Making Homemade Bread

One of our first home changes, was bread, oddly enough.  I'm not sure why we chose to do this, but I'm glad we did.  See, bread from the store is cheap and tasty, but not as awesome of quality as bread from the bakery, which is about five times more expensive.  So, we decided if we made home made bread, we'd get a cheap good quailty loaf, and that's exactly how it turned out.  I wish I knew how to make the top braided like the Germans at the bakery do, but that's another lesson for another day.

With just a few simple ingredients, and a great recipe, the bread was wonderful!  Of course, it isn't wheat bread, and I haven't tried making wheat bread yet, but hey, this white bread is tasty, and maybe healthier because it lacks all those random additives and such.  For the record, my mixer was broken when I made this the first time, so it was quite the arm work out, but still turned out nicely.  Thankfully, we ordered one, and it should be here in a months time.  Gotta love APO shipping!  Here's the recipe:



Ingredients:

2 (.25 oz) packages active dry yeast.  (If you bought the jar that contains about 16ish packages, its 2 1/4 tsp per package, so 4.5 tsp total)

2 tbs white sugar

2 1/2 cups warm water (110 F - 115 F or 45 C)

3 tbs shortening/lard

1 tbs salt

6 1/2  cups bread flour  (King Aurther makes the most amazing flour ever.  I highly recommend it.)

Extra flour for surface covering

Olive oil (or any oil you happen to have on hand.  I just like using olive oil for most things.)


Directions:

1.  In large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.  Stir (I whisk'd) in shortening, salt, and two cups of flour.  (Get out your spoon/mixer.)  Stir in remaining flour, 1/2 c at a time, beating well after each addition.  When the dough has pulled together, turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.  (8ish minutes.)

2.  Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. (If you live in a cold place, just preheat your oven to 250 F, and place bowl on the back of the stove where the oven's extra heat will seep out.  It will help it rise more efficiently.)

3.  Deflate (Punch down with all you've got!) the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form into loaves. (This works best by rolling until mostly smooth, and then rolling up so the bottom is the ends tucked under nicely.)  Place the loaves into two lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40ish minutes.  (generally, let it rise until it reaches the desired loaf size.  This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on climate.  Yeast works by warmth and moisture, so the warmer and wetter, the faster it is going to rise, to a certain extent.  You don't want to over heat it or over soak it, because that will end in a soggy loaf trying to cook and rise simultaniously. )

4.  Preheat oven to 425 F/220 C.  
5.  The second after you put the bread into the oven, AFTER it is fully preheated, turn the temperature down to 375 F/190 C.  If you forgot this step, don't worry.  The crust will just be twice as hard, as it would if you lowered the temperature; the middle is still soft and tasty just like it should be.  (If you happen to have a teething baby, the harder crust works great for them to chew on.  It keeps my son quiet and happy most of the time.)

6.  Allow bread to bake for about 30 minutes or until top is golden brown and bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.  (I personally find tapping the bottom of a hot pan with your finger a bad idea, so be sure to use a fork or something else.)  If you forgot to lower the temperature, it is usually done by 20-25 minutes, so make sure to check on that. 

This recipe turned out so tasty, moist, fluffy, and overally amazing for turkey and cheese sammiches.  Out with the store bought, in with the home made!  Hope everyone who tries this loves it as much as we do.