I’ve tried many ties in the past to make a loaf of bread, with varying degrees of fail. Most of my loaves, even when using a bread machine, turned out like hockey pucks- super dense and flat as… well, a puck. I just have not had good luck with bread at all. But after the other day’s bread sticks turning out pretty well, I decided I wanted to try again. I poked around the internet, found a recipe, used my limited bread baking knowledge to tweak it a bit, and got started.
This was the beautiful and tasty result.Image may be NSFW.
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See that pan? That’s my perfect meatloaf pan with the grease draining tray removed. It was the perfect size for this loaf of bread. And look how pretty it is when I sliced it open. I got 13 slices out of it and could have had 14 if I had sliced the first one a little thinner. The nutrition came out pretty close to that of store bought bread too.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Let’s get started!
- ¾ cup warm water
- 1 packet active dry yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 ½ tbs sugar
- 1 tbs butter
- ½ cup milk
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- Combine yeast, sugar, and ¼ cup warm water. Let sit 15 minutes until foamy.
- Add salt, butter, and milk to bowl.
- Mix in the first 2 cups of flour.
- Add more flour as needed, until dough pulls away from the bowl.
- Remove dough from bowl and knead, adding small amounts of flour until dough is soft and smooth.
- Return dough to bowl, and cover and let rise for 1 hour.
- Punch down dough. Knead.
- Place dough in a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise another 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375*. Score top of loaf with sharp knife. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
This was amazingly easy to make, with no hang-ups. It is a very plain loaf of bread, but I’m sure it could easily be dressed up with some herbs and seasonings. As it it makes a great French toast breakfast. I’m planning on freezing some of it to use later as we don’t use much bread here.
