Ready Dough

I was walking through the frozen food section recently and I found this package of "Ready-Dough".  I think it was when I bought the phyllo shells for the carb tartlets we made last week.  These would have been in the same section of the freezer as the frozen phyllo dough.

I thought this was interesting; three, one pound loaves of bread that just need to be thawed and left to rise and then put in the oven.  So I bought the package and made one of them.  I was pleasantly surprised.  These days we are in with the virus and all of that, you might find yourself not getting out as much as before this started.  You can keep this in the freezer and bake a loaf in hardly any time so you'll always have bread in the house as a basic need.

Inside the package, you will find three loaves of bread.

I used just one loaf on my first try.  Here you can see that I have sprayed a cast iron loaf pan with Pam Baking spray.

Place the loaf in the loaf pan bottom side up and brush with melted butter or spray it with butter flavored Pam.  Let the dough thaw in a warm place (up to 110℉) for 1-2 hours or covered in the refrigerator overnight.

I used the "quick-rise" method for my loaf.  I let the loaf thaw for about an hour on top of the range with the oven set to 200℉.  

I covered the loaf pan with with the bread in it with a clean kitchen towel.

This vent on the back of the range top vents hot air from the oven, so it is the perfect place for letting the dough thaw.  

Once the dough was thawed, I basted the top with melted butter and turned the heat off in the oven.  Then I placed the pan with the loaf into the warm oven to rise.  This could take 2 - 4 hours.  My loaf was ready at 2 hours.  Once the loaf has risen, remove it from the oven and turn the heat in the oven to 375℉.  Once the oven has reached temperature, place the loaf back inside the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.

When time is up, you will have a beautiful loaf of bread as you see above.

I basted it again with a little melted butter.

Then I turned the loaf out onto a board so that it could cool completely.

As you can see here, the loaf is nice and golden brown on the outside but soft on the inside.  This makes a very nice loaf of sandwich bread.

Here, a sandwich of thinly sliced deli turkey and a little shredded lettuce and you have a lovely and nutritious sandwich for lunch.

I was very impressed with how this loaf turned out.  I always have trouble with homemade bread being too dense when I try to make it on my own.  That was not the case here.  So I would definitely recommend keeping a couple loaves of this in your freezer for that time when you go to the pantry and find that someone has eaten the last of the bread and didn't tell you!!!

One additional note.  There are instructions on the package for making homemade pizza and another for making cinnamon rolls.  Maybe I'll try those recipes with the other two loaves.  Be sure to come back to see how those turn out.