The Best of Bread

posted in: Cooking | 0

Fresh Bread

Baking a good loaf of bread is a wonderful skill that can save you some serious cash.   I go through 1/2  lb of yeast and 25 lbs worth of flour every week to feed the 7 of us that are currently in residence,of course this still varies with the older girls coming and going.   Here’s a basic bread recipe that I use to make bread, hot dog and hamburger buns, pizza crust, etc.

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.

In a very large bowl add:

1 quart hot water
Stir or whisk in enough flour to make a soft goopy mix like thick soup.

Add:
4 teaspoons of salt
4 tablespoons of oil
4 tablespoons of sugar, honey or other sweetener
4 tablespoons of yeast (buy it by the pound to save money)

Continue to whisk all ingredients together until well blended.  Then switch to a heavy-duty spoon.  Keep stirring and add flour until the mixture forms  a ball and it’s thick enough to turn out onto a floured table top.  Knead in flour until it’s no longer sticky and has a nice elastic feel.  At this point you can let it rise or form into the desired shapes.

Makes 4 pizza crusts, or
two pizza pans covered with hot dog or hamburger buns, or
2-4 loaves of bread depending on the size of your pans, or
1 9×12 pan of rolls with a little extra for 1 loaf of bread, or
3 nice loaves of french bread.

I bake almost everything including bread at 350 degrees.   Small loaves take 25-30 minutes and large loaves take about 40 minutes.

For the French bread I bake it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Make sure the oven is preheated.

Hope this works well for you. Enjoy!

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