Homemade Bread Loaf

First time when I made bread I was probably 13 years old…My mom started to work, and I came from the school, hungry like a wolf; I was all alone, my sister was in school and my dad was working as well!  Next to the stove I found a note from my mom, saying ” Could you prepare bread dough and I will bake it when I come back”? And then it was whole preparation (list) how to do it.
I did everything right, except that I used fresh yeast, and my mom did say to put about 1 Tbs. with warm milk  in a cup to get it started. It would take about few minutes, and then I should put it in the flour with everything else. I mixed flour, and felt so proud of myself.. Well..:D I went back to the kitchen about 15 times, mixing the dough constantly. It was odd looking... like it is for pancakes:D ..and never raised up…I was covered in flour, kitchen was messy, full of dough spots everywhere..I felt hopeless!
I Didn't  actually know what I did wrong! 
I was little bit anxious; I felt like million butterflies are in my belly; I did not know how she is going to react that I didn't make bread dough so good;  I went to the kitchen and told her that I did exactly like she wrote on the paper, but nothing had happened to the dough!
She said “It is Okay, but you did not follow the recipe, and see the yeast is still in the cup with milk ” when she said that, my brain just froze:D  I was waiting for two hours for nothing!:D
Well...I learned my lesson!!! 
And that was my first time "trying" to make a bread! 

Now I am rarely buying it  from the store, or bakery..I am making bread everyday fresh and from the scratch without bread machine.. To tell you the truth I find them useless . My hands, and my trusty wooden spoon are doing everything in a matters of 5 minutes.
So here is my recipe....

Homemade Bread Loaf Makes 1 large loaf/or 2 smaller

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups all purpose flour (not with sodium)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt (bit less than 1 TBS)
• 1 Tbs. Baking powder *optional 
• 1 Tbs. dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups of Luke warm water, more or less as needed (or warm milk)
• Oil for greasing the baking pan

Directions:

1. Combine flour, salt and baking powder. Mix!
2. Add sugar and dry yeast in a small cup, and add bit of warm milk or water.
3. Let the yeast activate, stir and add to the flour mixture. 
4. Add more water or milk as needed, but do add slowly so your bread dough wouldn't turn into pancake mixture.(1/2 cup at the time until you reach the thickness)
5. Take a few strokes with a wooden spoon just to combine everything and cover the dough.
6. Let it raise for 20 minutes and stir with your wooden spoon, and let it rest for the next 30 minutes.
7. Preheat oven on 400F (200C)
8. Grease your baking pan and put the dough in. 
9. Again let it raise in the baking pan for the next 10 minutes or until it's almost up to the edges of the pan and place in the preheated oven.
10. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the crust turns golden brown. 

My bread just came out of the oven and the warm smell wrapped my whole house. Is there anything better than freshly baked bread coming from your oven? 


Note* 

• This is no knead bread, I just use wooden spoon to combine and mix the dough. 
• The dough should be just a bit thinner than if you would make pizza dough. 
• Also If you decide to knead just add less water or milk and I would suggest adding maybe 1 Tbs. of oil; flour the working surface and knead until you make a ball and oil it before covering to raise. Once it's risen, knead again and place in the greased baking pan to raise one more time before baking it. 

Wishing you great day!

Your friend,

Sandra 

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