Bread

Today was a day for cooking. I made some mini loaves of bread, and one bigger loaf. I love the mini loaves because they are the perfect size for sandwiches to be packed for work and school lunches. I also love that I have control over the ingredients, organic no additives or preservatives etc... I know exactly what we are eating.

I just used my basic bread recipe, it is a base that you can build off of, add cinnamon and raisins, dried fruit, whole grains etc... But today I just felt like making plain bread.

The recipe I use is simple, 1 package of active dry yeast, add 1/4 cup of warm water and 1 tsp of sugar to the the yeast stir and let sit for 15 minutes.

Add 2 cups of warm water, 1 tsp of salt and add flour kneading until the dough is no longer sticky, cover in a greased bowl and let rise in a warm spot for two hours.

Add more flour and knead a second time. Grease the pan you will be baking it in, place dough in pan cove and let rise for two hours. Bake at 400 for 40 to 50 minutes.

The dough should use at least 6 cups of flour otherwise it will taste strongly of yeast. The crust comes out of the oven very hard and crispy (hard as a rock lol) but softens as it cools. If you put it in a Tupperware container it softens even more.

My favorite mix for this is 40% whole wheat flour, 60% white, add toasted flax seed, sunflower seeds and any other seed / grain i happen to have in the house at the time.

Another good one is to spread the dough out, put Swiss cheese and slices of ham on top, roll it and bake. So tasty and all you need to do is cut off a piece and instant lunch :)