SC - Table Puppies

[Shari Burnham]

Here's the recipe, sent with permission by Meredith (instead of in her
chicken scratch handwriting)  my notes are in parenteses

Makes 2 loaves.

1 Tbsp butter
2/3 Cup shallots finely chopped (or green onions, which I used 1 full
cup)
6 1/2 to 7 cups all purpose flour
2 packages active dry yeast
1 Tbsp snipped fresh sage or 1 tsp dried crushed sage (I doubled it
because I had dried snipped sage)
2 cups water
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt (I used a pinch)

In a skillet melt the 1 Tbsp butter, cook shallots  2-3 minutes until
translucent, set aside.  In large bowl stir together 2 c of the flour,
the yeast, and sage, and set it aside.  Heat and stir water, butter,
sugar, salt just until warm (she says around 120 degrees, or just until
butter almost melts) Add shallots and this water mixture to flour
mixture, Beat with an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds, scraping the
bowl.  Then beat on high for 3 minutes.  Stir in as much of the
remaining flour as you can.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured
surface.  Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately
soft dough that is smooth and elastic (we guessed longer than 5 minutes
but less than 10 minutes, and we had added 6 1/2c total and got the
smootheness needed.)  shape into a ball.  place the dough in a lightly
greased bowl, turning it once.  (meridith said she uses a Pam cooking
spray to coat the bowl, but we used light virgin olive oil.  squeezed
from real virgins.)  Cover and let it rise in a warm place until double,
about an hour.

Then punch the dough down, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.
divide it in half, cover, and let rest about 10 min.  grease 2 baking
sheets, set aside.  (we used cooking spray oil for the baking sheets.)
Shape each half of the dough into about a 6inch round loaf (meridith
says tuck the edges beneath bakes better)  using a sharp knife, make 3
spaced 3 inch cuts toward center of rounds.  place rounds on prepared
baking sheets, cover, and let rise until nearly double (in a warm place,
on top the fridge, it took ours about 30 min)  Bake at 375degrees for
about 40 min or until done.  (meridith says you may need to cover it for
the last 10 min with foil to avoid overbrowning, but it wasn't necessary
in our gas oven.)  You get a really nice crusty outside with a good
flavor inside, but not too overpowering.  she said freezing the bread is
ok but not the dough, but the bread keeps for about a week.

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