SC - RE: Ale bread

[Kathy and David Johnson]

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).