My Favorite Bread Recipe

Sure it probably seems so much easier just to run into the grocery store and pay $2 for a loaf a bread. But I just love the feeling of creating something with my own hands and the fragrance and taste of fresh, homemade bread cannot be duplicated!

• 10 pound bag of bread flour......$3.38
• 5 pound bag of sugar................$2.68
• 4 oz. jar of yeast.......................$4.58
• 26 oz. container of salt..............$1.29

So for about $11.93 total, I'd have enough flour to make 12 batches of my bread.  That's less than $1 per batch for two smaller loaves!!

My homemade herb bread (one batch)

The time and effort involved in bread making is much less than you'd think and I want to encourage anyone to at least try it once!!  My mom taught me how to bake bread when I was very young and I remember making bread by hand from scratch all by myself as young as seven or eight.  I got my first bread machine when I was 19 and love it!  I never bake the bread in the machine, but I use it for mixing, kneading, and that first rising.  So wanna try your hand at baking your own bread?  Here is my simplest bread machine recipe.

Add these ingredients to your bread machine (be sure to follow your machine's instructions for the order of ingredients).

• 1.5 cups water
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3.5 cups bread flour
• 2.5 tsp. yeast

I select the dough cycle and start!  During the initial stirring and kneading phase I do check in on the dough. If it's too dry and flaky, I had a teaspoon of water.  If it's too sticky or watery, add 1 tablespoon flour.  Check on it again in about 5 minutes and repeat if necessary.  It should be slightly tacky to touch, but not stick to your finger.  Once your dough has the right consistency, just let the machine do the work.

My machine's dough cycle is 90 minutes.  When it completes it's dough making cycle, turn your beautiful dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead the dough by hand and work it into two nice, big balls.  Put each ball into an oiled loaf pan (I prefer glass or silicone).  

Cover the bread lightly and let it rest in a warm, draft free spot.  During cooler weather, I normally will put my oven on low (less than 200 degrees), put the bread pans in, and leave the oven door slightly ajar.  I will use my dehydrator or a warm, sunny window to let the bread rise during the hot weather.  I let it rise until it has just about doubled in size.  Depending on the temperature of the air around the bread this may take anywhere from 60 minutes to 3 hours.  It takes less than an hour in my oven as mentioned.

Once your bread has risen to about double it's original size - it's time to bake!  Bake on 350 for about 20-30 until the top of the bread is golden brown!

EAT & ENJOY!