Saturday, June 27, 2009

Bread

I have always wanted to make my own bread, but thought that kneading was some sort of intricate and tricky process that I just wouldn't be able to get right. I finally decided to tackle my fear, and the hubby and I set out on a breadmaking adventure. We thought it would be fun to have a pictorial documentation of the process, so here it is for your enjoyment!


This is the recipe we used, from my Joy of Cooking cookbook:


Here I am mixing the yeast with warm water. I opted to buy the jar of yeast instead of the packets, because it is actually much cheaper in the long run:


While the yeast dissolved, I worked on mixing up some other ingredients in my trusty Kitchenaid mixer. Apparently I had some sort of weird ponytail thing going on that day:


Adding the melted butter! Actually, it's margarine, but that works too:


And a little salt:


And the yeast! Without this, it would have been a breadmaking disaster:


Now just add the flour and mix:


Mix until it looks like this:


And get ready for some kneading fun! It actually turned out to be super easy, so I don't know what I was afraid of for all those years.


Here it is, all kneaded and ready to rise. See you in a little while, ball of dough!


It grew:


And now I get to punch it down - Take, that ya big ball of dough!


Forming it into mounds for each loaf:


And forming it into loaves:


And here are all my pretty dough loaves all lined up in their pans and ready to rise:


Get on in there and cook up into some tasty bread!


Hmm... Somehow I thought it would turn out bigger than this...

Ok, I know that was cheesy, but we just had to do it!

Here's what it really looked like:


So I put it on the cooling rack to cool before I sliced it up.


After much impatient waiting, we finally got to slice it!




Let me tell you, this bread was so good, I don't ever want to buy store bought bread again! As a matter of fact, I have another batch ready to go in the oven right now.

11 comments:

Pam Smith said...

Beauty. That's actually one of my favorite bread recipes. :) Too many people are intimidated by baking, so good on ya for jumping in! It's worth it.

shellie said...

Wow...I always say im gonna do it but then i pull out my breadmaker...im pretty lazy!

Sharon said...

Thanks for the photos! They help take away some of my fear of making homemade bread.

I usually resort to the bread machine, too!

libu said...

I have a bread machine..idiot proof.. I love the smell of fresh baked bread and I think I could live off bread and butter sometimes....good for you for diving into the breadmaking..!!!

Chickypez said...

This adventure actually all started when I decided I wanted a breadmaker so I could make my own bread. I got impatient and finally decided to make it by hand, and now I don't want a breadmaker anymore! I like the satisfaction of knowing that it was all made from scratch with my own two hands.

Just Keeping it Real said...

Good job, but maybe next time you can borrow your brother-in-law's handy dandy game camera and give a WT version.

P.S. I have 4 ribeye steaks that I can be bought with for a slice of your bread...of course your hubby would be cooking the steaks for all of us!

Audrey said...

I could never do that!! The loaves look beautiful - great pics. I have tried bread - I can bake really great bricks!! LOL

Anonymous said...

Looks tasty!

LVS said...

Looks really yummy chicky! My mouth is watering. Pass me a slice please... would go great with some apple butter and my coffee! :)

Sally said...

Looks yummy!!!

sally said...

Looks yummy!!!