Homemade Bread Recipe: Basic Homemade Bread Recipe with All Purpose Flour

I am always trying to find ways to save money and insure my family isn't taking in to many chemicals. One thing my family goes through a lot of is Bread. One day I decided to look at the ingredients in store bought bread and decided there are far to many ingredients for something I could make at home and know what goes into it. So I decided to start making my own bread. This is a Basic Homemade Bread Recipe that is made with all purpose flour. This is my go to recipe and it always comes out great.  It is also a great way for my daughter, Trinadi, to help me in the kitchen. She helps me count out the measurements, stir the dough, and kneading. Her favorite part is punching the dough after the first rise.

This homemade bread recipe is simple and so easy to make. You will be making bread all of the time.

Ingredients

• 1 package active dry yeast (1/4 ounce)
• 2 1/4 cups warm water 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon oil (I used vegetable) 

Directions

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the salt, sugar, oil and 3 cups of the flour. Stir until smooth. Add in about 2 more cups of flour until a soft dough is formed.
• Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Place into a greased bowl, turning over once to grease the top of the dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-2 hrs.
• Once dough has doubled punch dough down. Divide dough in half and knead 2-3 minutes on floured surface. Place in two greased 9-in x 5-in loaf pans. Cover and let rise again until doubled. about 30-min-1-hr.
• Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and bread sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from the pans and cool.

Yield: 2 loaves (16 slices each)

I don't have loaf pans so I used what I did have, a heart shaped cake pan and a pie pan. They still came out great. Just look a little funny :)

Heart Shaped Bread

Garlic Bread (garlic butter added before baking)

(We don't have a bread machine so everything is done by hand.)