January 17, 2022

I had thought of creating a kit where you would have enough dough to make 1 dozen doughnuts, or 1 dozen bagels, or 1 dozen soft pretzels. The dough for each of those would be the same, only the preparation of the dough would differ.

Today I made my bagel dough into doughnuts, and they were delicious! However, I would like to experiment further with a fortified dough instead of my simple “French bread” dough that’s my go-to whenever I bake bread.

I have been making it without any oil, and the entire proofing process and sometimes even  the baking can be completed in under an hour. It’s a great versatile, quick, bread recipe. I’ll share it here. I think the short proofing time results in a close texture, which is perfect for bagels, but I want to experiment with different types and amounts of oil before I attempt pretzels. 

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

2 cups warm water

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp yeast

Add the yeast to the warm water. Make sure all the yeast gets wet, but don’t stir it. Allow this mixture to sit.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F and turn off immediately, once this temperature has been reached. Pour boiling water into a shallow dish and place this in the bottom of the warmed oven.

Whisk salt and flour together in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle of this and pour the yeast mixture in. Knead the dough and form a ball after all the flour is incorporated.

Cover with a damp towel and place in oven to proof for 10-15 minutes.

Knead the dough and form a ball.

Cover with a damp towel and place in oven to proof for 10-15 minutes.

Then you can form shapes or a loaf, if you wish. 

Allow to proof for 10-15 minutes and then bake it. 

A loaf takes about an hour at 350 degrees F. I’ll write about how to prepare bagels and pretzels in a later post. Enjoy!