Simple Bread

Honestly, I don’t make bread often enough and I don’t know why! I love everything about making bread, the texture, the creativity, the smells and especially the end result. This weekend I took the time to make a simple bread dough. I love that it doesn’t need many ingredients. In fact, if you have yeast, you probably already have everything else you need. Here’s the simple bread dough recipe I used.

Simple Bread

I made this bread dough by hand. I have nothing against bread machines or mixers – in fact, I have both. This time, I just wanted to use my hands. I like to feel the dough and work it until it’s the texture I want it to be.

Ingredients: 

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2-1/4 cups warm water
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 6-1/4 to 6-3/4 cups all-purpose flour – I ended up using right around 6 -1/4

Bread Making Tip

First, a note on adding flour to your bread dough mix that I found really works: use a spoon to put the flour into your measuring cup. Do NOT pack it down, just scoop the flour from it’s container and drop it into the measuring cup. Level off the flour with the back of a butter knife and then add it to your bowl. It’s simple, but keeping the flour light and fluffy and not packed down really improves the texture of your bread.

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, salt, oil and 3 cups flour. Stir together until smooth.
2. Now, add in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until it forms a soft dough. Here’s where I started using my hands to work the dough and to assess the texture.
3. You can turn the dough onto a floured surface to knead, but my bowl was large enough that I did my kneading in the bowl. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Then place the dough into a greased bowl (I used olive oil to coat the bowl and dough), turning once to grease the top. Cover and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1-1/2 hours.
4. Punch down the dough then turn onto a lightly floured surface. You can then divide the dough in half as half of this dough will be enough to create a loaf in a 9×5-in pan.

You can make two loaves of bread from this batch of dough if you have two 9×5-in pans. I only have one pan AND I wanted to be a bit creative with my dough. If you do want to just make two loaves, shape the dough into your greased pans, cover and let the loaves rise until doubled, about 30-45 minutes. Then bake the bread in a 375° oven for 30-35 minutes. Cool the bread on a wire rack afterwards. Enjoy!

I decided to play around a bit with my dough using half to make one loaf of bread with cinnamon and sugar and the other half for some biscuits.

Adding Cinnamon and Sugar

I took half of the dough and rolled it out a bit making sure it wasn’t much longer than my 9×5-in pan size. Then, I topped the rolled dough with some melted vegan butter – about 2 tablespoons and sprinkled on some cinnamon and sugar. Use your judgement here making it as sweet and “cinnamony” as you’d like. I kept mine on the light side as you can see below.

Then I rolled the dough, put it in the greased pan, covered it and let it rise about 45-60 minutes.

I used a “new” vegan butter I found called Miyoko’s Vegan Butter and it is FABULOUS!!! If you can get it, you have to try it. It’s my new favorite vegan butter – and I love Miyoko’s vegan cheese spreads too!

Rolls

The other half of the dough, I rolled out and cut biscuits out of just for fun. I placed them on a cookie sheet, covered them and let them rise.

Baking the Bread

After the loaf had risen, I preheated my oven to 375°, but before putting the loaf in the oven, I poured about 1 tablespoon of melted vegan butter on top. I baked the loaf for between 30 and 35 minutes. The loaf sounded hollow when I tapped on it, so I knew it was done. After removing it from the pan, I placed it on a wire rack to cool completely. Well, almost completely, I may have tried a slice while it was still a bit warm!

As for the rolls, I just popped them in the oven for about 20 minutes – until they looked golden and beautiful and then took them out and placed them on a wire rack to cool.

It just makes me so happy having these home-baked breads and rolls around. I’m going to be looking up more bread making options to try now.

It’s a bonus that our house smells just delicious too!

Do you love making breads? If so, please share your favorite recipes with me in the comments below.

I’m so excited Steller decided to feature my Bread story on their site – the newest app I’m so in love with!! You can check it out here: