Bread

I love bread. It is yummy delicious and you can pretty much eat it with everything. But who wants to always eat Wonder Bread because that's what you could afford to buy this week. So I was on vacation after Christmas and since I had the time I decided to make some bread. Well to my delight it is so easy to make that I might start doing it more often, like today! The biggest part is the time it takes: active time for this recipe...meaning you have to be involved is around 20-30 minutes. Waiting time is around 2 hours, so this is a weekend or day off thing to do.

White Bread

2 cups of warm water (110 degrees)
2/3 cup of white sugar
1 1/2 tbls yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups of flour

Dissolve the sugar and yeast in the water...it's important that it's warm, but not too warm because you are waking up the yeasties. If it's too hot they won't work and if it's not warm enough you won't get the chemical reaction that makes the bread rise! Let sit for about 5 minutes, the top will become frothy.

This is what your bowl should look like after the yeasties have been at work for around 5 minutes

Now pour in your oil and salt and stir good to mix it all together.

Start adding the flour 1 cup at a time. The mixture will be lumpy the first couple of cups, mix the best you can but don't go nuts just keep adding the flour one cup at a time. Toward the end I find it easier to put your dough on a clean surface and knead in the rest.

Kneading is very simple. Ball up your fists and roll them into the dough going away from you. Then fold the dough over itself and roll your fists in again. You are working the dough together until it is smooth and elastic but  don't go overboard or your bread will be chewy and tough.

Place your dough into a bowl that you have lightly oiled so it doesn't stick while it rises (you only need a dime size drop of oil in the bowl).Loosely cover with saran wrap or a damp paper towel and set into a warm place for an hour...I turn my dinosaur of an oven to 100 then shut off, most people probably have a "proof" setting on their oven which is what you should use.

After about an hour you will find your dough doubled in size and maybe even spilling over your bowl like mine did today. Punch it once in the middle  then dump out on the counter (which you have sprikled with about 1/4 cup of flour so you don't make a sticky mess) and knead for a few minutes until it is elastic and smooth again. Next time I'll take more pictures! Divide in half and place into 2 greased loaf pans. Now they go back into a warm place for about 30 minutes to rise again.

After the half hour your loaf pans should be full of bread and it is usually about an inch over the top of the pan. Take them out of the oven and crank it up to 350. When the oven reaches temperature pop your breads in and bake for 30 minutes.

See this isn't that bad, it's mostly just waiting for the bread to rise!

When your breads are done they will be golden brown on top and if you tap them they will sound hollow.

Cool on a cookie rack if you have one and enjoy!! Make sure you wait at least 15 minutes before slicing or the bread will just fall apart.

Breads right out of the oven. My loaf pans are different sizes which is why they look so different but who cares they taste the same in the end!

 Enjoy!

This recipe makes 2 loafs, if you don't scarf them both down freeze one for next week!


Now that I feel I am a white bread expert I might try some other variations...stay tuned :)