Have you ever made homemade bread before? What a pain! All the kneading and waiting and rising and kneading and waiting. And then your bread turns out hard as a rock.
I remember the first time I made bread. I was a Jr. in high school and I asked my mom to teach me. We had a great time and I learned the basics. Through the years I have made bread here and there when I felt like being domestic and spending the entire day in the kitchen. Now with 5 active kids I don't have 4 hours to make 2 loaves of bread!
So this past summer when I needed to start cutting back in our family budget I started looking for bread recipes that wouldn't take me forever and would still taste good. I looked all over the internet and couldn't find a recipe that didn't call for some special mixer or ingredients. So I decided to go through my recipes and come up with my own.
The results have been wonderful so I am now sharing them with you.
In bowl put:
3 cups hot tap water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons Saf-Instant yeast
Use the good yeast. If you don't use this yeast don't complain to me about your bread. This is the only yeast that works and I won't use anything else.
Let your yeast get all bubbly like the photo below. This takes about 5 -10 minutes. If your yeast doesn't get bubbly at all please don't continue. Your water was probably to cold or wayyyyy to hot. Dump it out and start over.
Next add:
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup honey
3 cups whole wheat flour
3-4 cups white flour
Mix altogether and dump out and knead in about another 1 cup of flour. Now don't go right off and add all the flour and then complain to me. Different humidity, and flour will make you add more or less flour.
I grind my own wheat flour. No I don't have a fancy grinder, I wish I did, but the church does. :) In every LDS church kitchen there should be a wheat grinder for anyone to use. It has to stay at the church but I don't mind. I usually head to the church once a week and grind me some wheat. Contact your Relief Society President about the one where you live. ( you don't have to be a member of the LDS church to use the grinder. Just ask around and someone will take you to the church to use one)
Let you dough raise for about 10 minutes. Divided into 3 portions and place in well oiled bread pans. If someone can help me figure out a way to divide my dough into 3's evenly that would be great. I always have one loaf that is bigger than the rest.
Let rise again until it looks like the above picture. The amount of time will depend on how warm your house is. But don't let it over rise. I did that and your bread will be hollow. It is really hard to make peanut butter sandwiches on bread with a big whole in the middle.
Bake your bread for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Pull out of the over and rub a little butter on top while the bread is hot. Turn bread pans on their side for about 10 minutes and then remove from pans. If you try and get your bread out of the pans right away it will stick and you will be mad. If you wait just a bit with the bread resting on it sides then it comes out beautifully. I normally run a butter knife around the edges and my bread comes right out.
Yummm! I have some cooking right now. We always eat one loaf all gone the first day. Nice and hot with butter and jam. The other 2 will last a couple of days.
Some people may wonder if I am really saving money by making my own bread. By far the answer is yes. At 45 cents for 3 loaves it is well worth it.
Side note: today I made bread again and lost track of time again and let it raise to long in the pans. I was so mad I just dumped the dough out kneaded it together again and started the raising process over again.
Today's bread was the best bread I have ever made. So try letting your bread raise once for 10 minutes and then punch it down and let it raise again for 10 minutes then put it in you loaf pans. I think you will like the texture better. I sure did.
I am not sure what it is about the fencing clothes but I think it makes Ben look really handsome. The place he is going it great. They want all kids that want to learn to be able to afford it so they set their prices at $50 a month but if you can't do that they will take anything. The instructors don't get paid they are all volunteers.
Ben can go up the 3 days a week and fence if he wants. So far he is loving it.
Let your yeast get all bubbly like the photo below. This takes about 5 -10 minutes. If your yeast doesn't get bubbly at all please don't continue. Your water was probably to cold or wayyyyy to hot. Dump it out and start over.
Let you dough raise for about 10 minutes. Divided into 3 portions and place in well oiled bread pans. If someone can help me figure out a way to divide my dough into 3's evenly that would be great. I always have one loaf that is bigger than the rest.
Let rise again until it looks like the above picture. The amount of time will depend on how warm your house is. But don't let it over rise. I did that and your bread will be hollow. It is really hard to make peanut butter sandwiches on bread with a big whole in the middle.
Bake your bread for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Pull out of the over and rub a little butter on top while the bread is hot. Turn bread pans on their side for about 10 minutes and then remove from pans. If you try and get your bread out of the pans right away it will stick and you will be mad. If you wait just a bit with the bread resting on it sides then it comes out beautifully. I normally run a butter knife around the edges and my bread comes right out.
The above picture is of the team from left to right, Mitch Bouge, Jason, Matt Pack, David King, and Randy King
We all stayed in Teton Village. This is the view from the back balcony of our condo. This was a great Lotoja year and we look forward to next year.
At this time my hours are very flexible. As I start to get busier I will set days in the salon. I do cuts, color, highlights, perms, shampoo sets, and many other services. Many of my friends and family have already come to see me and I can't wait to see many more of you.
