Wheat Bread

I’ve been interested in making bread for a while.  Even though my family doesn’t burn though bread like some, who doesn’t love homemade bread?  Last time I tried making bread it was semi edible... But I thought it was worth a second shot.  The Frugal Girl is a blog that I subscribe to that has a lot of great ideas- including her own bread recipe.

You will need

2 1/3 cups warm water (free)

¼ cup honey ($5.97 per 32oz, $5.97/32oz = $.19 x 2oz = $.38)

4 Tbsp organic butter, melted ($5.49 per lb, $5.49/32 Tbsp = $.17 x 4 Tbsp= $.69)

1 ½ Tbsp yeast (2 packets) ($2.19 per 3 packets, $2.19/3 = $.73 x 2 = $1.46)

2 ½ tsp salt ($.47 per 26oz, $.47/30.69tsp = $.02 x 2.5 tsp = $.05)

3 cups organic whole wheat flour ($1.39 per lb, $1.39/16oz = $.09 x 18oz = $1.56)

2 ¾ cups organic all-purpose flour ($4.99 per 5 lb, $4.99/80oz = $.06 x 15.125oz = $.91)

Dry yeast mixture all ready...

I couldn't put my dough back in the bowl because this is what happened while I kneaded

Mix together yeast, salt, 1 cup wheat flour, and 1 cup all purpose flour in your mixer.  Add in the butter, honey, and warm water, mix on low till blended, then on medium for 3 minutes.  Add in the remaining 2 cups wheat flour, and enough all purpose flour to make it kneadable (I added 1 ½ cups, but it was pretty sticky).  Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.

Blob of kneaded dough

This was the easiest way to put the bowl in a warm spot!

Put the dough back in the mixer bowl and cover with a wet cloth.  Place it in a sunny spot for 45 – 60 minutes.  After it has risen, punch it down, divide it in two, and flatten out each half into a rectangle about 5 inches wide (doesn’t matter how long).  Roll up your dough on the short side and put each log into a 9 x 5 loaf pan.  Cover them again with the cloth, put them back in the sunny spot, and let them rise again for about 30 minutes.  When they fill the pan nicely, put them in the oven (preheated to 350 degrees) for 30 minutes, till the bottom of the pan sounds hollow when tapped, and/or a meat thermometer reads 205 degrees when stuck in the end of the loaf.  Turn them out into a wire rack to cool.

The dough punched down and divided

My rectangles were a little wonky, but they work

Risen loaves, ready for the oven

I was really intimidated coming into this one, probably because of how gross my last bread came out (different recipe, different type of bread).  This is a nice sandwich bread, that does indeed taste delicious as Kristen suggested- warm with butter.  When they cool I’ll stick one loaf in the freezer and use the other this week for PB&Js and whatever other bread needs come up. 

Aren't they pretty?

The perfect way to celebrate successful bread!

Try It

$5.05 for 2 loaves totaling 48oz, or $.11/oz.

Buy It

$3.29 for a 20oz loaf of Nature's Own Whole Wheat, or $.16/oz.

Verdict

It’s a little cheaper to make organic bread than to buy conventional.  All in all it took a little over 2 hours to make, but all but about 20 minutes of that was completely hands off.  We keep our bread in the fridge to make it keep a little longer, and by the end of the week it was tasting a little dull and sad.  Next time I'll freeze a loaf and a half to accommodate our slow bread use. In conclusion: Try It- it was even easy with Spencer’s brand of help.

NEXT WEEK: Dishwasher soap