THE EASIEST BREAD RECIPE EVER

There is something about baking bread. The smell of the yeast, getting your hands in the dough, kneading the dough. It's relaxing, it makes a house feel like home, and it makes Thursday night dinner special. The snow storm dumped about 3 inches of the white stuff in the yard, and was gone by about 2 in the afternoon, but that's when the temperature dropped, so of course Nick had to go out and play in his hole. I wanted to make sure he had a really good hot meal when he came back in. Spaghetti sauce, ground chicken, spices, pasta, o.k., we have a main course. For some reason we have no salad fixin's...what to put with it? Garlic bread! But it's late and bread takes three to four hours...alittle time on the internet and, viola, a quick, single loaf recipe on http://chickensintheroad.com/cookin/crusty-french-bread-and-more/ I changed it a bit, so here is the recipe.

Easy French/Italian Bread

1 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast

salt to taste

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour



a pinch of salt



Combine water, yeast and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer (Kitchen Aid! Love) and let stand for 5 minutes to proof. This is where I went a little nuts! I added two heaping Tablespoons of pesto!

mmmm, pesto



The recipe says that if you want a softer loaf, more like Italian bread, add some oil, well pesto is mostly oil, right?

the magic of yeast

Add your flour, slowly and let the mixer do the kneading for you, I only needed about 2 1/4 cups of flour. Knead by hand about 5-8 minutes or in the mixer 3-5, until the dough is soft and elastic. Place in a bowl with a little oil, cover with a dish towel and let rise (this needs to be in a warm draft free place, hard to find in my house!) until doubled in size about 30-40 minutes.


 


before the rise



almost there!



Place on a baking sheet and form into a loaf. This is the tricky part, once you have your loaf all ready for the second rise...don't! Stick it in the oven and turn it on to 375 degrees! No second rise the oven does it for you! Don't preheat! Bake the bread for 30-40 minutes, bread is done when it sounds hollow when you thunk it, mine went about 45 minutes. How simple is that, fresh homemade bread in about an hour and a half! I hope you try this amazing bread, and check out the fun at Chickens in the Road!

I think maybe today I'll finish the window treatments in the bedroom, paint some rocks and maybe bake an oatmeal cake!

Hope you're having a beautiful day!