In the Kitchen: Homemade Bread

First of all – this is my 400th post, according to my WordPress stats. Holy cow!

Anyway, back to the real news – I made bread this weekend! Go, me!

“Bake Bread” has been on my 101 in 1001 list from the beginning, and looking at the list again made me realize just how much I wanted to try this. But there was a catch – I didn’t want to use any fancy (expensive) ingredients or tools. No fancy flours, no fancy mixers or processors. I had to have almost everything in my kitchen.

So I did a little Googling, and found this recipe: Super Easy Bread for Beginners. Perfect!

Best of all, the ingredients were all in my cabinet. The only thing I needed to buy was yeast. (OK, and Crisco, because I didn’t have that either, but I’m guessing most people do):

I dissolved the yeast, mixed in the wet ingredients, then added the flour. Then it was time to knead! I had no idea how to do this correctly, but a quick peak at an instructional video helped. Basically, you hold the dough with your left hand and push the dough away from you with the heel of your right:

Then, you fold the dough over onto itself:

Then turn it a quarter turn, and repeat. Over and over again. When you’re done, the dough should be (according to the recipe) “soft and smooth, not sticky to the touch.” Like this:

From there, it rose in a bowl for 3 hours, until it was time to be punched down:

This was my favorite part.

Another gentle knead and shaping into loaf  shape, it was into a loaf pan for a second rise of 30 minutes. Then it was ready to bake:

It smelled SO GOOD in the house while it was baking. The finished product didn’t taste too bad, either!

Yes, I realize this is the same picture as the top of the post. I’m THAT PROUD.

Now, this is the most basic, white bread recipe out there, I’m sure. But it’s really made me curious about other recipes, particularly for wheat breads with a little more texture.

Yup, that’s right, I want to bake more bread. I think this new kitchen is magical, because I actually want to spend more time in it!

Do you have a favorite bread recipe? I’d love to hear about it, especially if fancy tools aren’t required (I may be willing to branch out on ingredients, though!). Feel free to leave a link  in the comments!