I mentioned a while back the importance of taking things one step at a time when embarking upon the road of self-sufficiency. It’s so easy to get caught up in the excitement and idea of living a through-and-through homemade/from scratch lifestyle. I myself have experienced burnout due to trying to do too many things at once, on top of my already busy daily tasks (story of my life!).

But one great place to start is by making your own bread. To me, nothing says good-old-fashioned-living like kneading homemade bread dough amidst an array of flour on my worn oak table. There’s something almost romantically primitive about it. And to think- I once thought I could never learn such a skill without hands-on instruction by someone else. 

Not so.

All you have to do is try it; you will likely find yourself pleasantly surprised at how naturally it comes and perhaps even laugh- as I did- at the thought that you’d waited so long to give it a shot. 

I now make bread once a week, four loaves at a time, for my family of five. Crossing off an item on the grocery list that I no longer have to obtain at the store is simply gratifying. Knowing exactly what is put into those loaves is even more so.

After an extensive search and some failures, I found the perfect homemade bread recipe. Not only does it have that classic, slightly sweet, delicious taste that we associate with homemade bread as an excellent side to…well, whatever it is we’re eating (seriously, what doesn’t homemade bread go good with?!), BUT- it also slices beautifully for sandwiches. And if your kids are anything like mine, we go through a LOT of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches!

You can find the recipe HERE over at i heart naptime.

Jamielyn offers a quick printable recipe, detailed instructions & photos, as well as some great tips. The only things I would add are:

(1) the yeast doesn’t take 15 minutes to get bubbly. I put the yeast & sugar in a bowl, add my extra warm water, and then cover with a towel. Mine is typically ready to go in 5-8 minutes. As I’m working on my first batch, I have the next yeast/sugar/water getting ready for the second batch (each batch makes2 loaves).

-and-

(2) especially this time of year, we just don’t have the heat to naturally rise the dough. So as I’m mixing up my bread dough, I set my oven to 200 degrees F. Once it’s time to let the dough set & rise, I cover them with a damp flour sack towel (to prevent the dough from drying out), turn off the oven, and put them in the warm oven to help the process along. Once it’s risen and you’ve kneaded & rolled and are now ready for the loaves to rise, I do the same thing. Re-heat that oven to 200 while you’re making your loaves, shut it off, and you’re ready for the second rising session.

These loaves freeze very well (as bread typically does).

The great news is once you’ve mastered bread dough, you can do so much more: pizza crust, dinner rolls, apple turnovers, cinnamon rolls, the list goes on! Look out for future posts of some of my favorites.

Do you have a favorite bread recipe?

Thanks for stopping by!