Brown Bread

Lukewarm is cuddly and cozy. Tepid is apathetic and indifferent. Oh, sorry. You asked about water... Lukewarm is in the 100-110 degree range - the ideal temperature for proofing yeast. Above 110 and you start running the risk of killing the poor yeast; below 100, the yeast will just sit there doing nothing. Tepid is just a tad warm in order to ease mixing ingredients into a liquid- Maybe the 75-90 degree range. Not too cold. Not too hot. Just right!

You can use instant yeast 1to1 with active dry yeast. Don’t proof the instant yeast, just add to the dry ingredients. Watch for the rise closely.

I was inspired to make this on a brisk, breezy March day in Austin. The result will make your house smell like heaven and make you feel like a baking genius for no effort at all. I used 4 mini-loaf pans instead of one large pan, reducing each of the cooking phases by about half, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. The bread is splendid! Four lovely, sturdy little loaves. The crust is both crisp and yielding and the crumb is tender with a nutty, rich taste. Go make this everyone.

What kind of molasses best emulates treacle syrup? There seem to be many varieties. Do you think I can use dark fresh maple syrup?

A good recipe that worked the first time for me. Needs salted butter to overcome the bitterness of the whole wheat. Autolysis should greatly improve the bread: Mix only the water and flour, let rest 30-60 mins. Then proceed with the recipe. In autolysis enzymes in the wheat germ cleave some of the starches in the flour, generating tasty malt sugars that overcome whole wheat's bitterness. White-flour recipes, lacking germ/enzymes, mistakenly call a hydration step autolysis.

This recipe sounds lovely! For those of us who only keep one type of yeast around, would you consider adding instructions for using instant yeast instead of active? Thank you!

According to King Arthur Flour the yeast can be used interchangeably.

Why insist on using brand names like Diamond Crystal or unclear terms like "coarse kosher salt"? Both of which are terribly inaccurate when trying to estimate the actual salt content, since they can range from 10g to almost 20g of sodium per teaspoon. This stubborn and pretentious pattern ruins hundreds if not thousand's of people's recipes

The ingredient list is missing water: 425 ml, or 1.77 cup. I’d just take the whole amount of warm water and molasses to activate the yeast, and add my flour and salt mixture in. Easier this way. And if you don’t know what else to use the leftover molasses for - molasses are great in home-made granola. And they last a while so just make more loaves of bread!

Treacle is the British word for molasses You "can" use maple syrup, but maple syrup doesn't have the acidity that molasses does. Just so you know.

The brand name is critical when it comes to kosher salt. There are two main brands in the US, where this newspaper is based. The two are not equivalent for volume measurements. They are, of course, the same in grams, but the amounts are so small that most people don't have a scale to accurately measure that quantity. That said, I think "coarse kosher salt" may be an error, as "coarse salt" would suffice, and I wish they'd give a mass measurement for people who have an appropriate scale.

Bread dough is very forgiving. Yeast begins to die off at 120F. 140F will completely kill yeast. As long as your water is below 120F (105-110F is optimal), you should be fine.

Reminds me of a recipe I once saw on David Lebovitz's blog. Maybe the notes on that recipe would be helpful to some?

For those who are concerned about whether to proof yeast, whether they should use “instant” or “active” yeasts, and so on: Proving the yeast is only important or necessary if you have an old packet or jar lying dormant in your pantry (and really it should be under refrigeration!). If you know your yeast is good, skip that step—but make sure you consolidate the liquid and sugar you would have used into the body of the dough.

What is the difference between lukewarm and tepid water?