Baking Bread

One of my favorite things to make is homemade bread.  I love baking in general - cookies, cakes, cupcakes, pastries, breads and any other kind of sweet I can find a recipe for.  Ever since the birth of my daughter I've had to cut several food items out of my diet; dairy happens to be one of them.  So I scoured around for a good bread recipe, made a few changes, and viola - a sandwich bread that my family and I love to eat.

Before I go into the process though allow me to make one recommendation - do not start the process when you know you have a tired baby who will need to go down for her nap within the next 20 minutes.  Bread making should be very relaxing and a tired, crying baby is anything but.

Ingredients:
1 cup hot water (hot out of the tap is fine)
1 T sugar
2 T yeast
2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup applesauce
1 T salt
9 cups whole wheat flour

Put the sugar in the bowl and add the hot water and then the yeast.  For those of you who have never baked bread, yeast is alive and needs something to activate it.  Normally that ingredient is milk or sugar.  It is also important to make sure that the water isn't too hot or you will kill the yeast.  If the yeast starts to sink into the water in clumps it's dead and you need to start over.  Okay - back to baking.  Let the water, sugar and yeast sit there for 10 minutes.

While I'm waiting for the 10 minutes to pass I assemble the rest of the ingredients:

After 10 minutes stir the yeast mixture.  You should see little bubbles - this is a sign that the yeast is active.  No bubbles, dead yeast.  Now, if you're using old yeast you may only get a few bubbles but the yeast is still working, your bread just may not rise as much.

Add the applesauce, honey, water and salt and stir. 

Then add in the 9 cups of flour one cup at a time.  Once the mixture gets too hard to stir you'll need to mix with your hands.  When this is the case it's wise to measure out the rest of the flour you need in a separate bowl, otherwise your flour container will end up covered in dough - I speak from experience.

Sorry - no picture.  Lil' Miss started to cry and I added the flour as fast as I could.

Knead the dough for 4-5 minutes.  Most people recommend taking the dough out of the bowl and placing it onto a lightly floured surface.  However, it's just as effective, and definitely easier, to just knead the dough in the bowl.  Also, you may or may not use all the four in the bowl - just work on kneading it in.  Once you're done kneading the dough, place it in a slightly oiled bowl (flip the dough over once), cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm area for an hour. 

The dough should double in size: 

After an hour, punch the dough down, divide into to pieces and place in loaf pans.  Most people, at this point, will tell you to first shape the dough like a loaf and place it into pans that have been sprayed with a non-stick cooking spray.  I have yet to master this, so I just plop the dough into the oiled pans and make it fit. 

Then cover it with a damp cloth and place in a warm spot for another hour.  The dough will double in size again. 

Place the pans in the oven and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.  Dump out of pans and allow to cool.

 

Now, if you're wondering why the one on the left is smaller allow me to share.  To put it in layman's terms, I am incapable of separating the dough into two equal pieces so one is always smaller than the other.  I suppose I could take the time to master the skill of making them equal sizes, but it tastes just as good no matter it's size so I'm not too fussed about it.

And there you have it - bread that is quick and simple.  Oh, and while it's still warm, slice yourself a piece and add some butter to it - oh so good!