How to Make Homemade Bread

The Western world loves bread. It's hard to find something better than the sliced version. But have you ever considered making your own bread? Doing this at home, let's say without a breadmaker but with a bread mixer, can be a deeply satisfying experience. Just imagine: It's a cold winter day and you're sitting down to a cup of hot chocolate with a slice of warm, fresh, homemade bread. Lovely, no?

In order to make bread at home, you will need the following equipment:
*An oven
*Bread loaf pans. Try 8x4x4
*Bread mixer (or a strong mixing spoon!)
*Measuring cups and spoons
*Unbleached white or whole wheat flour
*Dry yeast
*Canola oil or butter
*Honey or sugar
*Salt

With these tools and ingredients alone, you can make a very basic loaf of bread. We'll show you two recipes that take about 30 minutes of actual labor and a couple of hours of total prep time. The procedures outlined are for those with a bread mixer. If you don't have one of these, you will spend about twice as much time mixing and kneading, and you'll get more exercise, but you will still have a great experience!


BASIC WHITE BREAD (2 8x4 loaves)
*3 cups warm water
*1/3 cup oil or melted butter
*1/3 cup sugar or honey
*2 tsp. salt

Combine these and mix at low speed for 2 minutes.
*1 1/2 Tbsp. dry yeast

Add the yeast to the liquid, mixing very well again
*6-9 cups white, unbleached flour

Add flour a cup at a time, mixing between each cup. At about 6 or 7 cups in, you will have a sticky ball of dough. Keep adding flour, a small amount at a time, until it feels like an earlobe when you squeeze it. Next, turn out the dough onto a floured countertop. Knead the ball of dough for a couple minutes to even out the texture.

At this point you will have probably spent about 15 minutes on the process.

Next put the dough into a bowl that has been buttered or oiled on the inside. Cover with a clean, damp towel for about 45 minutes to let it rise for the 1st time.

When the dough has doubled in size, simply take the damp towel off and punch the dough. It will deflate satisfyingly. Turn the dough onto your floured countertop again, knead it for two minutes to even out the texture again, then divide into two equal size balls.

The easiest way to shape your dough is to roll the dough out to a fairly even rectangular shape that is about 1/2 or 3/4 of an inch thick. Then simply roll the dough up, from one side to the other. You will have an even, torpedo-shaped, smooth loaf.

Place your loaves into greased bread pans. Wait about 15 minutes, then preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit (176 Celsius). Allow the dough to rise until doubled again, then place the loaf pans carefully in your preheated oven. Set the timer to 45 minutes.

When you take your bread out of the oven, let it sit in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then remove the hot, delectable loaves carefully, placing them on a cooling rack. Twenty minutes later, you can have that hot slice of bread!

ORIGINAL PIONEER BREAD
The difference between the basic recipe above and this one is that you are going to use whole wheat flour, whey if you can get it, and you are going to allow it to sponge so it adheres better.

Your amounts are the same, except for the changes shown in the procedure below.

*Mix all liquids except about 1/2 cup of water. Add 1/4 cup of whey to liquids. Then add 4 cups whole wheat flour and mix well. Cover and let this sit for 4 hours minimum and as much as 24 hours if you want.

*In 1/2 cup of warm water, dissolve a little honey or sugar, then your yeast. Mix this into the dough that has been sitting. Mix very well. Then add as much unbleached white flour as needed to make a good ball of dough. The unbleached white flour will keep your bread from being too heavy.

When you've got a ball of dough, follow the procedures we discussed above. Then enjoy your incredible pioneer bread!

by Jared Garrett