This year I had a goal for myself. I am not a person who likes to create resolutions. I feel like they are overrated, overdone, and tend to fail by the third week of January. Instead, I create goals for myself to try to implement. I don’t want to be productive just because it’s the beginning of the year, and we’re told as a society to do so. You can have a fresh start any time of the year. Don’t wait until January 1st to choose to better yourself.
My goal for the year
My biggest goal for the year was to stop purchasing store-bought bread and instead make homemade bread. We are always looking for ways to save money, especially with the absurd prices we’re seeing on things this year. I wanted to feel like I was helping our budget as much as possible; even if it was just one item on our grocery list. I can’t milk a cow, unfortunately, and as much as I’d love to raise chickens, I don’t think we’re ready for 6 kids, chickens, a cat, and a house to care for. One goal at a time!
I started searching for recipes to try out for homemade sandwich bread first. Having so many kids, we go through more sandwich bread than I even care to share. Peanut butter and jelly and French toast are some of our favorite easy meals on days when I just don’t have the effort or desire to cook anything. I knew the basics, flour, water, yeast, and sugar. I just wasn’t sure of the ratios. I’m no chef but felt like I could really do this.
Putting the homemade bread to the test
I have been trying a few, tweaking measurements for a higher altitude, and testing cook times to best fit my oven. Finding the perfect recipe and ingredient amounts are going to take time, but I have to admit that I am really enjoying the process. I have found I prefer honey over sugar, and my kitchen runs on the cold side meaning the temperature of the water I use needs to be a little warmer to compensate for that so that the yeast can really grow.
I plan to share my favorites along the way, including other types of bread like French bread; which we turn into garlic bread on spaghetti nights! And sourdough bread, when I am finally brave enough to test out my starter- which seems to be struggling with this ridiculously cold weather we’ve had recently.
My goal by the end of the year is to have a really solid sandwich bread recipe, master sourdough, and maybe even try out making my own tortillas and other baked goods. Along with saving money, this is a great way to help control the ingredients our kids are exposed to as well. We try to avoid seed oils as much as we possibly can, and making our own foods will help a ton with this process. I’ll go more into that in another post, but for now, here’s the sandwich recipe I have been testing out this week. It is really soft, but if you leave it out uncovered for a few hours before cutting into it or bagging it up, it hardens enough for sandwiches. Good luck, though. It smells incredible, and I have a really hard time keeping my kids out of it long enough to cool!
I have not tried this recipe with hand kneading yet, only using my mixer. It should be successful either way though. If you test it out, I would love to hear what you think. Enjoy!
Easy Homemade Sandwich Bread
Makes 2 loaves
Ingredients:
2 cups of warm water (My kitchen is cold, so we make sure the water is at least 105)
1 TBPS instant yeast
¼ cup of honey
2 TBSP butter
1 ½ tsp salt
4- 5 ½ cups flour (this can vary slightly. I have found the sweet spot to be around 5 ¼ cups)
Mix together honey, warm water, and yeast and let sit for 5-10 minutes, or until the mixture becomes bubbly.
Add the melted butter, salt, and 4 ½ cups of flour to the mixer. After about 2 minutes of mixing, add the rest of the flour ¼ cup at a time. Watch the mixture closely. You want it to start pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Once it has formed a cohesive ball, cover it with a wet, warm hand towel for about an hour.
Gently punch the dough and drop it onto a well-floured countertop. Cut the mixture in half, and roll it out into a rectangle. Roll the dough up and place it into a buttered bread pan. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Cover again for another hour to let rise. These pans are the best I’ve ever found.
Once you’ve let the loaves rise for the second time, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
I like to drizzle more melted butter on top, but this isn’t completely necessary.
Cook for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting into loaves.
Looking for an update on our homemade bread journey? Click here!
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