Homemade Bread
The new year had just begun, it was freezing cold outside, too cold to bring the boys out in and I was going stir crazy looking for something my attention could grasp.
I decided I was going to learn how to make bread, it was something my son could help me pour and measure with, so I figured, heck, let’s give it a go.
With absolutely no experience ever before. I had a seemingly easy recipe to follow that was backed full of grain sugars and vegetable oils. I mixed everything up and started kneading! I was beginning to worry about the tackiness of the dough so I added one more 1⁄2 cup of flour…. And then another half cup. And one more half cup. Soon my dough was pretty much like rolling a soft bowling ball. Feeling proud that I figured out what I thought was the right consistency. I covered my dough with a towel and let my dough rise for 2 hours. When I came back to check, it looked the exact same as I had left it. As you can imagine I was confused. I had no idea why it didn’t rise. I ended up baking the hardest brick of bread I’ve ever made.
The next day I started again. It actually rose this time. So that was a huge win. By the third day I had made over 6 loaves and my last two turned out! (finally!)
I was so excited about fresh baked bread that the following week I made two more loaves to freeze. As I shut the freezer door, I turned to Jeremy and said.. “I think I’m going to stop buying bread for the year, ” he encouraged me. (I mean, what man wouldn’t encourage fresh baked bread in the house)
About 2 months later I had read about vegetable oils and the chronic inflammation they can cause. There was so much information out there that it kind of blew my mind. This was a common house hold oil in my home. I cooked with it often, and now had it in my bread.
Instantly decided my recipe will have to change and I’m going to have to figure it out, ultimately I started from ground zero with my bread again, figuring out how to make a recipe work, and have now made the perfect bread for slicing, cinnamon swirl bread, and buns! The honey gives it a slight sweet flavor that begs you to slice off one more slice. The best part is there are no refined sugars or vegetable oils!
I mean lets be honest, is there anything better than fresh baked bread? Below is the recipe, try it out and tell me what you think!
Tips
TIPS:
● My attention span is short so setting a timer for 5-7 minutes really helped me know my kneading was done, over time you really end up getting a sense of when the dough has
been worked enough
● Water temperature for the yeast is everything, you’ll want that bad boy around 110-115 degrees, too hot, you’ll kill your yeast, too cold it won’t activate
● Wait till the top of the bread is the perfect golden brown to pull out, in case my oven timing is off compared to your oven.
● Wait 20-30 minutes to cool down before slicing.
● For in-depth tutorials check out my Instagram @smithfarm1914
● Enjoy this bread with someone so you can share your “mmmm”’s together
