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How to Make Homemade Bread

How to Make Homemade Bread
  • Prep 3 hr 30 min
  • Total 4 hr 30 min
  • Ingredients 7
  • Servings 20
I must confess that making homemade bread is a challenge, but once I followed this recipe by María Jara, an Ecuadorian baker who’s been kneading dough for more than 20 years, the job was easier than I thought. I used just about everything to make this bread: yeast, flour, water, oil, and after several tries, this one turned out to be the easiest and best. This recipe takes all-purpose flour, but it can be easily replaced with wheat flour. You can stuff the bread with anything you’d like: ham, semi-hard white cheese and even dulce de leche and jam. Like any good baker, Jara didn’t keep any secrets and here are step-by-step instructions for making this delicious bread made at home by hand. Roll out that dough!

Ingredients

  • 10 cups all-purpose flour (if you want to substitute with wheat flour, substitute 4 cups)
  • 3 3/4 cups water, at room temperature
  • 8 whole eggs
  • 2 tablespoons salt
  • 5 tablespoons sugar
  • 4 tablespoons instant yeast
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, sliced or at room temperature

Directions

  • 1
    On a clean table, sculpt the flour into the shape of a volcano and add water, eggs, salt, sugar, yeast and sliced butter to the center. Use your hands to combine until all the ingredients have integrated well. Knead for 15-20 minutes or until the mixture comes off your fingers. If necessary, sprinkle the table with some flour, but not too much.
  • 2
    Once the mixture becomes a homogeneous dough, cover with a plastic bag and let it leaven for 1 hour. Grease the baking sheets with vegetable oil and set aside.
  • 3
    Coat your hands with oil and form small- and medium-sized balls, rolling in a circular motion, from the inside out, and place them on the greased baking sheets. If the dough sticks to the sheet, place a white piece of paper greased with oil (baker’s secret). Let the dough balls leaven for 30 minutes, covered with the bag.
  • 4
    Form the dough into the shape you wish, whether you want your bread in the shape of little buns, long or round loaves. You can even stuff it with different ingredients or sprinkle with herbs. Once you have achieved the desired shape, let the dough leaven again for 30 minutes with just the bag over it.
  • 5
    Beat a whole egg and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
  • 6
    Use a brush or napkin to lightly glaze the dough with the beaten egg. Let it leaven again for 1 hour with the plastic bag over it.
  • 7
    Before you put the dough in the oven, place a stainless steel bowl, half filled with water, on the lower rack of the oven. This will keep the bread from burning and will maintain the moisture content (baker’s secret). Bake the large loaves on the oven’s lower rack and the buns on the upper rack, for about 1 hour or until golden brown.
  • 8
    Let it cool and serve.

No nutrition information available for this recipe

  • I must confess that making homemade bread is a challenge, but once I followed this recipe by María Jara, an Ecuadorian baker who’s been kneading dough for more than 20 years, the job was easier than I thought. I used just about everything to make this bread: yeast, flour, water, oil, and after several tries, this one turned out to be the easiest and best. This recipe takes all-purpose flour, but it can be easily replaced with wheat flour. You can stuff the bread with anything you’d like: ham, semi-hard white cheese and even dulce de leche and jam. Like any good baker, Jara didn’t keep any secrets and here are step-by-step instructions for making this delicious bread made at home by hand. Roll out that dough!
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