Easy Sandwich Bread recipe

We had a great Thanksgiving.  Did you? 

Went to David’s family early in the day.  The kids really enjoy going there to visit with their papaw.  He is funny and so good with the kids.

Then we came home and I cooked again for my families get together.   We also had time to watch a Christmas movie that we had started.  It was The Golden Christmas.  We loved it.  You can watch it on Netflix.

So, I had been looking for a really easy bread recipe that doesn’t use the bread machine.  Long story short, I hate my new bread machine.  I’m thinking about asking my Mom for hers back but I have to get my nerve up.  ;)

I found a recipe and tweaked it a little bit and it is now our favorite.  When you slice this with the electric knife, it is just like bread you buy in the store.  Only better and better for you.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour (we use unbleached flour I got from the Amish)

1 1/4 tsp salt

3 TBS sugar

4 TBS melted butter (we don’t use margarine but I think it works)

1/2 – 2/3 cup milk (I use raw milk)

1/2 cup water

2 tsp yeast

First, I heat the water in the microwave for about 1 minute.  This makes it pretty hot.  Then add the milk into the water along with 1 TBS of the sugar and the 2tsp of yeast.  I let this sit while I mix the rest of the ingredients together.  This gives the yeast time to bubble.

In a small bowl, mix the flour, remaining 2 TBSP of sugar, and salt.  I melt the butter in the microwave and then add it to my Kitchenaide bowl. 

Now for my favorite part of the recipe, I let the Kitchenaide do all of the kneading (work). 

Add the liquid mixture (milk, water, sugar and yeast) to the melted butter in the bowl.   Then slowly add the flour.  Use the dough hook for this.  You will need to watch the dough.  It it is too dry, add just a drop of water or milk at a time (about 1/4 tsp).  You want the dough to have a smear on the bottom of the mixing bowl while it is mixing.  If it climbs the dough hook and nothing is in the bowl, it is too dry.  If it is really wet and a lot is on the sides or bottom of the bowl, it is too wet (add a pinch of flour at a time until it gets to the right consistency).

Mix for 8 minutes.

Spray a plastic or glass bowl with oil (I use Olive oil).  Put the dough in this bowl and cover loosely.  Sit in a warm place.  The warmer it is, the quicker your bread will rise.  When I sit mine by the pellet stove, it only takes about 45 minutes to be ready for the next step.  You want the dough to rise a good bit but not necessarily double.

Spray a loaf pan.  Take the dough out of the bowl and put on a flat surface sprinkled with flour.  Knead the bread about 4-6 times.  Shape into a loaf and put in pan.

Let rise, covered loosely, again for approximately 45 minutes.  Turn the oven to 350 degrees.   Bake for about 28-35 minutes.  When you turn the loaf over onto a cooling rack, it should sound hard on the bottom when you tap it.   I’ve had it not be done enough.  When we eat it right away, no one cares.  But, if I let it cool, they won’t eat it if it isn’t done enough. 

Sorry, I can’t find the picture of the bread I made.  I will take one the next time I make this and add it.  I usually bake this 4 times a week.  

Yummy homemade bread

I posted about my favorite bread recipe yesterday. Well, here it is all spelled out for you.

I got this from Mother Earth News.

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tbsp yeast
1/12 tbsp sea salt
6 1/2 cups flour
cornmeal

I add 3 tbsp of sugar cuz we like our bread a little sweet.
Bake at 450 for 30 minutes. I take mine out a little early. We don't like the outside real crispy.

I mixed the flour and sugar together in a large bowl. Put warm water, yeast and salt in mixer (I use my Kitchen Aid with dough hook). Let the yeast and saltwater mixture sit for about 3 minutes. Then turn on the mixer to mix yeast into water. After about 30 seconds or so, start adding flour. When all of the flour has been mixed together, dough will be pretty wet. Add to large bowl that has a lid (but leave it vented) or just cover with foil or plastic wrap. Let sit in warm place for about 3 hours. Then refrigerate for at least 3 hours. You can bake after the initial 3 hours but it is pretty wet and hard to make a loaf.

When forming the loaves, take a grapefruit sized ball and add a little flour to it so it doesn't stick to your hands. Pull the underside up in four or five sections so that the bottom of the ball is now on top. This is what you do instead of kneading the bread. This is what makes it so easy, I think. After pulling the bottom over, drop onto a baking stone with either flour or corn meal to keep it from sticking. You also want to put about a cup of water in a shallow pan under the bread. I forgot to do this today, too. I'll be lucky if this is fit to eat. LOL

Yesterday I left it sit for over 5 hours and it smelled like beer when I walked into the house. I was afraid it wasn't any good but didn't want to throw it out since I made two batches and that would be a lot of wasted ingredients. So I put it in the fridge until this morning.

Got up this morning and made two loaves. They are in the oven now and the beer smell is pretty much gone so I think it's good. The dough was pretty wet but I'm almost positive I added too much water yesterday. I didn't look up the recipe and I think I put 3 1/2 cups of water. Oops.

Here is one in the oven. As you can see, my baking stones are almost black from lots of use. If you have one that looks like this and you want it to look new again, put it in the oven while you use the clean function on your oven. It will come out looking brand new.
The bread is looking pretty flat but it usually does. I put a lot of flour on top but it just rubs off when it is done. I also add a sprinkle of sugar on top with melted butter when it is right out of the oven. I'll let you know if this batch is any good. If not, I'll have to make more tonight because we are out of bread and this is so much better than store bought.

If you make this, let me know how it turns out.

Happy Homeschooling.

A productive day

Usually Monday's are rough on me. It takes me awhile to get going after the weekend. Today has been a pleasant surprise. The kids have behaved pretty well, did the schoolwork that I gave them and are now making up songs on the keyboard.

I babysit one little boy on Mondays. He was really good today and him and my kids had a lot of fun playing hide and seek and singing.

After he left, I made dough for enough homemade bread for 8 loaves. This is a recipe I got from Mother Earth news and we all really like it. You can see it here. It is great because you can leave it in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Of course, ours won't last near that long.
This picture is from their website. I don't cook it quite this done. We like it less crispy.

I then went out to the gardens and picked cucumbers and peppers. I hope I have enough peppers to make some more pepper jelly. I made it about a month ago and we have ate most of it. It is so yummy on cream cheese with crackers. I'll have to get a red pepper to add to mine so it will be pretty. I'm wishing now I would have planted different types of pepper plants. I definitely will next year. I read somewhere that red, yellow and orange bell peppers are really green ones that have ripened more. Interesting, huh?

Hope you are having a great week. I'll post a picture of my jelly when it's done. Thanks for stopping by and God Bless.