homemade bread

Just for a moment, I'm going to pretend this is a food blog. Why? Because I think it's funny that some people take pictures of every single step of a recipe's process, so I was curious to try it once and see if it was as cumbersome as I'd imagined.

So without further ado, here's how we make homemade, whole-wheat bread in our house.

There are only five ingredients (six if you count water): whole wheat flour, oil, honey, yeast, and salt.

First, mix two tablespoons of yeast with 1/2 cup warm water and set it aside.

While the yeast is rising (or bubbling up a little), pour 5 cups of very hot water into your mixer. If you don't have a mixer, good luck and may the force be with you.

Next, dump 7 cups of flour into the bowl and slowly mix together until well blended.

Once it's blended, have your cute son pour in 2/3 cup of oil...

... 2/3 - 3/4 cup of honey...

... and 2 tablespoons of salt. It's much easier to take pictures if someone else does the work.

Blend it all together.

Add one more cup of flour,

and your yeast/water mixture. Then mix it all again.

Now you'll add 2 more cups of flour and blend them in. We're up to 10 cups of flour.

Now add one more full cup of flour, mix it, and then just keep adding flour in small amounts until the dough starts to pull away from the side. I usually end up using anywhere from 12-13 cups total by the end, depending on how well I measured my water out earlier. Once you're done adding flour, let it just mix/knead for ten more minutes.

While it's mixing, get out four pans, and grease them with shortening.

See how nicely the dough is starting to clean the sides of the bowl? Sometimes, if ten minutes is come and gone, and the sides aren't very clean, I add a little more flour to help it out.

Waiting is the hardest part of making bread.

Once it's done mixing, take the lovely dough out of the mixer and place it onto an oiled surface.

Separate and shape the dough into four loaves.

If you don't know how to shape a loaf, that's okay.

No matter what they look like, they'll all taste the same.

Now it's just a matter of time while the dough rises. I like to place a thin towel over mine.

Once they've risen to about an inch or so above the top of the pan, stick them in a 350º oven for about 40-45 minutes, maybe less depending on your oven.

When they're done, take them out of the pans and put them on cooling racks. I like to cover them with a cloth again while they're cooling.

Make sure you eat a slice of bread while it's still nice and warm.

Homemade Whole Wheat Bread

2 Tbsp. yeast

1/2 cup warm water

5 cups hot water

12-13 cups whole wheat flour

2/3 cup oil

2/3 cup honey

2 Tbsp. salt

Directions: see above

I hope you've enjoyed my one and only "food blog" post.

We will now continue with our regularly scheduled posts, if I ever get around to them.