Everyone has a story to tell, here's mine sprinkled with some creative projects along the way.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Bread making

For the past three months, I've been making my own bread. I'm not really sure if I'm saving much on making my own loaves versus purchasing them when they're on sale at the store but I have to say I like my bread so much better than store bought ones.

Today I wanna share my process with you....


I'm no expert baker by any means, I just love making/creating things with my hand and somehow this season in my life, I find baking and cooking to be a very fun thing. I have found a curiosity on how things are baked/cooked/made from scratch. I guess that's why I was into breadmaking all of a sudden.

I've tried many recipes for making bread. I wanted my breads to be healthier but to be honest with you, I find whole wheat bread, after sometime to be super dense. It takes longer to chew and digest plus it feels like a brick in your stomach.

So after many tries, I've come back to the one that I thought was the best out of all of them. Here's the recipe if you wanna check. To add some whole wheat in there, I divided the flour in the recipe with half white and half wheat. This happy medium seemed to work for us.


My breadmaking day seemed to work on Mondays. I do laundry on Mondays and having the dryer warm is the best place to set my dough so it can proof really well. I have found that bread making, it doesn't matter what the recipe says about time, needs not be rushed. So I start it in the morning. I make sure I pull out the ingredients first so I don't have to run around while making the bread plus it tells me if I'm low or out of something before I even start my process. As you can see this Amish bread recipe doesn't call for much ingredients.


Another reason why I love this recipe is because it's the only one that I let my yeast "proof" or germinate or whatever you call it. All the other recipes I've tried just tells you to add everything together and mix. I find that taking that extra 10 minutes to let the yeast do it's thing, makes for a fluffier bread.


I can't really take much photos of me while I make the bread so I had my daughter help me out a bit by being my photographer. She did an awesome job and didn't mind the weight of my camera on her tiny hands one bit. :)


this part is both mine and Maddie's favorite part. As soon as she sees me pull out the dough onto the counter, she'd rush to wash her hands and brings a stool so she can knead the dough with me.


Another thing I love about this recipe is it's small in size. I tried one that had 16 cups of flour in it (which is suppose to make four loaves) and men! that baby was so hard to knead! It was already harder bec. of the whole wheat and then it was double the amount of this one that I'm doing. I'm telling you, it was a workout!


So now we set the kneaded dough into a greased bowl and ....


then I let it rest on top of my dryer until I see that it has doubled it size. When I make the bread at about 10 in the morning, I usually pull it out at about 1 pm.


After punching the dough, I cut it in half. I use one to make a loaf and the other to form rolls with it. We love eating rolls for dinner so it's perfect that I make some rolls and some for the loaf.


I then let that double in size in their respective containers for another hour or so.


and then they go in the oven. By the time they're done, it's usually dinner time and we have some freshly baked, home made rolls for dinner. Yummy!!!


Again, I'm not sure if I'm saving money on making my own bread since they're tons of breads out there that you can purchase for a dollar or less for a loaf but I sure love the smell of home made bread baking.


This bread is soooo good! It has a good amount of sugar in there and you can taste the sweetness of it. Oh and when you put some butter on a warm roll....mmmm....heaven!!!

So that's it for me. Breadmaking....another one that I can check off my "must try" things.

Till next time,
Grace

5 comments:

Nati Tristan said...

That bread looks delish!!!!

Allison said...

Yum! I'll have to try these out! I just emailed you my favorite recipe for quick rolls! :)

Unknown said...

My roommate bakes bread ALL the time. she puts flaxseed in the bread, and it adds a nice light nutty flavor. :) your bread looks pretty good!

Anonymous said...

Good job anak. Nothign can beat any thing done at home. You exactly what your family is eating. I bet they appreciate your effort. Don't bargain on the idea kung mas mura na lang ang bumili you have taught yourself a valuable lesson. YOU LEARNED that's what count most. Congratulations.

Unknown said...

nom nom nom! I need to try this sometime.