Bakin' and Breakin' Bread

Snapdizzle, it is HOT!  It is 104 degrees out right now.

Sizzling!  My favorite time of the day is when the sun dips below the horizon and the bugs begin to chirp and their songs get louder and louder, and the lightening bugs flash as they zip about.  The air is thick, most people don’t like this, but me…I LOVE it!  So cozy and comforting.  I sit outside most evenings on my steal of a deal craigslist super find $35 porch glider and read my Bible.

You know what else I love right now?  The kind people over at King Arthur Flour who sent me a BUNCH of flour to try out for my blog!  In one of my posts I made a lemon cake that was a recipe from King Arthur Flour’s website, but I could never find any of their flour in Walmart or Dillon’s (RIP Dillon’s).  So King Arthur sent me 4 bags of flour and a box of cake flour to try out.  Whooo Hooo!  Yippie!  I like getting fun big boxes like that.

I used their bread flour and baked two loaves of bread with it.  It was stellar and made even better by the fact that the flour was a gift.  If the flour was not awesome I would have just sent them a Thank You card and never mentioned it here…but it was really good.

I guess if I were honest I have never really used bad flour, so I have nothing to really gauge good or bad flour by.  But the bread it baked was very, very good and as soon as Sam is done with his week of drinking nothing but fresh juiced veggies and fruit I will bake him some bread.  He is trying to drink nothing but freshly juiced veggies and fruit for a week, a WHOLE WEEK!  That is HUGE for him.  He is my Mountain Dew boy, and has been for years.

Here is the bread that I made and enjoyed with friends…the best way to enjoy homemade bread.  YUM!

Don’t you love the smell of bread as it bakes?  If you don’t, there may be something wrong with you, and you should probably get that checked out. "Just sayin" (famous Joplers phrase).

Tomorrow we dive back into a Time of Testimony.  God just keeps bringing me back to it, and I can tell you I am truly so grateful for the testimonies that have been shared and that will be shared, and that are currently being written in lives.  Such a blessing!

Now use this dough rising heat to your advantage and bake some bread!

Amish White Bread By Peg

2 cups warm water (roughly 110 degrees)

2/3 cup white sugar

1 ½ tablespoons active dry yeast

1 ½ teaspoons salt

¼ cup vegetable oil

6 cups bread flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in the yeast.  Allow it to proof (prove to you that your yeast isn’t dead as a doornail) until the yeast resembles a creamy foam.

Mix salt and oil into the yeast.  Mix in flour one cup at a time.  Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth.  Place in a well oiled bowl, then turn dough to coat.  Cover with a damp cloth, or oiled saran wrap.  Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough.  Knead for a few minutes, divide in half.  Shape into loaves, and place into well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans.  Allow to rise in pans for 30 more minutes.  Dough should be about 1 inch above the pan.  Bake in a preheated oven set at 350 F degrees for 30 minutes.

ENJOY!!!!  Let me tell you, your house will smell amazing, your family will sing your praises, and you will feel so accomplished that you baked bread!  Super easy, super yummy, and fun to make and eat.

Xoxo

Ronda

Big thank you to KAF for sharing your flour with me.  That was very cool.