I heart homemade bread!

This weekend my sister came up to visit, so I had to wow her with my baking skills. I made bread, since it is one of my most favorite things!
I have two recipes that I like, and for this time I chose the one out of my Lion House Bakery book. The recipe is called "Jesse Evans Smith's 90 Minute Bread". I don't know who Jesse Evans Smith is, but I sure like their bread!

I figured I would throw in a picture of myself, you know, to make sure I get the credit for all the good treats and you don't think it is really Travis behind the scenes (I don't think he could make bread this good!).

Two loaves, ready to rise.

Yea! They rose. And that one grew huge!

Baked to perfection!


I have found a few alterations that work for me, so I included my little comments in there.

2 C warm water
2 Tbsp active dry yeast
2 tsp salt
1/4 C sugar
3 Tbsp veggie oil
4-5 C flour (but I always end up using more in the kneading process)

Grease your bread pans (or in my case, cookie sheet). Pour water into a large bowl and sprinkle yeast over it. Sprinkle salt and sugar over yeast and wait until yeast bubbles and comes to the surface. Stir in oil. Add 2 1/2 cups of the flour and whisk smooth with a wire whisk or wooden spoon. Add 2 more cups of the flour and mix until dough gathers into a ball (I tend to add another extra cup here). Sprinkle flour onto work surface. Turn dough onto it and knead in flour until the dough in no longer sticky but is elastic and slightly stiff, about 10 minutes (this is where I add an extra cup or two of flour to get the right consistency, otherwise it is usually really sticky). Divide dough into two loaves. Shape each loaf and place onto greased pans, lightly cover with plastic wrap (I use towels, which seems to work fine). Let dough rise until it peeks over the edge or doubles in bulk, about 45 minutes (I like to allow mine to rise in the cool oven with a shallow pan of hot water underneath). Pull out and preheat oven to 375. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until brown (but I have found that 20 minutes is perfect, I don't know why).