Italian Loaf

I found this very useful website www.thefreshloaf.com to self-teach how to bake bread. I used their recipe from baking lesson #2 but substituted bread flour with all purpose flour.

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
=> Mix in a bowl

1/8 cup sugar
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup lukewarm water
=> Warm the milk on low heat. Add the rest of the ingredients when milk is almost boiling. Pour into dry ingredient when butter is melted.

Knead dough for approximately 10 minutes, or until it forms a consistent slightly stick ball.

Pour some olive oil in a bowl and let dough rise in that bowl to double its size, approximately 2 hours.

Knead and shape dough on a lightly floured surface. I made 2 doughs. Place shaped dough on baking sheet, cover with damp cloth and let rise to desired size. It took approximately 1 hour.

Preheat oven at 350F. Place a tray filled with water at the bottom of the oven.

Optional: In a small bowl, pour in some extra virgin olive oil, oregano, basil, salt and garlic powder. I used approximately 1/4 cup of olive oil and added equal amount of the rest of the ingredients, maybe 1/4 teaspoon for each ingredient. I used a teaspoon and drizzled this mixture on one of the loaves.


Loaves were baked for 40 minutes at 350F. As soon as I took the loaves out, I drizzled the remaining of the olive oil mixture on the loaf with the mixture.

The plain loaf is airy and fluffy and the crust is crunchy. The Italian loaf is more heavy but still taste good. The crust however is too thick.

Note: I might have over-baked the bread causing the crust to be too thick. I checked on the bread at 30 minutes; they looked okay that time but I wanted them to be more brown. I should have stopped at 30, latest 35 minutes.

Dinner for two: Fresh baked Italian loaves with steak, clam chowder, vegetable and wine. MMmmm..