I really love to bake bread - mostly because I love to eat it! This recipe makes a LOT of bread (approximately six loaves) and is wonderful for gifting. Speaking of gifting, check out the fabric pears that my my just made. They are wonderful - I really love them. My parents also brought over some homemade strawberry rhubarb jelly (which prompted me to make this bread) and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I hope to get her recipe for the jelly and try to make it one day. Here is the recipe for the lowfat yogurt bread. It is from a cute little book called "homemade" by Judith Choate. Oh - the book was a recent gift from my mom, too!
Lowfat Yogurt Bread
Rising Time: 1 1/2 hours
Preheat Oven to 375 degrees
12 cups white bread flour (regular white flour will also do)
2 cups white wheat flour (or regular wheat flour)
1 cup coarsely ground yellow cornmeal
3 packages of yeast (or 7 1/2 tsp.)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt (I totally left this out and the bread came out delicious)
1 tablespoon sea salt (I totally left this out and the bread came out delicious)
2 1/2 cups nonfat milk
2 cups nonfat plain yogurt
Combine the flours, cornmeal, yeast, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Heat the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When just hot, remove from the heat and whisk in the yogurt (make sure that this mixture is not hot, just super warm).
Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, pour the warm milk mixture over the dry ingredients and begin blending. When the dough gets too heavy to mix with the spoon, scrape it onto a lightly floured surface and begin kneading. Knead for about 12 minutes, or until the dough is well blended but still a bit tacky. This will not be a smooth, shiny bread dough. Scrape the dough into a large buttered bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and set aside in a warm spot to rise about 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Uncover the dough and again place it on a lightly floured surface. Punch it down to release all of the air and knead for about 4 minutes.
Divide the dough into at least 6 equal pieces. Form each piece into a loaf shape and place into loaf pans, or, alternatively, form into a free form round shape and place onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and place on wire racks to cool before serving or storing.
ENJOY!!!!
If you think that this recipe is too much trouble, stay tuned for my post soon featuring no-knead dough.
