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Homemade Bread: Cheap, Delicious, Healthy, and Easier Than You Think 284comments
Over the last year, I’ve gradually moved more and more towards making my own food at home. There are several reasons for this: it tastes better, it reduces preservative intake, it’s more nutritious, and it’s often substantially cheaper than what you find in the store. It does take time, but once you get used to it, most food preparation doesn’t take much more time than going to the store, buying it, taking it home, popping it out of the package, and following the directions.
Breadmaking is a prime example of this phenomenon. Homemade bread is substantially tastier than store-purchased bread, isn’t laden with preservatives, is very inexpensive to make, and doesn’t take all that much time, either.
The Problems With Industrial Bread
Most people in the United States today view the bread purchased at the supermarket as what bread should be. The actual truth is that the bread you buy in the supermarket has the texture and substance that it has for one reason and one reason alone: so that it can be made on an industrial scale and not grow “old” on the shelf at your supermarket.
There are two big explanations for this. The industrial scale process is designed to maximize profit while still producing an edible loaf of bread on the table. This is done by using an excessive amount of yeast in order to create lots of air bubbles in the bread, hence the “light” texture of store-purchased bread. It also allows for the use of lower-quality grains because of this yeast abundance, thus the bread is far from nutrient-rich. In the United States, most recipes are trade secrets, but in the United Kingdom, the standard recipe, known as the Chorleywood Bread Process, is widely known. The goal of this process is to make a loaf of bread as cheaply as possible, foregoing flavor, nutrition, and texture along the way.
The other bothersome part of industrial breadmaking is the appearance of a healthy dose of preservatives. These preservatives are there solely to extend the shelf life of the bread, again reducing costs for the manufacturer. Every time you eat a piece of store-purchased bread, you’re getting a healthy dose of preservatives with each bite.
Take a look at the ingredient list from a loaf of Home Pride butter top honey wheat bread, a fairly standard store-purchased loaf in my area. I bolded some of the ingredients.
Enriched wheat flour (flour, barley malt, ferrous sulfate (iron), “B” vitamins (niacin, thaimine mononitrate (B1), riboflavin (B2), folic acid)), water, sweetener (high fructose corn syrup or sugar), yeast, wheat bran, whole wheat flour, wheat gluten, molasses. Contains 2% or less of: soybean oil, salt, sweet dairy whey, butter (cream, salt, enzymes), maltodextrin, honey, corn syrup, calcium sulfate, soy flur, dough conditioners (may contain: dicalcium phosphate, calcium dioxide, sodium stearoyl lactylate, ethoxylated mono and diglycerides, mono and diglycerides, and/or datem), yeast nutrients (may contain: ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, calcium carbonate, monocalcium phosphate, and/or ammonium phosphate), cornstarch, wheat starch, vinegar, natural flavor, beta carotene (color), enzymes, calcium propionate (to retain freshness), soy lecithin.
That’s what a slice of store-purchased bread contains.
How to Make Your Own Tasty Homemade Bread, Easily and Cheaply
What I’ve found is that many people are simply intimidated by the seemingly complex and work-intensive process of making bread. It seems difficult and loaded with steps and significant work.
In fact, bread is quite easy to make at home, and you only need a few staple ingredients to make a simple loaf. Here’s exactly how to make a delicious loaf at home from scratch.
What you see on the table there is every ingredient and piece of equipment that you need to make a loaf of bread (except the oven). Nothing complicated at all, just basic ingredients that you can often get very inexpensively at your local grocery store. In fact, the ingredients on that table (except for the yeast) is enough to make several loaves of bread.
Here’s the equipment you need…
One large mixing bowl A second one is useful, but optional - you can get by with one if you’re willing to wash it in the middle of the process.
One spoon You need a spoon to stir the dough.
One measuring cup A 1/4 or 1/2 cup measuring cup will do the job.
One measuring spoon A one-teaspoon measurer will be just perfect.
One bread pan Obviously, to bake the bread in.
One hand towel This is just to cover the bread dough as it rises so it doesn’t get drafts or dust or anything on it.
That’s all you need, and it’s all stuff that’s pretty common in most kitchens.
Now, for the food ingredients…
1/4 cup milk
5 teaspoons sugar (or 1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoons salt
5 teaspoons butter (or 1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 package active dry yeast (you can get yeast near the flour at your local grocery store)
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups flour (get unbleached white for your first attempt)
Corn starch or nonstick cooking spray (just to prevent the bread from sticking to the bowl or pan)
That’s all you need for homemade bread, period. There are some neat things you can do with added ingredients, which I’ll talk about later, but all you need is that stuff. Nothing complicated or “secret” or confusing at all.
Ordinarily when baking bread, I would mix the dough with my KitchenAid stand mixer, but making bread is easy enough that this is just a convenience, not a requirement by any means. Basically, instead of doing the kneading and stirring described below, I just flip a switch and this machine does it for me.
OK, let’s get started. First, you should warm up the bowl - the best way to do that is to just fill it with hot water, then dump out the hot water, leaving the bowl rather warm. Then, mix up the yeast according to the directions on the packet. Usually, it will say something along the lines of “add a cup of warm water to the yeast and stir.” What you’ll end up with is some tan-colored water with some bubbles in it, as shown above. You should stir this until there are no lumps in the yeast.
Melt the butter in the microwave, then add it, the milk, the sugar, and the salt to the yeast liquid and stir it up until everything looks the same (a very light tan liquid). Then add two cups of flour to the mix - don’t add the rest yet. Your bowl should look something like what’s shown above, where I have the spoon on board ready to stir.
Start stirring, and then add the flour about 1/4 cup at a time every minute or so. It will stick to the spoon big time at first - don’t worry about it. Keep stirring and adding flour until the dough is still slightly sticky, but it doesn’t stick to your hands in any significant way. Also, it should largely clean the sides of the bowl, leaving just a thin layer of floury stuff. It’ll look something like the above.
Now comes the fun part: kneading. Take a bit of flour between your hands and then rub them together over the top of an area on the table where you’re going to knead the dough. Do this a few times until there’s an area on the table lightly covered in flour. Then grab the dough ball out of the bowl, slap it down on the table, and start beating on it. Do this for ten minutes. Just take the dough, punch it flat, then fold it back up into a ball again, and repeat several times. I also like to take it in my hands and squeeze and twist it.
When the ten minutes are up, shape it into a ball (like shown above), then either clean up the bowl you were using before or get out another bowl. Either coat the inside lightly with corn starch or nonstick cooking spray, depending on your preference, then put the ball of dough inside the bowl.
Put a cloth over the bowl and sit it somewhere fairly warm for an hour. If you have a warming area on your stove top, that’s a great place to put it - set the warming area on as low as it will go, as I’m doing in the picture above. This is a good time to clean everything else and put the stuff away, but leave the flour out and the floured area on your table untouched.
Here’s what the dough looks like before rising…
… and then an hour later after rising, still in the bowl…
It should be roughly double the size that it was before, but don’t sweat it too much if it’s larger or smaller than that, as long as it rose at least some amount. Punch the dough down (three or four good whacks will cause it to shrink back down to normal), then lay the dough out on the floured area and spread it out in a rectangle shape, with one side being roughly the length of the bread pan and the other side being about a bread pan and a half long.
You may need to put a bit more flour on it and on the table to prevent sticking. Then, roll it up! The roll should be roughly the same size as the bread pan, as shown below.
Tuck the ends of the roll underneath, with the “under” side being where the seam is. Then spray the bread pan down with nonstick cooking spray (or coat it with cornmeal) and put the loaf inside of the pan.
Cover that loaf up with the towel, put it back where it was before, and wait another hour. This is a good time to clean everything up, then go do something else fun. The loaf should raise some more:
Put that loaf in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) for thirty minutes. When it’s done, pull it out and immediately remove it from the pan to cool. It’ll look something like this, hopefully.
Let it cool down completely before slicing.
This bread will make mind-blowing toast. Seriously, pop a slice in the toaster, get it golden brown, and spread a bit of butter or margarine on it. Truly, truly sublime.
On Beyond the Basic White Loaf
If you get into making your own bread (and why not? It’s inexpensive, tasty, and healthy), you’ll eventually want to start experimenting. Here are some tips I’ve learned over the last year or so.
Different flours work differently. If you try making a rye bread or a whole wheat bread, you’ll discover the flour has different properties. Just stick with adding it slowly to the bowl until it’s just barely not sticking to your hands, and you’ll be fine. Whole wheat flour, for instance, generally requires about half a cup less flour than white flour to reach the right point.
For a delicious Italian bread, replace the salt with garlic salt and before you start stirring, add in some Italian seasonings, like oregano and rosemary - or an Italian seasoning mix.
You can easily double this recipe and make two loaves at once. The time investment is virtually the same and you get twice the bread.
Eventually, you’ll start really experimenting. Making pizza dough from scratch is similarly easy, as are cinnamon rolls. I’ve reached the point where I feel confident making most bread recipes in the oven (except for sourdough loaves, which always seem to turn out wrong).
What’s the take home? Baking homemade bread is a very worthwhile thing to try. It’s inexpensive, healthy, and teaches you a lot about how to cook at home. Best of all (for me, anyway), it makes mindblowingly good toast - I love to start off my day with a slice of toast made from homemade bread and a cup of tea.
Comments
Nice job. We’re big homemade bread fans in our household. It’s a fun activity. We do try to mix it up - apple and walnut bread, soda bread, wholewheat bread - because frankly, if we only made yeasty bread every week, I’d never eat anything else!
And don’t forget the joy of baking your own bread, the relaxation that it brings and the feeling of accomplishment when it’s baked.
If I could just find a decent oven for baking that would fit in my tiny one-bedroom apartment.
Your posts are so descriptive and detailed, just awesome. My family buys a lot of bread so this would be awesome if I can make my bread look like that. I’m definitely going to try this for thanksgiving. I’m also attempting a turkey, can you do a writeup on frugal turkey preparation? :)
Trent - we are on the same wavelength - I am eating a slice this very minute, just out of the oven (yeah, it kind of ruins the loaf to cut it when it’s so hot, but I couldn’t help it). Yum! My usual recipe is about half unbleached white flour, and the other half 3:1 whole wheat & rye (no carraway). I make 4 loaves for the week, most Sundays. The KitchenAid machine rocks!
If you can buy your yeast in bulk you will save a ton of money.
My bread is cheaper than the artisanal loaves at the bakery. There are a thousand ways to make bread–when it’s fresh and warm it’ll beat anything you can buy. I’ve been making bread off and on for years. These days, I usually stick to the Big 4 ingredients: flour (mostly whole grains), water, salt, and leavening (usually sourdough starter).
Two words ‘cooking blog’.
Where is it Trent?
If this looks like too much money and time just buy a breadmaker. A couple of hundred dollars and you can wake up to the smell of fresh baked bread every morning!
I love baking my own bread. I buy one store bread (because my family has been duped into thinking this is the only kind of bread), and if we need more bread that week I make some. Saves a trip to the store and I am slowly converting them. Speaking of varieties of bread - I’m hungry for chocolate bread now.
I’d suggest a second rise and punch. It improves the flavor and quality of the bread.
Trent if you are buying the separate packages of yeast you are paying much more to make your great looking bread than is necessary. If you have a GFS or BJ’s, Sam’s or Costco around, you can get a whole POUND of yeast for $2.99. It comes in a package that feels like a brick but is in fact the same yeast in those little packets. Keep some of it the freezer and some in the fridge. Also you could simplify the dough making process up considerably my using a cheap breadmaker on the dough cycle. After the machine has done it’s magic all you have to do is punch it down and let it have it’s second rise.Then bake!
If I had the yeast in the house, I’d make this right now. I can almost taste it.
Oh, and totally Dugg because it has hot PICS.
http://digg.com/health/Homemade_Bread_Cheap_Delicious_Healthy_and_Easy_PICS
I do buy yeast on a larger scale, but I used a packet for this article because I’m (obviously) targeting people who may not have done this before.
As for a bread machine, I’ve never had a loaf out of one that really made me happy.
Trent, I only use the bread machine to make the dough. Cooked in the machine is just not the same. I hate the hole and the upright shape of the loaf. Great article!
homemade bread really owns! Store bought bread is very very different in australia to america, but just as bad for you.
This book here (the bread book) by linda collister is REALLY awesome for bread makers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585740578?tag=onejourney-20
Try letting your bread rise in the oven (not turned on yet, of course). Add a pan of hot, steaming water and you have a draft free, warm place for the yeast to do their thing!
I make a loaf or two every week!
I’ve made my own bread many times and love it just like everyone else. My only complaint is that the loaf gets nearly rock hard in only about a days time even if I ziploc it and wrap it up. Now I know this is due to the lack of preservatives, but I was just wondering if anyone had tips for longer periods of freshness.
Nice post.
I finally got my own copy of “Beard on Bread” and just made my first loaf today! What timing!!
The kneading is also good stress relief!
How long does a loaf last?? Andy said his gets hard after a day…seems like alot of work for very little time to eat it. As a single, busy student and professional, I need to find food that 1) minimizes cost and time, 2) maximizes health, and 3) isn’t in huge portions (only one mouth to feed–my own). this pretty much eliminates most cooking recipes, is hard to do, and means I get alot of cheap veggie takeout and “healthy” frozen dinners. …most of my bread gets thrown out ’cause I can’t eat the whole loaf before it goes stale (usually 2 weeks), and the bread I get from the deli doesn’t freeze well.
making bread seems like a fun project, though!
Beautiful! I love to make bread, and my method is very similar to yours.
One of my fondest childhood memories is making bread with my Mom. She used to let me take out my frustrations during the kneading process - I was allowed to pretend that the dough was the neighbourhood bully, and she encouraged me to wail away, punching with my tiny little four year old fists. It was highly therapeutic.
As a side note .. it’s blasphemous to use anything but real butter on homemade bread. :)
Andy if you use a recipe with milk as the liquid or dry milk in the recipe the loaf stays fresh about three days.
Does anyone know where to get cheap yeast in NYC? We have no Sam’s, Costco, BJ’s or GFS (whatever those last 2 are). I love the taste of homemade bread, and the process of making it, but in the city, the costs are actually prohibitive. Yeast is the main problem.
Also, Sense and Andy make a good point–how long does a loaf last? Since we make bread infrequently, my family tends to gobble up a homemade loaf in a day or 2. If we were to make it regularly, though, I’d like to know if it would last longer (without having to freeze).
Thanks for the tip Diane I’ll give it a try next time I make some bread.
Imelda, unless you are short on freezer space, that is actually a good option. If you let it cool completely and then slice it before freezing, it is so handy to be able to get out a few slices. It thaws so quickly that it isn’t a problem to make sandwiches with it, and it tastes very fresh and wonderful. One just doesn’t want to store it in the freezer for months. Ours is only in there for a week, tops. My grandmother used to cut hers with an electric knife (where did that knife go, I wonder?). And if you can’t find bulk yeast in the city I will have to bring you some the next time I come down!
Although I used to omit sugar and fat in my bread, I recently read in one of the King Arthur Flour cookbooks that those ingredients are important for the development of the dough. Honey and olive oil seem to prolong the freshness of the loaf a bit. Haven’t tried milk lately, Diane - good idea.
So if one does not use yeast packets and instead buys it in bulk, how much yeast is in this recipe?
Off topic:
Trent, you need a way to subscribe to comments on an individual posts. There are a lot of times that I want to continue reading what others have to say and would love for the comments to be in my RSS feed.
We got a bread machine at a thrift shop for $5. We’ve gotten it to work pretty well for us. Our daughter has food allergies so we know exactly what goes into the bread when we make it.
It definitely isn’t as good as doing it the old-fashioned way, though.
Great post! I have been making my own bread for about a year now and have to say that it tastes so much better than the commercial stuff, is healthier for you, and you can make whatever kind you like. From sourdough or wheat to dill or rye bread, you can make the bread match the type of sandwich. Not to mention it is dirt cheap.
This is a great post, but if you don’t want to do the kneading and you’ve got the time, try this recipe:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html
Explained here:
Silver there are 2 1/2 tsps in a yeast packet or so I’ve been told. I usually put in 3 and it turns out fine.
Imelda I know you can order yeast in bulk from King Arthur flour Company. A great company by the way. Google them!
This is great. I love stuff like this. I will definitely try making some later this week.
If you’re still using commercially made flour, the nutritive value of your bread is still near nil.
Look for whole grain stone ground flour. The ingredients should be: whole grain wheat (or whatever grain you prefer)
Stone ground means it doesn’t go through steel rolling mills, which get hot enough to essentially destroy any nutrients that might be in the grain.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with HFCS. Sugar is sugar is sugar, and it’s always in bread. The only real problem is that they put into EVERYTHING you buy these days, and way too much of it!
Oh and I hate to disagree with a PP, but my store-bought bread does not last indefinitely without getting moldy. I just threw out a loaf today that was moldy, it was bought at Safeway 10 days ago.
That being said, I love home made bread and have a bread maker from Costco that’s lasted us nearly 15 years!
The NY Times had an article on “No-Knead Bread” for those who want something even easier: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7D6113FF93BA35752C1A9609C8B63
If the link doesn’t work, just search for “No Knead Bread”. Very little yeast, but a long rise time. Would work great for people who work days and can’t spend 2-3 hours in the evening for bread to rise.
-MK
Sounds good to me. I actually found this other recipe in a forum, claiming to be made for 11 cents a loaf. I assume you can make it without a bread machine as well. Its long and I haven’t made it, but here it is:
“Here is the recipe for a two pound loaf that all who try it state that it is the best of the best!
I CAN MAKE THIS FOR $.11/LOAF!
This is our favorite bread recipe for several years running. It never gets tiring.
I made a loaf last night and it is over half gone. About a whole nickel’s worth.
Simple, too! Ingredients listed in order… T. = Tablespoon t. = teaspoon - all measurements are level.
2 - T. dark brown sugar — packed (I am always generous with the sugar…I can control the rise with salt.)
1½ to 1¾ - T. high quality Olive oil (Aw, heck, just use two short Tablespoons, Olive oil’s good for you.)
12 - oz. filtered water* (I use Britta) * Microwave the water for 90 seconds and use it to rinse the oil from the Tablespoon as they are both added to the pan. I start with room-temp water.
1½ to 1¾- t. salt (Salt is pretty much the key to consistency as far as how much the loaf will rise.)
1 - cup Whole wheat flour (I prefer stone-ground, but commercial is probably just as good.)
3 - cups enriched white flour (not necessary to use the more expensive “bread” flour.)
1¾ - t. dry yeast (I get it from Sam’s or Costco in the 2-lb. size and refrigerate it for year(s)) Might also be possible to use the yeast packets but they’d be more expensive.
Press the standard (default) bake button and let ‘er rip.
1. Note — on my machine (an Oster model 5821), it is necessary to scrape the small clumps of flour from the sides of the pan about 3 - 4 minutes into the start of the first mix cycle.
2. Note — for a softer crust, this loaf must sit undisturbed for about a three hour cool-down after the normal finish of the baking and cool-down cycle of the machine. I’ve even left it for several hours (like ’till you get home from work or overnight).
3. Note — this makes the world’s best toast.
4. Note — please don’t use margarine on this bread/toast - use Land ‘O Lakes butter, or it’s equivalent.
I call this my whole-wheat-light bread recipe and by default, it uses the normal white-bread bake cycle.”
Further to Stu’s comment about differences in American and Australian breads, I was amaezed at all the extra artificial horrors in American bread - especially all the added sugars: high fructose corn syrup or sugar, molasses, maltodextrin, honey, corn syrup. Not only are the grains in bread highly processed carbs, which mess up your insulin levels and get converted to fat, even moreso are sugars!
By comparison, here is the recipie for a bread with fruit in it (sweeter than normal bread) from one of Australia’s mainstream bakers, Tip Top:
“Ingredients:
Wheat Flour, Fruit Mix (22%) (Sultanas [12.5%],
Currants [6%], Citrus Peel [1%], Fruit Sugars,
Barley Malt Extract), Water, Baker’s Yeast, Gluten, Sugar, Vinegar, Mixed Spice, Soy
Flour, Canola Oil, Salt, Emulsifiers (481, 472e), Vitamin (Thiamin).
Contains Wheat, Barley and Soy.”
Even though there is less crap in there, still we have undeirable things like canola oil and that ubiquitous waste-product, soy, with its female-hormone-disrupting and thyroid-attacking properties.
If you don’t have time to make your own, try looking in organic health food or organic greengrocers’ shops - in Sydney you can buy fresh bread with only 4 or 5 ingredients in it (and all are recognisable).
Ideally, for our health we should *minimise* the amount of grains and cereals we eat. The FDA food pyramid recommending we max out on breads and pastas etc has made a wonderful contribution towards increasing obesity, diabetes and heart disease levels over the last several decades. The sugar-plus-grain combination is not a healthy food combination at all, yet appears at breakfast in packaged cereals, morning tea in biscuits, lunch with bread, and dinner (perhaps a pasta dish with a sugar-enhanced sauce).
Probably home-style sourdough and dark rye breads made from non-refined, simple organic ingredients are the best breads, but nevertheless should not form a major part of the diet.
Hey man thanks for the tips, I’m definitely going to try this this weekend.
I wonder though, how would you go about doing garlic loaves? I’ve had bread thats had whole garlic cloves in the bread. Do you think I should roast the garlic in advance or just pop the cloves into the dough?
Thanks again for the how-to, this’ll be great.
Quick question, how long does bread last doing it like this? What are some ways to extend that? Thanks for the tips, I’ll be looking to try this shortly.
The thing about bread machines is that you have to get your quantities just right.
That means measuring the liquids carefully, but most importantly you should *weigh* your flour rather than trying to use a measuring cup.
If you do that, you can get incredible bread from a bread machine. Prep time is 5-10 minutes, depending on whether you keep your ingredients all in the same place.
When you shop for a machine, shop based on the recipe book. I have a Cuisinart model that has recipes for dozens of types of bread, cinnamon rolls, baguettes, and various other doughs. I can’t stand store-bought bread anymore!
should point out that most large scale industrial bread is leavened (raised) by inflating it mechanically, not by actual yeast reactions. any yeast is really added solely for flavor.
see “On Food and Cooking,” by Harold McGee
I second the rec for the NY Times recipe for the No-Knead Bread- it is fantastic and simple. The laugh is on us because for years we bought these same loaves from Sullivan St. Bakery when we lived in NYC. Now we make them at home for pennies.
I don’t want to say this recipe is foolproof, but we’ve messed up the times and the kneading etc. and still come out with amazing bread.
How many kids in America today could actually identify the smell of baking bread?
I just recently found this out, but the best way to preserve bread, if you’ve sliced it already, is to keep it in the freezer. The trick is that if it’s sliced, you can usually pull off the two or four slices you need, and leave the rest in the freezer. Slices of frozen bread defrost super fast just by leaving it on the cutting board at room temp. Freezing the bread works much better than keeping it in the fridge. In the fridge, bread just dries out and ends up tasting nasty. I’ve used this trick with both store bought bread, and high end artisan bread with great effect.
Excellent post - this is clearly one of your ten super articles of November.
I’m not sure if Plonkee above was making a criticism of this article being too much like a cooking blog (apologies if that wasn’t the intention) but I think ‘going deeper’ on your general tips and ideas is the way forward - this one really made me sit up and pay attention. Once I’ve moved house (2 weeks) I’m going to give this a go.
Thanks
those pictures are making me very hungry. California isn’t the cheapest place to live, and even a loaf of bread can easily be $3.00. I might have to try this sometime… bookmarked.
I loved this post! Once I get back from India I am going to attack my bread machine with a passion.
If you ever feel like doing a story on the pains of outsourcing (and the awful bread available in India) let me know.
And now back to training the replacements.
You forgot to dust the glass bowl with flour before the first rising. This will prevent the dough from sticking to the wall.
Furthermore, you can scramble an egg and brush it (not the whole lot) on top of the dough before it goes into the oven. This will give you a nicer looking crust (more shiny).
Excellent post. It’s often the simple things that makes the difference. Of course baking a couple of loafs is easy, but reading just made me decide to actually do something about it. Thanks!
Delicious. Yes.
Cheap. Yep.
Easy. Not bad.
Healthy? NOPE.
There is NOTHING healthy about white flour, sugar, or butter.
I made bread couple of times. It’s fun activity for sure and the effort is well worth it.
The bread at times went hayway i.e. brick bread. But i had modified it by slicing it and put some cheese,veggies and bake it again … sold like hot cakes.
Thanks for the Nice walk through in bread making.
I recommend getting a breadmaker to save yourselves a ton of time and effort. Sunbeam makes a great model that you can get for around $40 and it makes all sorts of breads for you. Same ingredients. I do recommend not using as much butter and sugar though, especially if you’re concerned about health. You can also use powdered milk instead of real milk which really doesn’t impact flavor in my eyes.
Be careful with the yeast and make sure you cook a loaf well. My girlfriend and I got a bad case of Thrush after eating some over moist home made bread once. Thrush = yeast infection of the mouth. Pretty nasty.
I will chime in to second the no-knead method, referred to by A. R. Rhoads. It is far simpler than the method described here and produces a round artisanal style loaf, as opposed to the squared, sandwich loaf Trent makes. It is so easy a six-year-old could make it.
Go to breadtopia.com for the details, the recipes and great instructional videos.
For the record, when I make a medium-sized no-knead loaf with all organic ingredients, my materials cost is 94 cents. And it’s better than anything I can get from the local markets in my area.
Couldn’t one prepare just the dough in advance, and freeze the dough until ready to cook? This way,for those with time challenges, or whose family may go through a large quantity of bread, they could have a jump on the process.
As I recall, you would normally freeze the dough after the first rise and punch cycle, defrost the dough when needed, then allow it to rise again before baking.
Just curious, but not certain (memories fade, LOL!)
Trent - not sure if you’ve ever come across this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0007203748?tag=onejourney-20
(not sure if it’s available in the U.S.) but a really excellent reference guide to bread making techniques and lots of detail on the problems with commercial bread-making…
Hi John Luckich, Fresh bread with no preservatives would probably last a few days, maybe 3 before getting moldy. I’m not sure because I don’t make it any more, I live alone and it would spoil (although I would LOVE to make fresh bread). It will grow mold quicker in the summer or stored in a hot/humid place.
Storing it in the refrigerator, in a sealed container, will make it last much longer. You could also freeze it. Actually, you could freeze the dough in loaf-size portions. This would actually align with Trent’s feat to make a 50 meals in advance.
There’s nothing better than home made bread. The only thing better is home made jam to go with it. Some people just don’t know how to live! There’s nothing healthy about white flour, sugar, or butter? Well, I beg to differ. Flour: healthy compared to what? How many people in the US alone are raised on refined flour? We only hear the negative aspects of things.
It’s not healthy to eat a ton of sugar but some is needed in the diet to BE healthy. EVERY thing in moderation. That’s all. Balance is the key to good health. Butter is not evil either. Fat is also needed in the diet. If you don’t eat 6 big macs in one sitting, then you can afford to eat some butter.
You ever read the nutrition facts? Butter has vitamin A in it’s active form. It is more readily used than other sources. So, yeah, there’s nothing wrong with eating some butter, just not the whole stick. Why single butter out? Margarine a.k.a trans fats, partially/hydrogenated oil is probably worse.
We have a bread machine from Oster and would never go back to store bought bread. We can use the machine to bake as well, but we generally just use it to knead the bread, finding that the shape/size of the bread wasn’t to our liking as much as a loaf baked in a pan in our oven. We have also started making our own pizza dough and that’s become a dinner staple (we make a pizza at least every week and a half now). One great bread that we’ve made is onion soup mix bread (the recipe was included with the machine). Basically, use a little less salt, add about half a package of the onion soup mix (we save the rest in a ziplock for a later loaf or brush it on top with melted butter just before popping it into the oven).
Hey Trent,
I have enjoyed reading your blog since I found it, the book club idea is great and I loved the recipe and step-by-step instructions. Thank you!
I tried making bread by hand, but it comes out like rocks. You could use my bread rolls to replace baseballs. My friend gave me her bread maker - because she couldn’t use it without eating the cooked bread in one sitting. I avoid that by letting the bread cool, then slicing it and putting it in a bag the freezer (with some separator plastic between the slices).
To heat a bowl up - put a little bit of cold water in the bottom, and microwave the bowl for a minute. Tip the little bit of water out - or use it with the yeast - if it’s cool enough. To use hot running water to heat bowls will waste about 5 to 10 litres or more, and we’re on water restrictions.
Trent,
I’m glad I got to see the infamous Kitchen-Aid mixer. I’m traveling throughout Texas & California until this Sunday… but when this girl returns to Georgia, I’m definitely going to make some dough! :)
Have a good one,
Iris
Try getting Bernard Claytons, “Complete Book of Breads.” Not only is it a wonderful cookbook, he has a lot of history and explanation in there about different kinds of bread. We bought it and make a different recipe every week when friends come for dinner, then we “rate” the recipe (1-5 stars). I’ve had a blast making the breads and everyone else is enjoying eating the bread.
My homemade bread of choice is: whole wheat bread with steel cut oats in it. Delicious & nutritious.
I’d love to master the art of sourdough next.
I think an electric knife is essential, as well as a bread slicer guide (Google “bread slicer guide” for several examples). Cutting the bread is the hardest part. Both of these items, as well as breadmakers, can be found a a thrift store for next to nothing. I also think that everyone should have a KitchenAid mixer. They rock.
One thing that kinda made me pause in your recipe was adding the melted butter to the yeast.
If someone just blasts it in the microwave and then pours the molten bubling liquid into the yeast it could kill the little suckers and affect the rising.
Best to let it cool a bit first.
Using the bread machine is even easier and they are now so affordable.
If you’re using a KitchenAid, how long do you let the machine go for kneading and at what speed?
I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Even if you can’t get the really big packs of yeast, there should be jars of yeast right beside the individually packaged yeast. That is cheaper. Keep it in your fridge. The jar will tell you how much yeast equals one packet. It is slightly different depending on whether you have regular yeast or quick rise yeast or bread machine yeast.
My mom has made bread forever. She freezes it.
I’ve been making the bread for my family (2 parents, 2 kids) for about 6 months or so now. I make four loves at a time, and that lasts about a week and a half, so it seems we’ve been eating a lot more bread since I started making it. We keep them in the freezer until needed, so we always have fresh bread. We use it mostly for lunches, so it’s nice knowing the family is having a nutrition lunch, and I hope they think about me when they are eating the real bread.
We started this as a money saving venture as well. However, no one in the family likes store bought sandwich bread any more, and the price for good bread now seems shockingly high. I can’t bring myself to by it.
I also make cookies every week for the kids’ lunches. Again, I started that to save money, but now I can’t imagine giving them the kind of store bought junk we used to give them.
Finally, home mode bread is much more fortifying Compare homemade:
http://calorielookup.com/food/view/18073
to store bought:
http://calorielookup.com/food/view/18069
I think the fact that there are fewer calories in the store bought bread means you are buying mostly air.
Can anyone say what the breakdown on calories, carbs, fat, fiber etc… is?
Oops! Sorry, missed the previous post.
I have to also chime in on the NY Times recipe that has been mentioned in the comments above. It produces a different kind of loaf than the one described on this site - it’s a crusty, chewy, artisan-type loaf. Amazingly easy and amazingly good. Every person that I’ve served the bread to asks for the recipe and every one of them has passed it on to friends. It’s easy to amend too. Onion/rosemary, calamata olive, garlic, cheese, cracked pepper and sea salt are a few that I’ve tried with success. You never knew you could make bread this good. Try it!
Your post comes at a perfect time for me. I tried to make bread a few years ago and it didn’t rise, leaving me with heavy, clammy, chewy cooked dough. Last month was the first time I successfully made yeast bread and now I’m hooked!
Frugality was actually behind my previous bread failures: I keep the house quite cool in fall and winter — about 62 degrees this week — which is too cold for bread to rise. Silly me didn’t realize that “warm” to me isn’t “warm” to yeast. So, I heat the oven to 200 degrees F, turning it off as soon as it reaches that temperature. For the first rise cycle, I put the bread inside, under a cloth towel, and leave the oven door ajar. For the second rising, I put a cookie sheet full of near-boiling water on the bottom rack of the oven, put the bread on a rack above it, then shut the door. The warmth and humidity from the water is perfect.
Just a pointer from a profesional view.
Strong bread flour is the best too use, if its available in The US get one with a type “00″ rating which refers to it high gluten contenet. you should be able to find it in most good Italian Deli`s its often used for making pasta and in france is used for making The french stick aka baguette and gives a lovelly crust this is due to the high Gluten content in the flour, gluten gives the dough it elasticity.
Another tip to tell if the bread is cooked is when it comes out of the oven tap it with you hand on the bottom if it makes a nice hollow sound you know it is done if not you will find out its not cooked all the way through.
Nice to see people actually making there own bread. :-)
Thanks so much for posting this (and the pictures), Trent! I’ve made a couple loaves of artisan-style bread but haven’t attempted normal sandwich-type bread, and this inspires me to try!
really…all you need is flour, honey or sugar (but that’s not mandatory), water, salt, oil and yeast and the truth is, you don’t even need the yeast. there is yeast in the air so if you have the time, you can make your own yeast. takes about a week of feeding and encouraging. or you can take a piece of bread (any yeast bread will do), make a slurry by soaking it in water and start feeding it with flour and a little sugar or honey.
I love baking bread. I was always a good baker but couldn’t wrap my head around yeast breads, particularly having failed miserably many many times with those awful boxed pizza mixes of years past. maybe the yeast in them wasn’t fresh or maybe they were simply made to fail, but for the life of me, breads terrified me.
then I decided to give it a shot after watching some mad bread making monk on a tv show in California. And it’s been all joyful calories and carbs ever since. I’ve even won awards for my breads. (so take that, pizza mix b*****ds!)
there is NOTHING you can’t make with a basic bread recipe, from breadsticks to cinnamon buns to pizza and foccacia.
but the number one trick to making bread is using old raw dough, sometimes called sponge, polish, slurry depending on the texture and how long you let it ferment. so save a little piece of yesterdays or last weeks dough (put it in the freezer until you use it or in a container and after a couple of days FEED it…dont’ let it over ferment, which it will). you will make bread that is truly manna.
Does anyone have a good bread machine recipe?? When I do mine it comes out good when it’s hot but gets hard very quickly and I can cook it on the lightest cycle and it still comes out pretty dark. Any suggestions? I haven’t done any homemade breads or things due to frustration, but I love to bake and cook, especially organically.thanks!
Hydrogenated oils are unhealthy! Margarine is bad.
I am in Arizona and tried to make bread this summer. I followed a recipe similiar to this and it seemed that the dough over expanded. I followed the time schedule for rising and ended up having to split the loaf in half to make it fit into the bread pans. so my questions are:
a. does it do something to the dough and yeast if you split it in half after it has risen?
b. shoud I change the amount of yeast or rising time?
thanks.
thats great think. But you dont need too much bread. Because there isnt much protein or vitamin :) 150 gr is good a day…
also, you don’t need a mixer. you can use a processor. but my favorite is hands. just mix it up and knead. (or with that recipe above, use less yeast and don’t knead.)
I always opt for less store bought yeast and longer ferments the second one usually overnight in the frig, which makes bread making into a two day affair.
also, sour dough is made with a little rye flour added to a slurry/sponge.
happy baking!!
WellBread: regarding the food pyramid, it was designed for a more active population, and is accurate for said type of population, I’d say.
What is the approximate shelf life of this homemade loaf?
Now, just for fairness, will you put a list with all the pesticides and other unhealthy ingredients that are present in milk and butter, and about the “terrible dangers” of sugar? Sure, homebread is easy and cheap, but the health dangers of all the ingredients you post, in the amounts that are present in bread, are far overblown. But IF your reasons for making homemade bread are health and money saving, I would advise to just use whole wheat flour, yeast, salt and water. Sourdough would be better, but then you lose the “easy” part. There are many recipes for easy whole wheat bread on the internet.
The best store-bought bread we have found, for both taste and nutritional content, is Aunt Millie’s Organic (Flax Seed, Whole Wheat, and others). It’s about $2.50/load in the grocery store.
There’s an Aunt Millie’s outlet up the road from my office, and pretty much everything in the store is $0.50 on Mondays. Guess where and when we get bread?
I’m not sure I would do so well making bread at home. The last thing I tried baking at home was chocolate chip cookies. Because of the way the dough spread itself out, it came out of the oven as one huge cookie, which was hilarious.
Homemade bread is the greatest! I never buy bread. I am a pastry chef, and I make all of my our bread products, bread, cinnamon rolls, even english muffins! Have you ever tried MONTANA SAPPHIRE unbleached flour? Its terrific for baking. Great creamy white color, makes great bread and even cookies too. Always make sure you buy flour that has no BROMATE. Potassium bromate is an additive to make flour have better baking characteristics. (Also outlawed in europe and california as a possible carcinogen) I have weaned my family off of white bread and onto 100% whole wheat (ww) bread. I started using some white whole wheat flour (www flour) in place of some of the sapphire flour in my bread recipes. I increased the amount of www flour until it was ALL www flour. They didnt know they were eating 100% whole wheat bread! Then I started substituting brown whole wheat flour (ww flour) (the kind you are used to seeing) in the same way. Now they like it and wouldnt eat anything else! (white whole wheat flour is made from a different strain of wheat that has a lighter color husk, kernel and germ. It has all of the benefits of whole wheat flour, but is lighter in color and gives a lighter texture bread)
I like to use water and not milk in my recipes. But I use dry milk added in with the flour. The yeast jumps faster this way. I also like to add an egg or 2 for each loaf, it helps with the shelf life, so I can make larger batches and keep it longer. A touch of honey also helps to keep moisture. (sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts moisture,[thats why sugar lumps] and honey is a liquid sugar, so it attracts sugar even faster) I also recommend a second rising and punch down before shaping. It will develope more flavor and a nicer texture. Be careful of how warm of a place you put the dough to rise, if too warm, your bread will develope a ‘yeasty’ taste to it. (although thats what I remember from my childhood) a cooler rise takes longer, but the longer and slower the rise, the more flavor that will develope! Happy Baking! :-p
I would also say that if possible try to make sure that all of your ingredients are grown in the USA as those that come from China may contain pollutants.
I, too, enjoy making my own bread. As to how long it can last, I can add this anecdote. I once made two loaves of 7 grain bread. We ate one immediately, and the other was wrapped tightly and stored in the freezer. Ultimately, we forgot about it, and there it stayed for about 4 months. We took it out for a camping trip, and it thawed via a 12 hour drive. When we arrived at our site and met our friends, we brought out the bread, which was in excellent condition, all things considered. It wasn’t quite as moist as it would have been had we not forgotten it, but it certainly wasn’t dry. It received rave reviews from our friends. I love homemade bread. Maybe I’ll make some tonight…
Ah yes, the backlash against strange ingredients continues. I’m lovin’ it.
I got rid of my breadmaker and don’t regret it. Just another thing that cluttered my kitchen, and I hated the taste, shape and feel of the loaf that came out of it. I wasn’t happy with just using it to mix the dough either. Besides, with practice, it now takes me less than 10 minutes to create the dough and set it aside for the rising.
Not to mention the kneading of the dough is part of the joy (unless you get no enjoyment out of this process.)
I use whole-wheat bread flour (King Arthur brand)which I can find in my local Savemart grocery store. So remember you are not limited to white bread flour only.
I also have the “No need to Knead” cookbook, which has great recipes. I forget the name of the author.
It’s worth bearing in mind that your recipe is more complicated than it needs to be.
All you need is: flour, salt, yeast, water.
I don’t have the exact amounts on hand, so…
~3 cups of flour
~2 cups of water
1 tbsp of yeast
1 tsp of salt
Combine. Bake. Delicious.
What David said. Only 4 ingredients are needed to make bread (and one of them is water). I re-iterate the awesomeness of the no knead loaf. This recipe is also quite good.
Something else to try if you want a relatively quick, and *very* simple loaf, is beer bread. Basically, beer supplies the liquid, yeast, and some flavoring. I don’t drink beer (can’t stand it, actually), but I really like beer bread.
It can be a bit strong, so on a whim, I tried adding peanut butter. It mellowed it out, and gave it a nutty (duh) taste.
There are about a zillion recipes for beer bread. Google is your friend.
Woah, that’s really easy. My parents bought a breadbaker, and the bread made with that baker is very delicious.. but this is just so much more simple :)
Thanks.
Great post! More people should do this. It’s easy — ok, my wife makes it look easy ;-)
Our loaves last two days but that’s because they’re such a treat and there’s none left by day three.
Shop-bought (or shall we say supermarket-bought) bread makes me feel bloated and ill. The home-baked variety doesn’t. Go figure!
Sheila - I use the lowest setting on the Kitchen Aid mixer and let it go until the dough is smooth and not sticky. It doesn’t take long.
David, that sounds like kind of a lot of water although the amount of moisture in the flour (influenced by climate) makes it impossible to give universal amounts….
I use
7 cups of flour
2 t salt
2 T yeast
3 c water
which is usually perfect. I throw that in a larger bowl and then do it again and combine the two mixings. Yield is 4 loaves with the above ingrediens times 2.
EP- Add some firebricks to your oven to help even out the temperature. Firebrick tile are way cheaper then a pizza stone and really up the thermal properties of even a lousy oven. You’ve got to let the oven pre-heat a bit longer 20 min or so but they really help.
We gave away or bread machine to some friends once we got the Kitchenaid as it is way better for bred making then the dedicated machine.
Mary: I may very well be misremembering my proportions. I’ve long since outsourced my memory to index cards on matters like this. :-)
I do bake it just on a baking tray instead of in a pan, which could plausibly result in higher moisture being helpful. Further, I’m in Southern California: Home of the Dry Heat.
Mary: You were right! My index card suggests 1 1/4 cups of water.
I find that baking my own bread is a real relaxing, zen like experiece. Even those that have bread machines should try making it by hand once in a while. Best to start with a simple white flour bread, then after you’ve made a few loaves (and hopefully learned if you’ve made a few bricks!), you can try some really cool bread that you’ll never find in a store. One of my favorites is honey wheat (google for recipe, I’m certain there are many good ones). I also like doing dark ryes. All economic, stress relief and preservative-free reasons aside, home-made bread makes an awesome holiday gift.
Just took two loaves out of the oven based on you recipe. Thanks for the tips! I’ll be making bread in the future just for the smell alone!
Imelda I live in NYC and I buy yeast in bulk from http://www.kingarthurflour.com
I never buy those little packets. They cost a bloody fortune.
Imelda, i used to live in Brooklyn and i would try the Park Slope Food Co-op, i’m not sure about it now(i lived there several years ago) but back then i would get bread mixes and yeast.
Trent, how long does this bread last?
I grind my own flour using an attachment on the Kitchen-Aid using organic seed bought through the net. The flour is not as finely ground as store bought is, making it a heavier loaf but the taste is just awesome. I know I’m somewhat extreme for the people attracted to your simple loaf of bread but wanted to throw in my $0.02 for those of you who are more adventurous. Oh, sourdough is my favourite.
I come from Poland, country where bread is still the most important (except potatoes) part of eating habits. Although the bread we can buy nowadays differs from the good old one, we still have a better quality bread than can be found in usual stores in Great Britain or USA (tried in both countries ;). What makes our most popular bread different is use of wheat flour and RYE flour. The thing I noticed in american bread ingredients are e.g. use of sugar - sugar is completely useless unless we think about sth like french croissants; use of barley malt, molasses and beta-caroten - these substances do not have a significant nutritient value (nor the taste ones), they’re added as a result of health-campaign for unrefined flour containing more fiber helping in digesting and vitamins from B group. Substances mentioned above change the colour of the bread, so it looks like the healthy one. Someone from the previous commenters said that whole generations grew up on refined flour. Yes, it’s not toxic and yes, the lack of those microelements is not dangerous for customers from high-developed countries. But this way why should we eat fruits and vegetables? Some might notice addition of iron, folic acids and B vitamins and other substances. This is exactly because of not using unrefined flour which is economically worser than the refined one (maybe except folic acid can be find in vegetables and as we don’t eat them as often as before we suffer from lack of this element), also because bread from this kind of flour is not so “plumpy”, light and also it takes more time for the bread to grow (which means less breads in one hour and so on which is “economically” not sufficient). Do you know that in Poland and other countries in Europe good bread is the one which contains very little number of ingredients? You can find a great bread containing only unrefined flour, water, salt, a little bit of oil and yeast! Personally I believe bread is one of those things that pseudo-upgrades are just making it worser. Now in my own country, after 17 years of capitalism the most popular bread is somewhat mediocre, the best one we find in Ukraine and even Russia…
I love homemade bread. I honestly don’t remember the last time I bought a loaf from the store. I have a breadmaker and a kitchen aid mixer. A majority of the time I use the breadmaker. I’ve had the thing for years and it’s more then paid for itself. It’s nice to set it up before bed, set the timer and wake up to fresh bread. I enjoy making it from scratch too, but I’ve yet to find a good whole wheat bread recipe that I like. I’ll have to try this one. Thanks!
thank you SO Much for this post-and the pictures too. I’m going to try and make my first loaf of bread this week. I hate that there is HFCS in most of the loaves of bread at the store, but I’ve been scared to make my own because I am never able to get my dough to rise properly. Your pictures will help me know if I’m doing it right :)
thank-you!
Sweeeeet! I am itching to try this recipe. One question for everyone though. I live in Denver. How should I modify this recipe for high altitude baking? I understand that you can purchase flour specifically for baking in high altitudes, but would this be enough to make the bread not come out the oven as a floor tile?
Thanks!
Man, I got too hungry reading that. I’ve made homemade bread before, but I’ll try your recipe this weekend, probably the Italian version or a cinnamon-raisin version.
Sure sounds fun, especially if you have all that free time. still, if I ever need a time-wasting hobby or a way to spend extra money, I’ll be sure to try this.
Making home made bread suddenly seems much less intimidating after reading this post. Thank you lots! I have this page bookmarked for future reference.
Sure, baking bread is a fun time-consuming activity, but why not go to a bakery rather than a supermarket? Find one which doesn’t use preservatives, and you can have fresh baked bread first thing in the morning.
I tried this tonight - it turned out really nice. What I did to rise it was fill my kitchen sink with warm water and covered the bowl with wax paper. The dough more than doubled in size. It had a nice brown crust on it too. It went well with bacon and eggs.
Trent - I tried the recipe tonight. Great directions with pictures. But…… you never say when to add the other ingredients besides the yeast and flour. You may want to update your great pictorial directions.
I am reading your note from Belgium, Europe. Surprisingly, we do use in Europe “bread machines” where you just put all the ingredients… The machine goes automatically through the whole bread making process, mix, dough, cook.. It takes 5 minutes to “launch” the process, many programming choices are available. You find them for example with Panasonic.
Those machines are quite popular here in Europe. Are they unknown in US? Perhaps a good business oportunity!
Trent, thank you so much for writing this article, your “how-to” was excellent, great pictures. When I bought the yeast in the little packets, there was no instructions on the back… a cup of water worked just like you mentioned. Being new to the kitchen this was a big help. Thanks again.
Other than cleaning your house, I can’t think of many better ways to improve your quality of life without spending any extra money. I started baking all our bread this year - mostly whole wheat from the recipe on the King Arthur bag (3 loaves/week for our family of 5), and no-knead (*great* whenever we plan to have bread with dinner). Your method of shaping the dough (rolling it up) looks like an improvement - I’ll try it this week.
Also, someone asked how long to knead with the KitchenAid. I add all the ingredients, turn the dough hook on speed 4, and when the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl as I slowly add more flour, I start the timer for 5 minutes, after which the kneading is done. Then I drizzle in a little oil as I turn it off, form the dough into a ball and plop it back into the oiled bowl to rise. (CookWise by Shirley O. Corriher says 4-7 minutes is OK on speed 4.)
I just finished kneading for the prescribed ten minutes. My knuckles are red from furious pounding, but that dough won’t be back for more anytime soon…
THE END?
The bread turned out great!
The final product is much thicker than store bought bread, I’m kind of dreading sandwiches…
However,
The second batch is going to be even better.
I have tried making bread, it rises very well but its rock hard when it comes out of the oven.
What am I getting wrong.
I developed a severe allergy to soy in 2003. Since then, I have to cook everything from scratch! You will notice that 60% of the products in the grocery stores contain soy, so you can imagine what a chore it is for me to go the the store.
When I get lazy (because I have to cook everything), I use my breadmaker to make bread.
sometimes I put it on the dough cycle only and I’m able to make rolls, Italian bread, etc..
One thing I want to bring to your attention..don’t use cooking spray! It has soybean oil. Instead, use Safflower or Olive oil.
And, only use real butter, never margarine.
I have a book being published right now called “The Hidden Dangers of Soy”. You will learn how to substitute ingredients and that soy is not the health food it’s cracked up to be. It’s contributing to a lot of health problems for adults and children.
Sign up for a free membership and receive newsletters, soy-free recipes, food alerts, and blog.
Dianne Gregg
http://www.hiddensoy.com
I love your cooking posts since you make it much more straightforward than a recipe does and explain HOW to do things step by step. I think it gives beginners confidence that you can often make slight variations to a recipe and it will turn out ok or better.
You know right before I cam upon this page I was talking with my wife about making home made bread. I’m gonna look into making sour dough bread too. Thanks for the pics and explanation.
Great information. I have been a fan of your blog and I really enjoyed this article. I love cooking and have several great homemade bread recipes at mislove.com.
Here is the result of a few easy hours in the kitchen…some lovely bread and a stephanie alexander banana cake..
http://web.aanet.com.au/nitro/MISC/Bread.JPG
Afternoon tea is fresh ground, home made espresso and warm banana cake…breakfast will be 2 slices of fantastic homemade bread with the fresh made jam…
enjoy!
Hey there
Just made some bread using your recipe. It’s amazing!
Thanks!
Thank you so much. I can NOT bake anything. My wife does all the cooking.
I decided to try this and it worked, and tasted, great!!! She was so happy with me when she got home. I added extra sugar and some cinnamon… mmmmmmmm
We ate it plain, and yesterday she made french toast with it. We both agree it was the best french toast we’ve ever had.
Thanks again!! I’ll be doing this again very soon… garlic next time!
Thanks so much for this post. I’ve wanted to make bread for a long time, but to be perfectly honest, I never thought that it could ever be so easy or so good. The end product was a little sweet for my taste, but I’m sure it’ll be easy to adjust. Never got to try it for sandwiches… because one of my roommates and I devoured it all in one night. Next loaf!
Imelda, for cheap yeast in NYC try a Chinatown grocery store. They do have some American products, and I have found packets of Red Star (made in Wisconsin) yeast for very cheap.
I tried this recipe this weekend; first time EVER baking bread and it turned out really, really well. I was so pleased, even though it took 3 hours!! I actually ran out of time at the end and left the dough in the loaf pan on the counter with the towel over it for several hours before returning to bake it, and it still turned out great. If you can work the 1-hour-waits around your schedule by extending them, then it’s really not uncomfortably time-consuming. Seriously, the best grilled cheese ever. Thanks so much for the post.
I tried this recipe. It didn’t work. At all.
I tried the recipe this weekend. I printed it out and got a little confused with ingredients and left the milk out but it turned out pretty good! I’m going to try again next weekend. Although you mentioned mixing the yeast with 1 cup of water and the directions on the yest i got only said 1/4 cup. this makes a big difference in the amount of flour to add. Thanks for the post! I cant wait to try again!
Thanks Trent for the wonderful homemade bread recipe. I’ve just kneaded the 2nd loaf for the 2nd day running! My kids just love it!
I couldn’t believe that making homemade bread can be as simple as what you have shared with us.The detailed instructions were easy to follow. Thanks once again. My family is looking forward to more such reipes from you.
~ from Cheah KH, of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
I baked a loaf last night and it came out perfectly. Great recipe and instructions!!
Waiting for the dough to rise on my second loaf as I type. Made the first a couple days ago and it came out great. You weren’t kidding about the toast. Thanks a bunch. I really needed something to kickstart something I’d been wanting to do for a while and this did the trick.
It really turned out great! For those complaining about the bread being too dense, try leaving it longer after you punch it down. I had to go out and my bread sat for almost 4 hours on the second rise. Expecting it to be ruined - quite the opposite happened. It turned out fluffy and perfect.
Thanks
Gabriel McGovern
gabrielmcgovern.com
I made a loaf yesterday and was surprised at how little effort it took. My husband commented that if I had made that for him on our first date he would have married me a lot sooner and would have found a better job so that I could stay home and bake bread for him every day!
The bread is in the oven! This is the first time I’ve ever tried to bake anything other then, say, Tostino’s pizzas, or pre baked cakes and such. Pretty much your average bachelor with no baking experience what so ever. However! Home made bread seems like it would taste better and has that sort of neato hippie off the grid type thing goin on. I’ll let ya know how it turns out in a bit! Awesome page.
Thanks to you, Trent, this is enough to make me want to hop in the kitchen and start baking!! I’ve been wanting to get in there anyway. We got all these beautiful new stainless steel appliances when we moved into this house a few years ago, and now all we do is eat out! My hubby says….now, WHY EXACTLY did we get all these appliances?? To which I reply — because they look so good in there!!!! Besides, you never know when somebody might decide to come home with us from the restaurant! Oh, and my favorite thing to make — RESERVATIONS!!! Thanks again Trent….and, has anybody tried to make a business venture out of baking the bread?? Would love to hear about that…need to do some fundraising for my son’s baseball team…
I tried this today, my very first loaf of bread, and it went very well. I’ll be revisiting this frequently, thanks for the recipe!
I followed your instructions and out came a perfect loaf of bread — like the previous poster, it was the first loaf I’d ever made! Thank you!
exactly what Kiri said above, first time.. perfect loaf. thanks for the awesome instructions, Trent! hope for more cooking-related posts with similar easy-to-follow instructions!
What I do with fresh bread, since its really only stays fresh for a day or two, is either slice it up and freeze the slices like others have suggested, or I slice it up, make sandwiches to take into work, and freeze the sandwiches. That way, I just pull a sandwich out of the freezer in the morning, take it to work, and I have a great sandwice to eat for lunch with very little fuss in the morning.
I bought a loaf of fresh Olive Bread a few days ago; I made sandwiches out of the leftovers with turkey and pepperjack cheese, wrapped them in saran wrap, and put the indivially wrapped sandwiches into a big gallon freezer bag (got about 6 sandwiches out of the loaf). The only thing to remember is leave the condiments off; they don’t freeze well. Add them after the sandwich is defrosted.
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Finally getting back here with results, re
James @ 2:38 am November 15th, 2007
Home made bread pretty much kicks ass. Thanks again for the recipe! Toast was awesome, sandwiches were great. Now I just need to learn how to slice this stuff properly!
I haven’t read the whole of the comments, but the question of how a single person might eat a whole loaf before it went stale reminded me of how i managed for a couple of years. I made a pita bread recipe up on weekends (From_Baking with Julia_), left the dough in the fridge, and made one pita a day. The dough would get more sour as the week progressed, but i like sourdough and it was still a fresh pita.
I do wish i had a baking stone for that sort of baking.
I quit when i moved to San Francisco, because the off the shelf sourdough is just wonderful and my kitchen seemed already more alive with local yeasts than i really was comfortable.
Thanks for the recipe! I made 2 loafs last night, and another 2 tonight. I am making stuffing for T’giving, and have already made 16 cups of croutons for the stuffing with this bread. BTW, if anyone is wondering, it took 2 loafs and 4 more slices to get 16 cups croutons. I cut up the bread into about 1/2 inch square pieces, and cooked them in the oven for 30 minutes at 350. I think it will be fantastic!
I am going to try and freeze one sliced loaf and see how that works out.
My first loaf as well and it’s perfect. I used bread flour, which is lighter supposedly, and tried a “Pyrex Round Glass Bread tube”. Very impressed and will not be buying store bread again.
Just made bread for the first time using this recipe and it turned out fantastic! Thank you for posting this recipe. I’d felt intimidated by making bread but not anymore!
this bread recipe is great I’m a 12yr old boy aspiring to be a world class chef one day I’ve been making about 3 loaves a week of this recipe for me and my family and I love it also makes that great garlic bread thanks for the recipe
Some pointers for anyone that sees this:
1) Most yeast packet instructions tell you to add 1/4 cup of water, in my experience. If you follow these instructions with only 1/4 cup of water the dough turns out very dry and does not rise well; I suspect that 2 cups of flour just makes it too thick. Try adding a half cup or full cup at the beginning, experiment, and see what you like.
2) If you have a sifter, sift the flour again. Or several times, even - that should make the bread more even and lighter.
3) If you want to put the extra effort into it, warm all of the ingredients in the oven for a few minutes (everything, including flour, except the yeast) before mixing them together. Don’t let it get to hot, though, or you’ll kill the yeast. 100-110 degrees should be fine.
4) Adding a little extra butter doesn’t seem to hurt it. Or a lot extra. I misread the intructions and used 5 Tablespoons instead of 5 teaspoons. It doesn’t rise QUITE as well with all the oil holding it down, but you don’t have to butter it. Ever.
Trent - would you be able to post these same instructions but with using a KitchenAid mixer? We just bought a KitchenAid recently and we are not exactly sure how to adjust the recipe above to use it. How long to mix, at what speeds, which attachment to use, etc. Thanks!
We started backing our own bread about 2 months ago, for the reasons you stated - to prevent shelf-life preservatives from entering our system. Would like to add one point to your commentary - if you’re going through the trouble of making your own bread then start with ingredients you are sure aren’t adding preservatives back into your food. GO ORGANIC ALL THE WAY!
Beautifully written piece! Thank you.
Anyone have any neat suggestions for slicing it? I’ve got a bread knife (one of those cheap ones you get in a $20 knife set), but can’t seem to get thin enough slices while still slicing straight. Any tricks?
Found this article when it was digged recently and can’t wait to try it; probably going to have a go tomorrow. Had to get yeast and a bread loaf tin and all sorts first! Haven’t even got a bread knife!
Has anyone tried using instant yeast? That’s the kind of yeast we ended up buying (that is, you don’t need to mix it with water first).
Thought I’d mention that bread here in the UK is actually pretty good. You can still get cheap and crappy bread, but our wholemeal bread is great. It’s one thing I tend to pay a bit of a premium for (something that homebaking may alleviate!). Nothin
Thanks, Trent! I’ll try this tonight. I was disgusted this morning when I looked at my shelf. I’d bought a loaf of commercial bread 2 months ago and hadn’t eaten it. It’s not moldy. Quite the contrary. It still looks and smells and feels like it did 2 months ago when I bought it. I can only imagine what a prodigious amount of preservatives were pumped into it to keep it in stasis like that.
Gross.
Amanda @ 3:08 pm November 4th, 2007 (comment #1)