Really Simple Dough

fast and easy base for breads

30 mins prep, 30-45 minutes to rise (makes ~3 loaves)

This is one of the very first things I learned to bake, and I've been using it for years since.

You can quickly turn this into quite good homemade bread, or you can flatten it out into pizza dough by going a little easier on the yeast (or not, if you like big fluffy pizzas :)

created: Monday, January 15, 2007 (PST)

[1 / 1 found this useful , viewed 1420 times]

(printer friendly version)

Ingredients

3 cups flour
3 cups lukewarm water
3 teaspoons sugar
3 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons yeast (active dry)

Directions

Heat the water until it is slightly warm to the touch, but not any more than that (it will kill the yeast).

Mix the water, sugar, and salt, and stir to dissolve.

Mix in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. For the first two cups, add the flour very slowly (preferably with a sifter) and stir vigorously to ensure that it spreads throughout the liquid. For the last cup of flour, you can be more careless, since there's no risk of generating little localized pockets of flour.

Roll the dough out on a non-stick floured surface, and separate (or cut) into three roughly equal portions. Knead each vigorously for 5 minutes.

Place in an oven at 150 _Fahrenheit_ and let rise for 30-45 minutes; when it's done, you can quickly bake it as bread, or incorporate it into any other recipes you like.