I’ve always been a little bit intimidated by the idea of baking bread from scratch. I’ve had hard, tasteless homemade bread before, so I knew things could easily go wrong. Also, the thought of kneading dough for several minutes is not how I see myself spending my precious time. Enter the stand mixer. We were gifted one of those fancy KitchenAid stand mixers when we moved to what is now Cedar Swamp Homestead. I dreamed of owning one off and on for several years, but I never could bring myself to spend the money on it. It turns out, if you bake a lot, it’s worth the money (I’ll replace the one we were given in a heartbeat if it ever breaks). The stand mixer makes baking up warm, delicious bread super easy.
All you really need to make fresh homemade bread is water, yeast, sugar, flour, oil, and salt. For a recipe that is easy to follow and provides simple tips for different scenarios (bread machine vs. bread pan, active yeast vs. instant yeast, etc.), check out the Tastes Better From Scratch blog.
The one “extra” thing I bought for this project was a Pullman loaf pan. I’ve been making quick breads for most of my life, so I was surprised when I looked around the kitchen and realized I didn’t have a full-size bread pan. I’d been using miniature bread pans and paper-based molds for gift-giving purposes for years, but never a full-size pan.
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