Yes, I Bake My Own Bread
I do, I bake my own bread. It makes my house smell good. That warm, cozy, you are home smell. It tastes delicious. Nothing tastes better than fresh baked bread. I know what is in it. No preservatives is my motto and baking my own bread helps me to stick to that.
There is nothing fancy about my recipe. It's just a basic bread recipe. It can easily be tailored to make different types of bread. This recipe is my wheat bread recipe. You can use any type of flour you want to make different types of bread.
The ingredients:
2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 TBS sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Cup warm water
1 1/3 Cup bread flour (or all purpose flour)
1 1/3 Cup wheat flour (I use King Arthur's white wheat)
Extra flour for dusting
Canola oil
The Directions:
Mix the sugar, yeast and warm water in a large mixing bowl. Let set five minutes until the yeast blooms.
Add the flour and salt. Mix together. I use my KitchenAid mixer and my dough hook. I take the dough out when it sticks together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Dough should be tacky. Not wet, but not dry. Add 1/3 cup more of the white flour if needed.
Sprinkle flour on the counter, put dough on the counter and knead for five to 10 minutes. You need a smooth ball. You will know you are done when you can take a small piece and stretch it until light shows through without it breaking. This is known as the window pane test.
You can make this as a no-knead bread. If you don't want to knead the dough, put it in the refrigerator for 8 hours.
Oil a large bowl and put the dough in it. Flip once so there is oil on sides of the dough. Cover and let rest 1-2 hours. Keep an eye on the dough. It has rested long enough when it has doubled in size.
Punch the dough down, and form it into a loaf. Put it into a greased loaf pan.
You don't need to use a loaf pan for this. You can just form a round loaf and put it on a pizza stone.
Allow bread to rise for 45 minutes.
Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Put in the bread and decrease heat to 375 degrees F.
Bake for 30 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped.
