How About Just A Little Bread Dough

After Saturday's bake-a-thon making rolls for the week and fresh Hotteok for snacks, I got to thinking.

That's always dangerous, but it occurred to me that if you sometimes can scale up a recipe, can you scale it down?

The short answer is sometimes, Yes.

My sister Pat's Pizza Dough Recipe is one that I use frequently for all sorts of bizarre things including baguettes, dinner rolls, burger buns, boule, and even sometimes, Pizza.

The challenge was just how small and simple can I reduce the recipe to make a perfect bit of bread.   The answer was I was able to make three sandwich sized rolls out of the result.   It would make two Hoagie rolls from just this amount.

The other thing - if you don't have a bread machine or don't know much about making bread, this is a small and non-threatening recipe.   Why non-threatening?   I mixed the entire amount in a two quart bowl.  Yes, about the size of an average saucepan.   If you have a "regular" sized non stick saucepan, it will make it even easier.

The recipe is simple:

Add to your bowl the following ingredients in order:

• 2 ounces to 2 1/2 ounces warm water
• 2 Teaspoon cooking oil - suggest for taste Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3/4 cup Bread Flour
• 1/4 Teaspoon Sugar
• 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Yeast

You may need to add a little extra water to get just the right dough consistency.  I used 3 ounces when I did this and it was a little loose.  I ended up adding a little extra flour to balance things out.

Mix all of this in your bowl by hand.  It should go together easily.  I used my hands, literally, and played with it like play-doh. 

When smooth, divide into rolls, baguettes, or into a bread pan.  Allow to rise for 2 to 4 hours (or more) or until it doubles in size.

Bake at 450F and check at 9 minutes for proper done-ness and a good hollow thump on the bread.  It may go longer or shorter depending on how hot your oven runs.