Homemade bread is so yummy!

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I never thought I’d be into making things homemade

But the more I check the ingredients on labels, the more I want to try to make things from scratch. 5 years ago, I was pretty clueless when it came to being healthy. I didn’t even think people needed probiotics unless they had a yeast infection. I know better now. In the last 4 years is when I really started looking at labels and learning about ingredients that were not only not necessary, but caused more harm than good to our bodies. I recently started making homemade uncrustables and thought… maybe I should make our own bread. So…here we are! Though I couldn’t figure out how to cut it thin enough for sandwiches, so I’ll have to keep experimenting. For now.. this homemade bread is so yummy!

Ingredients

  • 2 – cups of warm water
  • 1 – Tbsp fast acting dry yeast (I used Bellarise)
  • 1/4 – cup granulated sugar
  • 2 – tsp salt
  • 2  – Tbsp canola oil (or you can use melted butter)
  • 4 to 5.5 – cups of All Purpose Flour (I used King Arthur)

Steps

Add water, fast acting yeast, sugar, salt, oil, and 3 cups of flour to your bowl. Mix to combine. I used my late mother in love’s KitchenAid standing mixer.

Add another cup of flour… this is where things got a little messy for me.

Add more flour, in 1/2 cup increments, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Once it looks ready, set the mixer to medium speed and let is run for 5 more minutes.

After 5 minutes the should be a little sticky, but not too sticky.

Move your dough to a large bowl that you have sprayed with cooking spray. Flip the dough so that the whole ball is covered in some of the spray from the bowl.

And then you wait…

Cover it with a towel and wait 1.5 hours for it to rise. It should double in size.

Next it’s time to punch the dough to remove the air bubbles. The kids helped me do this step.

Spray 2 loaf pans with cooking spray, and add parchment paper to the bottom if you really want to make sure your loaves will come out of the pan. Divide your dough in half and roll into logs to place into pans.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place loaves on middle rack to cook. My oven is a convection oven so I left the racks in the middle. Bake bread for 30 minutes, then test it by tapping on the top with a spatula, it should be firm and sound hollow.

Tilt the loaves out of then pans and set them on a cooling rack. Brush butter on the tops and let them cool for 15 minutes before slicing.

You can store them at room temp for 2 to 3 days, or up to 5 days in the fridge.

Though I though this could be used as sandwich bread for my kid’s PB&J sandwiches, it was more like a super soft and fluffy french roll! I had mine with some of my mom’s tuna casserole recipe! So yummy!