Chef Maki's bread and roll recipe

EZ Bread (oven preheat to 175 degrees)

MIX in large bowl:

3 cups wheat flour [11 cups]

1 ½ -2 TBS SAF instant yeast [5 TBS]

1 ½ tsp salt [5 tsp]

ADD and stir thoroughly:

2 ½ cups warm water [9 cups]

3 TBS oil [1/2 cup]

3 TBS honey [1/2 cup]

ADD a little at a time up to:

3 cups white flour [11 cups]                                         

[Fast instructions: Knead 10 – 20 minutes.  Let rise with plastic wrap covering until doubled.  Shape into loaves, place in warm oven 10 minutes.  Turn to 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.]

When you can’t stir it anymore, turn dough out onto floured counter.  Add flour as needed while you knead.  Dough should be slightly moist, smooth and elastic when ready (about 10 – 20 minutes of kneading, depending on if you do a large or a small batch of dough).

Place dough back in bowl to rise.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise until double (about 45 minutes).

Punch dough down.  Form into loaves (2 loaves for small batch, 8 for large batch) and place in buttered and floured baking pans.  Put in an oven that has been preheated to about 175 degrees for 10 minutes.  Cover any pans that can’t fit in oven on one shelf with non-fuzzy kitchen towel. 

Turn the oven to 350 degrees and bake until golden.  The first batch could take about 45-50 minutes since the oven needs to heat up.  Consecutive batches, if doing a large batch, should take 30-40 minutes. 

Cool bread on wire rack. Place a kitchen towel over bread.  Eat right away, or store in plastic bread sack or very large zippy bag once the bread has almost cooled.  If the bread is still a tiny bit warm when you put it in the bag, it keeps it’s moisture well and doesn’t develop a hard crust.

*The measurements on the right side of the ingredients are for making a very large batch (8 loaves).  The bread freezes very well.  You can make braided loaves, round loaves, rolls, etc. from this dough if desired.

*You can vary the ratio of white to wheat flour in this recipe greatly.  You can do 100% whole wheat, but I recommend using at least a cup of white flour to finish out your kneading since it makes it easier to work with. 

*Also try experimenting with other grains to make a multigrain bread—amaranth, millet, rice, quinoa, barley, rye, etc.

*When forming bread into loaves, smooth dough down and toward the underside of the loaf until it is free of bubbles, lumps and bumps.

*Freeze some loaves for later after they have cooled down.

*Try some of these ideas for fun:

Braid a loaf

Make a braided wreath or heart

Do a round loaf in a pie tin

Bake bread in a #10 can

Use 4 strands woven over/under to make a fisherman’s braid

Decorate a braided loaf with raisins, whisked egg & pearl sugar (from IKEA)

Make cinnamon rolls

Roll 3 small balls, dip in melted butter, place in muffin tin for cloverleaf rolls

Make regular dinner rolls

As you form a loaf, roll dough in butter & sesame seeds

Make extra large rolls for burger buns or subs or sandwiches

Look up more ideas online

Chef Maki’s Rolls (oven preheat to 175 degrees)

½ cup butter

2 cups milk

1 cup warm water

3 beaten eggs

1/2 cup sugar or ¼ cup honey

1 ½ -2 TBS SAF instant yeast

2 tsp salt

4 cups wheat flour (can vary ratio of wheat to white)

4-5 cups white flour

Melt butter in pot over medium heat.  Add butter, heat until warm.  (Stick finger in, should be warm, not hot, not cold.)  Add the beaten eggs, mix well.  Add warm water and honey or sugar, mix well.

In large bowl, mix 4 cups of the wheat flour, salt and yeast.  Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients.  Stir thoroughly.  Keep adding flour 1 cup at a time until you can’t stir it anymore.

Turn dough out onto floured counter.  Add flour as needed while you knead.  Dough should be slightly moist, smooth and elastic when ready (about 10 minutes of kneading).

Place dough back in bowl to rise.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise until double (about 45 minutes).

Punch dough down.  Form into rolls and place on buttered cookie sheet Put in an oven that has been preheated to about 175 degrees.  Turn the oven to 375 degrees and bake until golden.  The first batch could take about 20 minutes since the oven needs to heat up.  Consecutive batches should take 12-15 minutes. 

This recipe should be enough for two large cookie sheets of rolls or two large loaves of bread. While one cookie sheet is in the oven, cover the other with a non-fuzzy kitchen towel.

If the rolls won’t be eaten right away, cover them with plastic wrap while still a tiny bit warm.