You Can Bake Bread!
If you have never had the chance to make delicious home made bread, now is the perfect time. Many of us are home all day now because of the pandemic in our world. Why not make your family smile with a loaf of home baked bread for those lunchtime sandwiches or that breakfast toast? The recipe I am sharing with you has been passed down for a couple of generations in my family. Each one of us has modified a bit to fit our tastes or use the ingredients that are available.
It takes some time to complete a batch of bread so give yourself three or four hours if this is your first time to make bread. Now this does not mean you will be working on the recipe that long, at least an hour to hour and a half will be rising time. You can get some of your other things done while the dough rises, and you can do other things while it is baking. But you do need to be home the whole time.
Some Variables for Delicious Bread
There are a few variables that I will talk about. Bread dough is actually very forgiving. You can substitute some of the ingredients with others and still have some very delicious home made bread. We will talk about different types of shortenings that can be used as well as different flours or combinations of flour that work well:
- First of all, the recipe calls for Active Dry Yeast. This comes in little packets or a small jar. If all you can find is Instant Rapid Rise yeast that will work just fine. It will rise a bit faster so keep an eye on the dough.
- Second, Unsalted Butter is the shortening of choice in baking for me. If you want to use vegetable or canola oil instead that will work just as well.
- I use Molasses as sweetener, but you can use Brown Sugar, Honey or granulated sugar. Each will change the flavor just a bit. The sugar helps feed the yeast and makes the dough rise faster.
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Flour is the major ingredient in bread dough. I use a mixture of Whole Wheat and unbleached bread flour because I have found that 100% Whole Wheat is pretty heavy for my family. Bread flour has more gluten than all purpose flour but they can be interchanged without much difference. The bread flour will create a finer more moist texture. For a little different flavor add 1 Cup of buckwheat flour to your mix.
Gluten is Important
With some experience in making bread you will begin to try adding new things to modify the recipe here and there. The most important thing for good bread is the gluten in the flour. The kneading process activates that gluten and gives the bread the chewy texture that is so wonderful. Wheat flours have gluten, therefore you need to have wheat as the primary flour in your bread.
Is Your Bread Done?
I bake the bread at a higher temperature for the first 30 minutes. This stops the yeast from continuing to rise. Your bread will rise a bit more for the first 5 min. or so when you put it in the oven. I decrease the temperature for the last 10-15 minutes so the crust will not over brown before the bread is baked in the center. Thump on the top of the loaf like a watermelon and if it sounds hollow the bread is done.
Delicious Home Made Bread Recipe
Whole Wheat Bread
Ingredients
- 2 Pkts Active Dry Yeast
- ½ C Warm Water 110°
- ¼ C unsalted Butter melted
- 3 C Warm Water
- 1½ Tbs. Salt
- ½ C Molasses I prefer Black Strap Molasses
- 4 C Whole Wheat Flour
- 3-4 C Unbleached Bread Flour
Instructions
- Stir the Dry Yeast into the ½ Cup of warm water until disolved. It should start to bubble up so use a bowl or measuring cup that holds at least one cup of liquid.
- In a large mixing bowl Mix the 3 Cups warm water, melted butter, molasses and salt. Add the yeast mixture and 2 Cups of the Whole Wheat flour and mix well.
- Add the rest of the Whole Wheat flour and mix well, the dough will get very thick and sticky. Add the Unbleached Bread Flour a little at a time mixing in with each addition.
- When the dough gets to stiff to mix with a spoon turn it out onto a floured surface and start to knead it. Keep adding flour a little bit at a time and knead it in until the dough is smooth and springs back when you make an indention with a finger.
- Wash out your large mixing bowl with hot water, dry it and oil the inside so the dough will not stick to it. Put the dough in the bowl and leave in a warm place covered with a tea towel. Let it rise double its size 30-40 minutes.
- Prepare 3 loaf pans by spraying with non stick spray or carefully oiling the insides of the pans.
- Preheat oven to 375°
- Punch the dough down in the bowl then turn out onto oiled surface and knead just enough to get the large bubbles out of it.
- Divide dough into thirds. Form each piece of dough into a loaf and place into the pans.
- Cover with towel again and let rise double. 20-30 Minutes
- Bake at 375° for 30 minutes then reduce the temperature to 350° and bake 10-15 minutes longer. Bread is done when you tap on the top and it sounds hollow.
- Remove from oven, take bread out of pans and cool on wire rack. Slice and enjoy.
When you remove the bread from the oven you can brush the top with a little butter. This will keep the crust soft rather than crispy. It also creates a pretty brown even color to the top of your delicious home made bread.
I hope you enjoy baking a batch of bread. If you enjoy baking try some of my other recipes like Cinnamon Rolls. Please leave me a comment below about how it worked for you, I love to hear from my readers.
