Bread

I've been making my families bread for about a year now. The other day when I was pulling out my ingredients to make a batch of bread, I realized that I had the recipe memorized...and that I was getting pretty good at it. My kids now prefer my whole wheat, homemade bread to store bought. (John is insane though and will forever prefer white store-bought bread.) So, since I'm so great at it :), I decided to share my recipe and tricks, Pioneer Woman style! I do however need to apologize for the quality of my pictures however. What can I say, it was a cloudy day...so they all look dark. (Although, I'm pretty sure my tricks are common knowledge to most.)

First, make sure you have a mixer...I'm not sure making bread is worth the effort if you don't have one. I wish I had a Bosch, but I don't. After you have your mixer, fill your bowl with 5 1/2 cups of hot water (tap hot, not boiling hot). Then add 2 1/2 Tbsp. dry yeast and a tablespoon of sugar and wait until the water gets all frothy.

Then start adding your wheat flour. Start with 6 cups of wheat flour and 1 cup gluten flour.
Now let your mixer start doing the work. Clean the sides of the bowl if needed, but just sit back and watch. Let it go for a while.

I let mine mix long enough that I had time to do the dishes in my sink.

Seriously!

When the flour is mixed well, add 2 Tbsp. of salt...

2/3 cup Oil

And 2/3 cup honey. Be sure to add the Oil first and then the honey will just slide out of your measuring cup!

Then give it another mix, but not as long this time.

Now it's time to add the final amounts of flour. This is where things get less exact. You will eventually add another 3-5 cups of flour. I'm pretty sure the weather effects how much I end up adding. Usually I add about 3, but on this batch It got closer to 5. So start out by just adding 2-3 cups to the bowl.

Let 'er rip until you can't add any more flour. (If I had a bosch mixer with a bigger bowl, I would continue adding flour until the dough didn't stick to the edges, I have to stop when my bowl gets too full and knead the rest by hand.)

So if you are like me and will be kneading by hand, place a decent amount of flour on your counter. I'm not sure why but I like to knead in white flour better than wheat. So the last cup or two of flour are always white flour for this family.

Put some flour on top of your dough, and start kneading....and kneading...and kneading.

Until you have a nice ball of dough. When the dough is done you should be able to put your thumb in the side and have it bounce back. When in doubt...overly moist bread is always better than overly dry bread. So if you're questioning, hold back on the flour.

Cut the dough ball into four sections.

Knead the smaller balls a little until you have a shape that looks like a loaf. (You might need to add a bit more flour once you cut the dough to get to this point if your dough is still too sticky.)

Cover your pans and let rise for about an hour, or until you remember that you are making bread and need to get it in the oven. I have forgotten more than once and my bread has always turned out.

When you're done grab a spatula and scrape off your counter. Do not use your kitchen rag. You will be left with a gooey, gluey, mess. I use the spatula to scrape most of the flour into the garbage and then do the rest with paper towels. Seriously, save yourself some time and use some paper towels.

When the dough has doubled...
Pop it in the oven for about 40 minutes. And, Voila!

Take it out, add butter to the top if you want to, and enjoy! I usually take my bread a step further and slice it with electric knife. I freeze my bread in bread bags (bought from my local Great Harvest) and this way we have sliced bread ready to go instead of having to cut it at every meal.

So give it a try...I jumped in a year ago and haven't been able to go back. I buy all of my ingredients in bulk and so they are always on hand. It's nice to know that I'm able to feed my family a hearty filling bread for less than a dollar a loaf.