Fresh Bread

Hello, my name is Johanna and I love bread. Yep, bread is my #2 weakness when it comes to food. Chocolate of course being my #1 🙂 Not much makes my mouth water and tummy growl like the smell of freshly baked bread. I love the way it makes my house smell like a bakery and the sweet yeasty taste. I even told my running partner/amazing friend that I should get a running shirt that says, “I run because I love carbs.” All this just so you know, because I love bread so much I’m not just giving you any old bread recipe… no this is my favorite bread recipe that I make almost weekly! Yep, there are not words good enough for how scrumptious and easy this bread is.

Ingredients:

2 packages of active dry yeast
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 2/3 cup flour

First pour the warm water, yeast and sugar in your mixing bowl and stir. It will look like this.

Let it sit for about 5 minutes and it will foam up like and look like this.

Now mix in the oil and salt. Then add 3 cups of flour and stir until well blended. Add the remaining flour and knead for about 4 minutes. I used my dough hook on my stand mixer. Coat the bowl in olive oil and the top of the dough. It will look like this.

I turn my oven on warm for about 1 minute and the turn it off leaving the oven light on I place the bowl inside and shut the door to let it rise. After an hour it will have doubled and look like this.

Then gently pick it up and split in half. This makes 2 nice loaves. Most of the time I make one regular loaf and then one cheese loaf. For the regular loaf just shape and place in a greased loaf pan. For the cheese loaf I roll out into a long rectangle shape and put cheese(I used cheddar) across the top.

Then I slowly roll from one end.

Until it is a loaf shape.

Then I place it into a greased loaf pan also.

I let them rise again in the oven with just the oven light warmth for another 20 minutes. Then I bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool completely on a cooling rack.

Then for the best part! Slice and eat 🙂 I just love the spiral of cheese throughout the cheese loaf.

Well that’s it! Two hours to two loaves of fresh bread 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Johanna