Life with the Family O

Tag: Bread

  • Delicious White Sandwich Bread Recipe

    Stop the presses! This bread is delicious…and it’s easy to make!

    I admit, we only buy whole wheat bread from the store but I don’t buy wheat flour. When I make homemade bread it’s always artisan bread, never a loaf. Well, the time came that I needed sandwich bread for lunch and realized we were out. So I went to my trusty friend Google and found this amazingly easy King Arthur recipe.
    homemade sandwich bread

    I mixed up all the ingredients in my Kitchen-Aid and followed the easy directions.  A couple of hours later my boys were eating the most delicious grilled cheese sandwiches along with homemade tomato soup.

    You must make this! It is so easy and so very, very good.

    King Arthur White Sandwich Bread

    • 1 cup + 2 tablespoons water to 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water*
    • 1 heaping tablespoon honey
    • 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
    • 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
    • 2 tablespoons soft butter
    • 4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
    • 1/3 cup Baker’s Special Dry Milk or 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk granules
    • *Use the lesser amount in summer or humid climates; the greater amount in winter or drier climates.

    Directions

    1. 1) Mix all of the ingredients in the order listed, and mix and knead — by hand, or using a stand mixer — to make a smooth dough. It won’t be particularly soft nor stiff; it should be smooth and feel bouncy and elastic under your hands.
    2. 2) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or other container. Cover it, and let it rise at room temperature until it’s very puffy, 1 to 2 hours.
    3. 3) Gently deflate the dough, and shape it into a fat 9″ log. Place it in a lightly greased 9″ x 5″ loaf pan.
    4. 4) Cover the pan, and let the dough rise for 60 to 90 minutes, till it’s crowned 1″ to 1 1/2″ over the rim of the pan. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.
    5. 5) Bake the bread for 20 minutes. Tent it lightly with aluminum foil, and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, till it’s golden brown. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center will read 195°F to 200°F.
    6. 6) Remove the bread from the oven, and turn it out onto a rack to cool. When completely cool, wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature.
    7. Yield: 1 large loaf, about 18 servings.

    Your family will love you even more!

    Click here to see this recipe and many others on King Arthur’s website.

  • Golden Cloverleaf Dinner Rolls

    Cloverleaf Rolls

    Bread.  Glorious bread. I love any type of good fresh bread and I think you’ll love these cloverleaf rolls.  I always prefer to make and bake from scratch but I do not do it as often as I would like.  My Mom hosted Thanksgiving festivities this year and asked me to make rolls.  I was a bit scared because the particular kind she had in mind takes hours to shape.  I ran to my favorite recipe resource, Allrecipes.com.  I found a highly rated “Golden Dinner Rolls”, as I read the reviews some people suggested Cloverleaf style.  I was excited to try because it sounded so simple.

    Cloverleaf Roll Dough

    Cloverleaf Rolls

    Ingredients

    • 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
    • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees to 115 degrees)
    • 1/2 cup sugar
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1 cup milk
    • 1/2 cup shortening
    • 3 eggs, beaten
    • 6 cups unbleached flour
     Directions
    1. Soften yeast in warm water. Place sugar and salt in large mixing bowl. Set aside. Heat and stir milk and shortening until shortening melts (120 degrees F-130 degrees F). Add to mixing bowl along with eggs and yeast mixture. Stir in 1 cup of flour at a time to form a soft dough that can be kneaded. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic. Place in a large greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into desired rolls or loaves. Place on greased baking sheets or in bread pans. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake rolls at 375 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until golden. Bake loaves at 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until bread tests done. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.
    They are scrumptious!  Bon Appetit!

  • Aunt Sophies Outdoor Oven Spanish Bread


    Every couple of years I end up pulling out the old family recipe cookbook. It was put together for a family reunion in 1984. I learned how to drive a stick shift there, that summer, I was 12 – the good ole days right? It was a small town after all.

    Every time I pull out the book I usually have a purpose, on a mission looking for an old familiar. Until today. It has turned into quite the snowstorm outside so I decided I want to bake today, fill the house with the smell of bread. I initially went to allrecipes.com, then the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, but then I came across the cookbook. Simply titled The Benavidez Family Cookbook. I flipped to the bread section, past the tortillas, the sopapillas and bunuelos that are so familiar to me to a recipe with a curious title.

    I read through the recipe titled Spanish Outdoor Oven Bread… hmmm. I decided to read through, I saw that I had all the ingredients I would need, still not completely convinced though. I skimmed down the page to see that my Grandma’s Aunt Josie submitted it, I made her sisters tortillas recently. So what got me? The last line of her recipe read “You have never eaten a better bread in your life”. OK – Fully convinced, I went to work.





    Ok, so I put the bread in the oven and left for the store. I told my husband to watch them and to pull them out when the oven beeped. Let me just tell you that when I came back all 3 boys and Daddy has mouths and fistfuls of bread… they were eating it plain, no butter even. I was like “it’s that good”? I seriously love bread but it always needs butter. However I tore of a chunk and WOW – it really didn’t need butter or anything, it was delicious! Nice hard crust too, not to crumbly. It really was the best bread I have eaten, and yes I did end up putting butter – almost heaven! So good, HIGHLY RECOMMEND – Go make it right now – go!

    The Recipe – notes on bottom indicate amounts halfed
    (Click to Enlarge)

  • Braided Egg Bread


    Again being inspired by so many awesome foodie blogs I decided it was time I learned how to make homemade bread. We are a bread loving family. My husband was running to the store and I told him to get flour for some cookies I was going to bake (Lemon Spiral), on a whim I told him to grab some yeast. I thought that at least if I have it in the house I would be able to make it when inspiration struck. He brought home Fleishmanns Rapid Rise yeast. I went straight to the internet to find some recipes that specifically called for it. All of those called for cream, which is something I am finding out most chef and bakers always have on hand. I on the other do not keep cream on hand. So off the allrecipes.com to find the perfect loaf. I searched Bread, Non-Machine, Loaf, Top 20. A recipe came up that looked and sounded delicious… and it was!
    Ingredients:

    3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
    2 tablespoons sugar
    1 package Fleishmanns Rapid Rise dry yeast
    3/4 teaspoon salt
    3/4 cup water
    3 tablespoons vegetable oil
    3 eggs + 1 egg yolks
    TOPPING:
    1 egg
    1 teaspoon water
    Directions:
    1. In a large mixing bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a saucepan, heat water and oil to 120 degrees F-130 degrees F. Add to dry ingredients along with eggs. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
    2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place rest about 10 minutes.
    3. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Set a third of the dough aside. Divide remaining dough into three pieces. Shape each into a 13-in. rope. Place ropes on a greased baking sheet and braid; pinch ends to seal and tuck under. Divide reserved dough into three equal pieces; shape each into a 14-in. rope. Braid ropes. Center 14-in. braid on top of the shorter braid. Pinch ends to seal and tuck under. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
    4. Beat egg and water; brush over dough. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cover with foil during the last 15 minutes of baking. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.

    This recipe was adapted from Marlene Jeffreys recipe on Allrecipes.com