Thursday: Bread, homemade

Bread bread bread. The staff of life or the "pain" in my life...(very tiny french joke)../ I love it. with a passion. And it makes me sick. So when I do inbibe as I have said this week already once before, I do it with something really good. Like homemade good. I have been making bread for 30 years or more and love to make it, love to feel the dough on my hands and the satisfying goal of a perfectly lovely loaf at the end. Don't be intimidated- just do it!

This is a recipe which always works, is great tasting and lovely smelling while it is baking.

Get on it now with this recipe!

Take out a large mixing bowl and put into it:

4 cups of bread flour, white or white wheat

1 tablespoon of seasalt

2 tablespoons of baking yeast

Stir these up!

Add to it:

1 cup of very warm water - almost so hot you can't touch it but you still can

inside the cup of water add 1/3 cup honey

Mix this into the flour mixture

Add to this one more cup of flour and pour it out onto a floured surface.

Knead the bread for about 9 minutes, in a lazy rhythmic fashion. Folding over, pushing down, keeping it in a ball like shape as much as possible. Add more flour if it is too wet, or add a little more water if it is too dry. You can also add a handful of oatmeal if you wish. It's not an exact science, you really have to feel it as you go. Be brave!

Once the dough develops soft wrinkles on the surface it is ready to rest and rise.

Put it back into the bowl you originally mixed in -- but first -- add some olive oil around the bowl to keep it from sticking. Cover the bowl with a damp warm tea towel and set to rise in a draft free warm spot. This might be:

On top of your fridge, inside your oven, on the counter in the sun, or in another room!

After the dough doubles or more in bulk or you push your finger into it and it doesn't fill up again, it's ready to be punched down and kneaded again.

Knead it again, and at this time if you want to get fancy -- you can add to the kneading process:

1/2 cup of sunflower seeds

or 1/2 cup raisins and cinnamon

or sesame seeds or pumpkin seeds

or dried onion flakes and basil flakes

or keep it as it is! At this time you can shape it into a loaf or small rolls and place it onto a greased cookie sheet. I also like to whip up another egg and brush it over the top of the loaf or rolls and sprinkle seeds on the top, or not.

Let these raise up again for about an hour or two to size with a greased wax paper sheet on top and then pop into a preheated 350F oven and bake for about 20 -30 minutes or until the loaf makes a nice deep "thump" sound when tapped on the bottom. Some ovens take longer than others so 40 minutes might not be out of the question. Check it out!

Let cool if you can possibly manage it, then slice into amazing pieces of heaven. Butter a must!