Wanna conquer the world without leaving your house?
Bake fresh bread.
That’s the only way I can describe the feeling you get when you pull a freshly baked loaf of bread out of your oven. It’s the reward of careful measuring, tedious kneading and watching of the rises.
And there’s no better way to conquer the world than with butter.
Mmm Mmm!
I’ll be the first to admit that baking bread can be scary. As a whole, society’s confidence in the art has diminished over time, as if the invention of the bread machine somehow made our own hand-kneaded bread inferior quality. My parents owned a bread machine and growing up, I had never seen it made by hand. In fact, for awhile I really thought that you had to own the machine in order to do it yourself.
May it never be!
In light of the upcoming election, consider this a grass-roots movement to rid our houses of bread machines.
Ok, not really, but it is a simple conversion “recipe” of sorts to take an ordinary bread machine recipe and make it friendly for those of us who don’t have room in our kitchens for another gadget.
“Add ingredients to the machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.”
This is the most common step in making bread with a machine and it’s where us traditionalists get a little stuck. Here’s the by hand version. Whether you literally use your hands, or a mixer, is up to you.
1. Combine yeast, water and sugar in a bowl. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until foamy (like beer).
2. Add everything else (with anything cold or hot added last) and knead for 8-10 minutes.
“Choose setting for ‘dough’.”
Another common phrase. Follow steps 1 and 2 above.
“Choose setting for ‘white bread’.”
This is the most common and all-purpose rise and baking setting. First follow steps 1 and 2 above, then:
3. Cover with a dish towel and allow dough to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1 ½ hours.
4. Turn out dough to a floured surface. Punch down bread to release air bubbles and separate into loaf(s).
5. Knead gently 3-6 times to redistribute yeast and shape into loaf(s).
6. Place loaf(s) in oiled pans and cover with a dish towel. Allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.
7. Bake at 350 until bottom of the loaf(s) sound hollow when tapped, 30-40 minutes.
“Choose setting for dough and first rise.”
Follow steps 1 through 3 above. Continue with directions provided in the recipe.
“Choose setting for ‘wheat bread’.”
Wheat bread traditionally needs a little bit more kneading to produce a less gritty texture. The bran in wheat also interferes with the gluten, so it takes a little longer to rise. In step 2, knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. In steps 3 and 6, watch for the size of the dough rather than the timer.
“Choose setting for fruit/seeds.”
Fruits, nuts and seeds should be added towards the end of the kneading cycle so that they are not ground into meal during the process. Simply add fruits/seeds/nuts with 1-2 minutes left in the kneading process.
That’s it! Now go hunt down all those delicious “bread machine” recipes and stick your nose up at them while you make the recipe using your bare hands. Conquer the world!
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Tiffany, This post is well done. Once you get used to making bread it becomes easier and easier.
Thanks Savannah!
I had to laugh when you said that you had never seen bread made by hand. My kids have never seen a bread machine. In fact when I got sick 2 yrs ago and had to take a break from making bread my husband bought the “good” store bread and we would find the moldy loaves pushed to back of the pantry. I have been making bread so long I don’t even have the receipe written down anymore. And for those of you who say you don’t have time, the time it takes to make bread is only about 20 to 30 active mins. The rest you can do other things while the bread rises.
I completely second you on the time factor. Maybe you can coincide bread making with laundry – you know, new/switch/fold during the rises?
I’ve never made/baked my own bread before! :/ I’m not much of a cook or baker, but maybe one of these days I’ll try it!
Any recipes or tips you ladies could recommend and share with me?
There’s quite a few listed on my recipe page: http://dontwastethecrumbs.com/yummy-food/recipes/
Check them out! Buttermilk Potato is GREAT for grilled cheese, and they’re all delicious right out of the oven!
I love the laundry idea. On the days that I am making bread I am usually having a baking day. Bars for the kids lunches and other snacks for the house that week. One of our favs right now is the Carrot spice vanilla chip bread. I make it into muffins for the lunch. If they last that long.:)
Awesome! I have done both ways, but when I’ve tried to do the “dough” cycle on my bread machine to try to save some time/monitoring it never turns out. I’ll have to give this a shot since I’d like to make loafs that look “real” instead of the weird bread machine cube. I’ve pinned this to my “A Little Kneady” board on Pinterest. Joining from C.R.A.F.T.
I think I grew up in the exact opposite situation as you. We always made bread by hand and when I found a $5 bread machine at a thrift store I was thrilled. We had excellent results with it and were just thrilled with how much time it saved, none of us liked standing there and kneading it. In fact, my mom still has it and uses it frequently. I will say that we mostly used the dough setting and baked it in the oven.
If we had a machine, I’d use it for the dough setting as well. Like Jenn mentioned, a nicer looking loaf just sounds more appealing than a square one! Plus don’t some have a stick or something that goes down the middle? I don’t want holey bread!
I love bread (real, please) and anything to do with it…thanks for your post! It’s a great way to save those leftover bread making cookbooks from landfill!
Happy Kneading! Blessings, Nancy at livinithegreen
What a great post. I have slowly over the last year began to dabble more with baking bread from scratch without a bread machine or mix and it really is amazing!
Thanks so much for linking up last week at the Humble Brag! Hope to see you back tomorrow to link up more great projects. Don’t forget, we will be giving away more free ad space but you must link back in order to win or be featured!