Sunday, August 3, 2008

Basic Bread Recipe



I have mentioned before that I make our own bread and I wanted to share the recipe that I use to make it. (Click HERE to show pictures of the pizza and milling the wheat.) Lately I have accidentally let the bread rise a little too long and that has resulted in the bubble at the top. It doesn't hurt anything, it just doesn't look as pretty. I use this basic bread recipe for bread, pizza dough, cinnamon rolls...it is pretty universal.

1 1/2 cups of hot water
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
2 t salt
1 egg (optional)
2 T lecithin
1 t gluten (optional)
4-5 cups fresh milled flour (approximate)
1 T yeast

Combine water, oil, honey, salt, egg. Add lecithin, gluten, 2 cups flour. Mix thoroughly. Add yeast and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 2-3 min in my Bosch ~longer in kitchen aid.) Shape and let rise until double. Recipe makes 2 loaves.

350 for 25-30 min for bread (a little shorter for cinnamon rolls and pizza)

For the cinnamon rolls I roll out the dough, use 1/2 stick of butter melted and spread over the dough. Then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

10 comments:

Rachael said...

I think that is nearly the exact same recipe that my mom uses for her bread! (She bakes all her own too and it is wonderful!) I always claim not to be able to make it (too hard) but every once and a while when I really miss fresh warm bread, I pull out her recipe and the kitchen aid mixer. I guess I make it enough to recognize the ingredients! :)

I make my cinnamon rolls like that too. (Again, once in a great while.) And, yours look SO delicious!

Oh, now you've gone and made me hungry.

Salzwedel Family said...

I'm impressed! Is it expensive to buy a mill? I've never made my own bread, but it's been something I'm considering.

Cheryl said...

those look wonderful! My mother-in-law has given me a portion of the Amish bread friendship thing twice now, and I haven't even gotten one loaf yet because I always forget to keep it going and then get behind... end up throwing it out... I'm SO bad.

Rachel said...

YUM! We love cinnamon (sin-ee as Makan would call them) rolls in this family. Thanks for sharing!

A Girl, her God, and a Gift! said...

That looks so yummy and you make it seem so easy. How timely is the milling portion of the process?

crispy said...

To answer your questions:

Mill $$$- I think my mill was about $200. I use a NutriMill. I ordered it from Breadbeckers. Click the link to my post about "fresh milled" where I share about the pizza and a little more about the process and I link to the company. I have had mine about 3 years and I use it about 2 times a week.

Stacia, I can mill my wheat berries (turn it into flour) and have my dough made and ready to rise in less than a half an hour. The Bosch does help speed things up. It is a heavy duty mixer and it takes a little longer with a Kitchen Aid. So to let you know how long, it doesn't take that long.

I have had quite a few friends over to teach them how to do all of this. When I started, no one offered to teach me. I had to just figure it out. It did take a bit to catch on (but that is because I had never made yeast bread before). But I LOVE learning new things.

Any testimonies out there that want to share? (LOL) Any more questions?

Oh, one more note, as for the cost of wheat. It has significantly gone up over the past few years. But you can tell that just from buying a loaf of bread at the grocery store. I get a bucket of wheat for about $40 and that is 6 gallons or 45 pounds of wheat. It lasts us a long time. When I first started, wheat was about $25 a bucket (if I remember correctly).

Sarah said...

Oh yummy!!!! The rolls look delicious! Well so does the bread. I might have to try it!!

Christy said...

As one of your former "students" we love making bread, although, I must admit, I've been lax lately with all the canning I've been doing. Mark requested a loaf for the road this week, so I'll have to do up a loaf.

~S~~~~~ said...

i have never attempted to make homemade bread before...but i might have to go on this adventure sometime...i am on a gluten free diet, so i'm learning that i need to make a lot of things from scratch...to avoid gluten, wheat, rye, barley, modified food starch... just to name a few things! haha
maybe when you get here, you could teach me how to do it!

Tim and Susan said...

Sounds and LOOKS yummy. Good for you miller girl feeding her healthy family. What is licithin? I don't think Tim will let me haul a bread mill to Japan (excuse me can I check that as luggage?) also, I can't get wheat berries...maybe I should start growing wheat!! You should give bread making classes!!