CookingWithPam ... Bosch Magic White Bread recipe from the kitchen of Pamela Rice Hahn

	Bosch Magic! -- White Bread A Step-by-Step Recipe
	Moments after my Bosch Universal Mixer arrived at my door, I washed the bowls, cover parts, and beaters and got ready to rumble! (I'd cleared its tiny place on my counter days before. Don't let the small size fool you though. There's mega power on this thing! 700 watts of it!) While I'd been impatiently waiting for the mixer's arrival, I'd searched the Web and read some reviews and testimonials about the mixer. Pretty much all of them praised the mixer's power and reliability. Lots of users sang the praises of a mixer that could handle enough dough for six to eight loaves of bread in one batch. But, many of those same users said the mixer wasn't as well suited for doing small batches of dough. I thought I'd made the wise decision, choosing the Bosch Universal (with the attached blender in which I could fix "shaved ice" and other good stuff) over the more expensive, 700-watt Bosch Concept with its smaller footprint. (I have a small kitchen.) or the smaller, less expensive, 450-watt Bosch Compact. After all, despite my desire to be able to make humonga batches of bread, cookies, and pizza dough, most of the time I make things in small batches. All accounts I read about the Bosch mixer's capabilities involved those huge quantities of dough -- enough for six loaves or more, and, they all claimed that by "Bosch kneading" the dough for seven minutes or so, I could skip the usual "proof for an hour, punch the dough down, proof for two hours or until dough is doubled, and punch it down again" process. All claims were that the mixer was powerful enough that the kneading process developed the gluten to the extent that all I'd have to do is to turn out the dough and shape into loaves, put the dough in the pan(s), wait fifteen minutes or so for the dough to rise, then bake it. Let me emphasize what this would mean: Instead of spending three to four hours waiting for the dough to work and rise, I could start my bread, knead it, shape it, and bake it and have bread on the table in a little over an hour! Not one to do things conventionally, I decided to take a different approach than those I'd been reading about on the Web. I was bound and determined to make a small batch of bread, and, as if that weren't enough, I decided I'd prove (or disprove) this machine's ability to form gluten by using plain ole flour instead of higher gluten flour. Here's what I did:
	Ingredients/Step 1:
			1 1/3 cup warm milk 3 Tablespoons sugar 1 Tablespoon dry yeast 1 cup King Arthur unbleached flour Using the dough hook and making sure the splash ring and bowl cover were in place, I mixed all of the above ingredients on speed one (low speed) until they were blended. I turned off the machine and let the mixture set for 10 minutes. (This "proofs" the yeast. I'm paranoid. I always confirm that the yeast is still good.)
	Ingredients/Step 2:
	Minute Maid Lemon Juice		1 teaspoon honey (tupelo) 1/2 cup oat bran 3 cups white all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon sea salt 2 Tablespoon butter 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice* Next I removed the bowl cover and added all of the above ingredients.
	You'll notice that my white bread wasn't entirely all white bread because I added some oat bran. (I figured I should healthy it up somehow.) I used tupelo honey because it's milder than the clover honey I get locally or that stuff that comes in a bear at the supermarket. Your call as to what kind you use, if you use any at all. I added it as an additional flavor enhancer. I added the lemon juice because it acts as a preservative and helps form the gluten. (*In my case though, "fresh" was some thawed Minute Maid frozen 100% lemon juice. Just don't use that bottled stuff!) After adding those ingredients, I put the bowl cover back in place and, using speed one, I mixed everything until it was well-blended. I removed the bowl cover and splash ring so that I could use a spatula to scrape down the bowl. I put the splash ring back in place and turned the mixer on speed one. I then began adding more flour, about a heaping tablespoon at a time until the dough pulled away from the edges of the bowl and formed a ball (of sorts).
			This is how things looked once the dough formed a ball. There are so many factors (humidity, the freshness and moisture content of the flour, etc.) that affect the amount of flour necessary for this to occur. Just keep in mind that the dough should still be a little sticky at this point. You don't want to add too much flour.

	Next, I turned the mixer to speed two and let it do its thing, kneading the dough and, with any luck, developing all the gluten it was able to muster up in that plain ole flour.
			After about 5 minutes, this is how things looked (once I removed the splash ring and lifted the dough hook up and off its base).
	I rubbed a little olive oil on my hands and formed the dough into a ball that would fit on top of my SA-110A Cuisinart® Precision Electronic Scale. As you can see from the picture below, the dough weighed 2 pounds, 7 ounces.

	Despite using the amount of ingredients I'd normally add to my bread machine for a two-pound loaf, this meant I had a bit too much dough for a standard loaf pan, so I used my Kaiser Bakeware La Forme 12-inch Drawn Loaf Pan. I turned the oven to the "warm" setting, set the loaf inside and let the dough rise until it passed the "press a finger in it" test, turned the oven to 350ºF, and baked the bread for about 25 minutes.
			As you can see in the picture on the left, the pan was a bit too big, so I ended up with bread with what resembled deli rye-style slices. (The 10-inch pan would have been perfect. It's on my wish list!)

	The crust was perfect! The inside of the bread was soft and moist. I shared some of the loaf with my brother and his wife and my sister-in-law's response to the bread was, "Now this is how homemade bread is supposed to taste!" Not bad for a loaf that broke all the rules.
	Making a Good Thing Even Better:
	Ingredients/Step 1:		1 1/3 cup warm milk 3 Tablespoons sugar 1 Tablespoon dry yeast 1 cup all-purpose flour For this batch, I decided to use up some all-purpose flour, so that's the only kind I used in the bread. Another change: Once I'd mixed up the "starter," I decided I wanted a nap. By the time I got back to the mixer, four hours or so had passed. (I answered some email. Talked on the phone. You know how it goes.)
	Ingredients/Step 2:		1 teaspoon honey (tupelo) 1/2 cup oat bran 3 cups white all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon sea salt 2 Tablespoon butter 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 Tablespoon Ener-G dough enhancer Next I removed the bowl cover and added all of the above ingredients.
			This time once the dough was pulling away from the side of the bowl, I set the mixer to speed two and let it knead the bread for seven minutes.
	As you can see from the photo below, this resulted in a "glossier" dough. I hadn't seen dough that looked like that since the days years ago when I used one of those huge Hobart mixers in my pizza business or bakery.

	Again, I lightly oiled my hands and turned the dough out onto a Silpat Nonstick Baking Mat while I shaped it into loaves. (I prefer to avoid bench flour when I'm working alone. If I'm letting the grandkids throw flour around their mom's kitchen, it's another story!) This time I used Chicago Metallic 1-pound loaf pan and 2 nonstick mini loaf pans.
			If you look closely at the loaf on the right and compare it to the one in the middle, you'll see how ... in the time it took me to shape the loaf on the right and get it into the pan, the one in the middle had already risen and taken on a rounded bread shape.

	I placed the loaves in the oven preheated to the "warm" setting and let the loaves rise for about 30 minutes. I then increased the temperature to 350ºF and baked them for around 17 minutes.

	The picture above shows what the three loaves looked like when they came out of the oven -- after I'd rubbed a butter wrapper across the top crusts. (Beautiful, aren't they?) Notice how the mini loaves are almost as big as the larger loaf. Those loaves were proofed correctly. I didn't let the larger loaf rise quite enough. (More on that later.)
	This is a slice from one of the small loaves. I wish now I'd have taken the picture showing how its size compares to that of the dinner plate it's on. Slices from the small loaves were almost the size of what you expect from a 1-lb. loaf!
	Nobody's Perfect:
	If you look closely at the under- baked loaf on the left, you'll notice there's a line going around it just under the upper crust. That's caused from "under-proofing" the loaf. In other words, I didn't let that loaf rise long enough. I'd decided at the time I'd baked the loaves that I'd under- bake the larger loaf -- in essence creating a "brown and serve" loaf of bread. Because patience isn't always my virtue, I'd decided to go ahead and prebake that loaf along with the smaller loaves, even though I knew it hadn't yet raised enough. My thinking was that I could then take all three loaves out of the oven at the same time, knowing that the larger loaf wasn't quite done. I later put the larger loaf in the oven for 10 minutes to finish it off and it was delicious! Once it was sliced, nobody noticed that nasty line. Conclusion: The mixer seems to be doing better than okay with small batches of bread. In fact, it does fantastic! (I have photos taken for lots more recipes I've adapted for use with my Bosch. So much to bake. So little time!) Testimonial: Except for the "heel" slice I cut when the bread is first done, I seldom eat the crust on the bread I make in the bread machine. Not so with this bread. I ate every crumb!

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