Mini Homestead News: How to bake bread in a pressure cooker

I am now baking bread, biscuits, and other things like casseroles in my pressure cooker. It’s an older model Maitres brand cooker that I got from a fried who was moving. It’s about a 6 or 8 quart cooker. He didn’t want it or need it. It doesn’t have the weight for the vent pipe, a rubber gasket for the lid, and now doesn’t even have the over-pressure safety plug in the lid. We removed that since it had already been damaged. But to bake in it, it doesn’t need any of those things. I use it as a stove top oven instead of a cooker. I am not pressure cooking the bread. Smile

I place two layers of canning rings in the bottom.

Then a cooking rack from another pressure cooker/canner, then I put whatever I’m baking in there.

I put on the lid, bring up the heat, and bake!

Now, on to the recipe!

Basic White Bread

3 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
3 tablespoons powdered milk (optional)
3 tablespoons oil
1 1/4 cups water (or whatever is needed to make a smooth dough)

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, powdered milk, and yeast together. Make a well in the center and add oil and water. Mix well till you get a solid but not stiff or dry dough. You want it to pull away from the sides of the bowl and not stick too much to your hands. Knead 100 strokes. Put a teaspoon of oil in the bowl and roll the dough around in it, coating all sides. Cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap. Allow to rise till doubled, about an hour depending on the temperature in your house. My house is generally cool, so I let it go an hour and a half.

When risen, remove the plastic, punch down the dough, and knead again with some flour sprinkled on and around it for about a dozen strokes. Till it’s elastic feeling. Roll it up into a loaf shape and place in a greased pan. Cover with plastic again in the pan and allow to rise about 30 minutes.