Homemade Bread

Ingredients
* 4 cups Warm Water
* 8 Tablespoons Sugar
* 4 Tablespoons Yeast
* 4 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
* 4 teaspoons Salt
* 7 cups Flour

Instructions
Add sugar to 1 cup of the warm water (I just use hot steamy water from the tap) and then dissolve yeast in the sugar water. Let sugar/yeast mixture rest until doubled in size.

Pour oil in bowl, add sugar/yeast mixture, rest of water, and salt.

Add flour 2-3 cups at a time. Knead (a gentle massage) to make a soft, not sticky dough. *Tip: You’re done kneading if when you touch it, the bread doesn’t stick to your finger. If it sticks to your finger, add more flour.

Sometimes you’ll use up to 9 cups of flour so don’t be nervous if you use more than 7. It just depends on the day, how much flour I use.

(If you’re making this is a Bosch or KitchenAide mix on level 2 speed with the bread hook for about 6 minutes).

Cut the dough into four equal pieces. Set on greased counter top, cover with towel, and let stand for 15 minutes.

Pound each piece with a wooden spoon for 1 minute (gets the air bubbles out). Massage each piece as you form into loaves and place in greased loaf pans.

Allow to raise until doubled in size. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes (19-20 minutes for mini loaves as seen in the picture) or until golden on top. Rub butter on top while it’s warm.

*** {recipe from the Tasty Kitchen website} ***

A few weeks ago I tried my hand at making homemade bread (without a bread machine--we don't have one, no room!). It was a lot easier than I expected it to be and it tasted great! Next time though, I'm only going to do half of this recipe, since it makes 4 HUGE loaves of bread, which wouldn't really fit in my little half-oven, so it made baking them all at once pretty much impossible. and Ithink it would've looked prettier if I'd had bread pans--I just used a round cakepan and cut it up. I've been eating it with honey and a little bit of butter for breakfast--got to get a healthy start to the day, right? ha!