, allowing everybody to search through massive numbers of recipes like those on our web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Never Fail Sourdough French Bread recipe.
