Hot bread with butter
How does a fresh, out-of-the-oven slice of homemade bread with butter sound right about now? Would you prefer an end piece or soft middle piece?
Many folks believe that homemade foods are much better than store-bought ones. In most cases, this is true. Homemade foods are generally better for our health and budgets. How rewarding to realize we can produce healthy and budget-happy foods for ourselves and others! Even our family members can get involved with homemade bread-making. Children enjoy helping and reaping, umm…eating, the rewards as much as we grown-ups do.
Start here to save money
The price of making bread at home is worth an honest look as the rising cost of groceries is a hot topic these days. Homemade bread can be made with a few ingredients that are not hard-to-source and may be kept in bulk in our pantries or larders.
A trip to a grocery reveals store-bought bread ranging in price from $1.42 to over $7.00. The lowest price is for white bread which is full of refined ingredients, unhealthy preservatives and tastes like cardboard. The higher priced loaves are better quality breads that still may contain ingredients we’d rather not consume like soybean oil or preservatives. And, when were these baked? Certainly not in the past couple of days.
Better health is on the way
It is very important to do our own health-related research and a good place to begin is to learn the effects of consuming preservatives. Many commonly used preservatives are known to cause a variety of health issues. Too often, the bread itself gets the blame for digestive discomfort when, in fact, it is a certain preservative that is the culprit. Knowing what is in our food is not just a cliché these days, our health is on the line.
Look, I made it myself!
What if we could make a loaf or two of healthy homemade bread for $1.75 each? It is possible in today’s economy and with only six commonly-sourced ingredients.
Mrs. Katie’s Easy Homemade Sandwich Bread
Approximately $1.75 per loaf
- Yield: 2 loaves 1x
Ingredients
7 to 8 cups all-purpose flour
2 (0.25 oz) packages fast-rising instant yeast
3 cups warm water (120-130F)
1 cup dry (powdered) milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup cooking oil of choice (I use avocado.)
You’ll also need:
2 large mixing bowls
Small mixing bowl
Dough whisk
Thermometer
Measuring cups and spoons
Clean kitchen towel
2 bread loaf pans
Instructions
- Measure and prepare all ingredients before beginning recipe.
- In a small bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour with instant yeast, no liquid.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix dry milk with warm water. Do not allow it to cool.
- Immediately, add sugar, salt, oil and mix well.
- Add the flour-yeast mixture to the milk mixture, stirring well with dough whisk. Add remaining flour, one cup at time. Mix well until a soft dough ball forms. The final cup of flour may not be necessary to use.
- Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Lightly grease a large, clean bowl. Place dough in bowl, turning dough over once so all surfaces are lightly oiled. Cover with clean kitchen towel and allow to rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.
- Punch dough down with fist and push all sides into the center of the dough. Turn onto clean surface. Cut dough in half.
- Form into two loaves and place in greased pans, unless using USA Pans which are non-stick and do not require greasing. Cover with clean kitchen towel.
- Allow to rise in warm place until dough rises an inch above the pans. Bake 350F for 40-50 minutes, or until browned. Remove from oven and turn onto cooling rack. Brush with melted butter, if desired. Makes 2 loaves.
Notes
Bread slices easier when allowed to completely cool but we won’t tell if you can’t resist a slice with fresh butter. I’ll take the end piece, please!
