Name: Albanian Home Bread - Buke Shtepie
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 145 min
Cuisine: Albanian
Ingredients: 5 cups bread flour; 1 packet Instant Yeast (Rapid Rise); 2 cups warm water; 0.5 cup milk (room temperature); 3 tbsps olive oil (extra virgin); 2 tbsp butter; 1 tsp sugar; 1 tbsp salt

Albanian

Bowl

Mix milk and 1 cup of water then add yeast, mix well so there are no lumps. Set aside.

Mix 5 cups of flour with salt and sugar in a big mixing bowl.

You can mix with your hands or using a spoon. Video shows how you can make the dough with your hands, it&#039;s sticky at first but totally worth it. Start by creating a small crater on the flour mound. Add a little bit of the yeast mix and start mixing slowly.

Continue alternating slowly between mixing and adding more of the yeast mix. Fold more flour into the mix each time.

Continue the same motion of folding flour and forming dough while adding the rest of the water and olive oil. At this point you should have mixed everything together. The dough is initially sticky and you need to work it with your hands into a more elastic shape and less sticky.

At the final step add just a handful of flour over the dough, it helps create the final dough shape and remove it from the bowl. Sprinkle just few drops of olive oil in the bowl, spread it at the bottom of the bowl and then place dough back in.

Cover the bowl and leave it in a dark, warm area of your kitchen for the dough to rise. In my kitchen this process takes about an hour. However, it can take longer than that depending on the temperature of your room. Usually I gauge by the size of the dough. You need to let it rise to twice it&#039;s size.

Once dough has risen, take it out of the bowl and into a working surface, I prefer wood. Knead the dough for few minutes. Then roll it into a tube shape and cut it in fist size rolls, about 12 -13 rolls.

Melt the butter and spread some on the bottom of the baking tray. You can choose to bake this bread into a loaf or rolls, it&#039;s your choice. I prefer rolls because they&#039;re easier to store once baked.

Knead each roll by folding the sides in and then kneading down, repeat few time and finish by making each roll into a round shape. Place on the baking tray. Repeat with all of them. Place the rolls about an inch apart if you can. If your tray is smaller than mine, the rolls will push into each other once baked but you&#039;ll be able to pull them apart.

Use the rest of the butter to coat the surface of each roll, use your hands or a brush.

Place the tray in a warm place in the kitchen, dough needs to rise a second time. This time it won&#039;t double but you still need to see a noticeable difference. Usually I let it rise for 30 minutes.

While the dough is rising, pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (about 200 degrees Celsius).

Once dough has risen, place the tray in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes or until the rolls take a light reddish-brown color, very light.

Insert an oven safe dish in the oven the same time you insert your bread tray. This second dish needs to have 1-2 inches of water in it, nothing else. The vapors from the water will help that the bread doesn&#039;t dry up too much while baking.

Once baked cool bread in a cooling rack, then place in a basket and keep covered with a linen towel. Serve warm with cheese, butter or your favorite sides!! Enjoy:)

Albanian Home Bread - Buke Shtepie

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