Best Homemade Bread Ever

Back when I was a kid I used to go to summer camp every year. Well, the cook there made fresh bread for us every single day. It was AMAZING!!! It would come out steaming on the platter because it had just been pulled from the oven, cut, and immediately served to 70 some odd girls who knew what was coming (fluffy, warm goodness with a crispy crust, slightly salty and sweet. Perfection!).

Anyway, one year the cook brought us into the kitchen to learn how she did it and I've been into baking bread since. I've been making it now for years, much more since I became a stay-at-home mom. I've made a few tweaks here and there and now I get to share it with you. :)

You'll need some ingredients:

Ingredients: (makes 2 loaves)

2 tbps yeast

1 tbps salt

2 cups warm water

1/3 sugar

1/3 oil

about 5 cups flour (plus more for dusting)

Directions:

Add the yeast, salt, and warm water to a large bowl and let stand 5 minutes. It should look something like this:

Yeast, salt, and water after 5 minutes standing

I usually prepare my bread pans with oil and flour while I wait so the bread dumps out easily after baking.

Next add the sugar, oil and flour. For the flour, start with about 4 cups and add more as needed. You don't want your dough to be sticky. Keep in mind that less flour makes for a lighter, fluffier bread and more flour will make a denser, heartier bread. It's kind of your preference. I usually go for a denser loaf because I use it as sandwich bread and it seems to hold up better.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth (about 5 minutes).

Dough after kneading

Put the kneaded dough back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap (this helps keep the moisture in). Let it rise until it doubles in size, usually about 45min-1 hour. 

Hack time! If it's summer and sweltering hot outside I will set it out on the porch to rise. The humidity is good for the bread and it helps it to rise faster. In the winter though setting dough outside would be ridiculous so I fill a bowl that is slightly smaller than the bowl my bread is in with very hot water and set the bigger bowl on top of it. Like so...

Bowl of water rising method

This not only helps create a humid environment for the dough to rise but it also speeds up the rising process. It also works in conjunction with the plastic wrap since the plastic wrap is working to hold all that moisture in.

Okay! When your bread is done rising it should look something like this:

That giant bubble on the top means you have a happy dough. Turn the dough out of the bowl and knead again just slightly. Divide and shape it into two loaves, place them in their bread pans and let them rise until they reach the top of the pans (maybe 30-60 minutes).

You can use the bowl of water rising method again here as well to speed it up a little. I usually put a bread pan full of hot water under the pan with the dough in it and then cover it with a towel.

Once the dough reaches the top of the pans, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake for 30-32 minutes. As soon as you pull it out of the oven cut yourself a big piece and dig in. It's great plain, with melted butter or peanut butter, or really any which way you want to eat it. It makes great sandwich bread or bread served with a meal.

Thanks for reading!!! Let me know in the comments if you tried and liked this. :)