Baking Bread

Today I baked bread. I started attempting to make bake bread soon after getting married as I thought this was one of the things I ought to be able to do. After a few years of making contact with people much more health/nutrition oriented than I, the transition has been made from attempting to bake a couple loaves of bread by hand on occasion to baking multiple loaves at a time on a regular basis. I am now a regular bread baker and I rarely buy bread from the store.

This is nothing less than amazing. I'm the same girl who rarely cooked a meal and constantly ate out. Now I bake my own bread....incredible.

I've always been a person driven to be the best at whatever I do. I thought that a wife and mother ought to know how to bake bread...just because. Now I bake bread because I'm convinced that it is the only way to make sure that I'm giving my family the best bread possible w/o paying an arm and a leg. Whole grain at the grocery store is really not whole grain. Once I understood how many foods, including bread, are stripped of their true nutritional value, I committed to doing what I could to give my family my best.

Not only do I bake my own bread but I mill my own flour. I know....REALLY insane! How'd I go from the up and coming financial research guru to breadbaker...I dunno...I guess it's Jesus.

I could try to explain the reason for milling my own flour but it's already been done so well HERE.

Anywho, I milled my fresh flour and produced five beautiful loves of bread in about 1.5 hour. Here's the bread going into the oven....

Here's the finished bread on the counter to cool with fresh melted butter brushed over the top...Mmmmmmmm!!!

I went on to slice the bread with an electric slicer. A good friend just gave me this tip. This was my first time to use the electric slicer and it was wonderful!

Not bad. I also took some additional dough (the dough that is normally the sixth loaf) and made a gigantic "Hot Pocket". It was so good. A little cheese, turkey, and miracle whip inside before baking followed by melted butter and parmesan cheese on the outside after baking and VOILA!

I started about 4pm and was finished at 6pm. This included cleanup...and....one hour of this time was spent looking at magazine while my bread was rising and baking! Not bad :)

We ate a loaf. I put one in the refrigerator for later (cuz we almost go through a whole loaf when the bread is fresh and hot...wonderful with butter and fruit spread). I also put two in the freezer and sent one home with my mother-in-law. I will bake again in a couple of weeks. Many times I give most of it away b/c when I get in a groove of baking every week we just can't eat it all. Not a bad problem to have :)