This one is not too hard at all.  In fact, it’s super easy.  Check out the recipe:

1. 1.5 cup whole wheat flour
2. 1.5 cup white bread flour
3. .5 tsp yeast
4. 1.5 tsp salt

Put all these together in bowl. Then prepare liquids. Get out 2 cup glass measuring cup. Put 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp honey, fill up to 1 and 1/3 cup with water. Dissolve honey. Pour liquids into dry ingredients. Make a shaggy dough. You may need a little more water: like a couple tbsp. Then put some plastic wrap over bowl tightly. Let it sit in warm place for 18 hours. After that fold it on floured surface a couple times. It will be sticky. Put loose plastic wrap over it. Let sit for a couple hours. It will expand mainly outwards. Then towards the end of this rise preheat oven to 425.

Now, place a large (5qt or bigger) oven safe pyrex pot or Dutch oven or cast iron pot with lid in the oven to preheat with the oven. Once that’s ready take pot out with lid, and spray some oil spray, like Pam, in it. Place dough in the middle. You have to fold dough a little before placing in pot. Put lid on the pot, and put it in the oven. Cook 30 min with lid on and 15 min without. You may have to put a cookie tray on the rack below the rack that has the pot on it to keep the bottom of the pot from getting to hot. Once time in oven is complete remove bread and let cool at least an hour on a wire rack. There you go.

When I got married on January 3rd, 2009, I really felt like I wanted to make bread.  As result, instead of buying bread, I would bake homemade bread weekly or bi-weekly.  There is only two people in our tiny 800 sq. ft. apartment; thus, our bread consumption is meager at best.  Here is where it all began.  I read this post and felt like I should try it out.  And, to be honest, after trying to make the bread, I was impressed with the bread that came out.  It was so delicious.  It made the absolute best grilled cheese sandwich and, when toasted with butter, went perfect with a cup of English breakfast tea–great for a lazy morning.

My challenge is to bake bread instead of buying it.  I don’t want my bread to have all those preservatives, and xanthan gums, and sodium benzo-whatever.  How about just bread?  Not all that extra stuff.  It is enjoyable and relaxing to make, and it taste better. Truthfully, after you bake one loaf, and you taste the difference, you will not want to go back to store bought bread.  Try to bake your own bread for just a month, and see how much you enjoy the taste of fresh baked homemade bread.

Here is a simple white bread recipe that comes out marvelous.

For 1 Loaf of Bread (using RapidRise yeast):

1 1/4 cup milk (or water if you’d like; the milk just adds a little protein and a little fat)

1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. butter

1 package RapidRise dry yeast

3 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour

1. Put dry ingredients together in mixing bowl (i.e. sugar, salt, yeast, and 1 cup of the flour); Stir all this together

2. Place you measured liquids, including butter, in a microwave safe dish, and heat to 120 degrees F.

3. Combine the heated liquids and the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.

4. Begin Mixing :)

5. Continue to add the remaining flour 1/4 cup at a time until a good dough is formed (it won’t be sticky anymore).  If you are mixing by hand, you probably will not quite get to this point.

6. Now, place the dough on a lightly floured surface, and need the dough for 7-10 minutes.  If the dough was still sticky when you began needing, then you’ll have to keep flouring the surface as needed. –SIDE NOTE–the key to kneading is don’t be too soft on the dough: press hard, use your weight, don’t tear the dough, fold it, press it, punch it, turn it, whatever, but NO tearing, or biting :)

7.  Once kneading is sufficient, then place the dough in a lightly oiled (PAM works well) large bowl (popcorn bowls work great).  Cover the bowl with a cloth and set it in a moderate (warm is better), gust-free place. You don’t want any sudden temperature changes.

8. Let it sit for 10-20 minutes, sometimes 30, if it’s not warm enough.  The dough should be doubled in size.

9.  Punch the dough.  (I like to ball my fist up and punch really the dough really hard, kind of like I’m punching someone who stole candy from me.)  The dough will shrink back.

10.  Place the dough on a very, very lightly floured surface (you may not need any flour at all on the surface), and spread the dough out so that it forms a big rectangle, length maybe 9 inches by a width of 6 inches.  It’s really just an estimate.  But, basically, the width should be an inch or so shorter than the length of a loaf pan.

11.  With the dough spread out, start at one long end and roll the dough up tightly.

12.  Place the seam on the bottom.

13.  Fold the sides towards the bottom.

14. Grease a loaf pan.

15.  Place rolled up dough in the loaf pan and cover with cloth.

16.  Let rise for an hour or so.

17.  45 minutes in to the rising, preheat oven to 375 degrees.

18.  After an hour of rising, the dough should be doubled in size.

19.  Place the dough in preheated oven on middle rack.

20.  Cook for 30 minutes.  When it is done, the internal temperature should be 170+ degrees.

21.  Remove the bread from the oven and take it immediately out of the loaf pan (the pan is way too hot for the bread to be in it any longer).

22.  Put the bread on a wire rack, or sometimes I just place it on a cutting board.

23.  Wait a little before you eat it, it will be really hot :)

24.  If you want to cut it into slices, wait at least 2 hours to let it cool.

Remember this: the bread has no preservatives, so it will not last as long sitting out on the counter.  Thus, you’ll have to preserve it by placing it in the refrigerator or freezer.  I, usually like to double this recipe and place one loaf in the freezer and the other in the refrigerator.  That way the bread keeps for several weeks, and I can use it as I need it.

I hope you enjoy this recipe.