SC - RE: Ale bread
Kathy and David Johnson
mohawk5 at itis.com
Tue Mar 7 16:28:30 PST 2000
This looks great! Just what I was looking for. What kind of flour do you
recommend? I was planning to use a wheat/white mixture.
I get to make 75 large loaves of this kind and another 75 of a
saffron/cardamom bread for a feast on Tax Day! Wheeee!!
Thanks for the help!
Kathryn
>Here is my own recipe I've been using for many years plus info (it's my
>A&S documentation--Raoghnailt):
>
>Ale Bread
>
>3 Tbls. yeast (3 packets)
>2½ C. warm water
>12 oz. dark beer or ale (Henry Weinhard's Amber Ale)
>2-3 Tbls. sugar
>2-3 tsp. salt
>2 eggs
>10-12 C. unbleached flour
>
> Dissolve yeast in warm water in heavy-duty mixer (Mine is a Bosch
>Universal). Add eggs, sugar, and salt. Add beer and flour alternately
>until dough forms a ball cleanly off the sides of the bowl. Knead for 10
>min. Turn out into large greased bowl. Turn dough to grease all sides.
>Cover with a clean cloth and let rise in warm place for 1-1½ hours or
>until it doubles in volume. Turn dough out onto greased surface and
>divide it into 4 large or 8 small pieces with a dough cutter or a sharp
>knife. Shape each piece of dough into a round by folding the dough into
>the center as you turn it. Place onto greased or parchment-covered cookie
>sheets. (My professional half-sheet cake pans hold 4 small loaves.) Let
>rise until
>doubled, approx. 45 min. Bake at 350ºF. -- large loaves 30-40 min., small
>loaves 20-30 min. Loaves will sound hollow when done (thump with a finger).
>
> The above recipe is based on the period bread recipe below found in To
> the King's Taste: Richard II's book of feasts and recipes, by Lorna
> Sass. There are very few existing period recipes for bread, probably
> because cooks -- not bakers -- were dictating the cookbooks and the
> bakers' guilds regarded recipes as trade secrets.
>
>Brede
>
>Take fayre Flowre and the whyte of Eyroun and the yolke, a lytel. Than take
>Warme Berme, and putte al thes to-gederys and bete hem to-gederys with thin
>hond tyl it be schort and thikke y-now, and kaste Sugre y-now ther-to, and
>thenne lat reste a whyle. An kaste in a fayre place in the oven and late
>bake y-now.
>
> The author's redacted version contains too much yeast, sugar, beer, and
>salt for my tastes, and so I played with the recipe until my lord was happy.
>Someday I am going to brew ale just for the ale barm (live yeast culture)
>and make this bread the truly period way (but then I'll need a clay oven,
>too).
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