I’ve always wanted to bake my own bread for my family, and I mean like consistently. There’s just something that is satisfying about serving your family 100% homemade food that I just enjoy doing. Maybe its from having two grandmothers in my life who cooked a lot, maybe its just how I’m naturally evolving as I get older, either way, it impelled me to attempt working with yeast.
I had tried in the past, but now looking back at those attempts, while the bread tasted right, it didn’t rise right because the yeast wasn’t alive. When the recipe says that if its alive, it will be very foamy after 5-10 minutes , they mean very visibly foamy.
Ingredients:
- 2 Cups Warm water
- 1 tbsp yeast (or 1 packet)
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 2 tsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 4-5.5 cups of flour (all purpose or bread)
Directions:
In a large bowl or stand mixer, add warm water, yeast and a pinch of sugar. Let this sit for 5-10 minutes. When you come back to it, it should be nice and foamy at the top. If there is no foam, your yeast may be dead.
Add the remaining sugar, salt, oil and 3 cups of the flour. Mix until incorporated. Add another cup of flour and mix. Add 1/2 cup of flour at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The dough should be smooth and elastic, and somewhat sticky on your fingers.
Mix the dough on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, or by hand 5 -8 minutes.
Grease a bowl with oil or spray and add your dough. Cover and let rise for 1.5. hours.
Spray 2 loaf pans. Punch your dough down to get the air out. Divide dough into two logs. Add to loaf pans and cover, letting rise another 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cook bread 30-33 minutes. Loaves should sound hollow when you tap on them. Overturn bread onto a wire rack and brush with butter.
