April 25, 2011

Our daily bread

As detailed in this quasi-new year's resolution post, we've sought small changes in the way that we live on a daily basis in order to better align our lifestyle with our values and bring us closer to living the kind of life that we aspire to, despite a less than ideal housing market.

We found time to address some of our mini goals before Merritt was born, but we didn't get to everything, and being home over the past month has made it easy for me to focus in on the details of what happens here, which in turn has provided more motivation for improvement.

I've been making steady progress on the list of action items that we initially identified, and I would love to share more about the individual changes that we've made (like banning the tv), but this post here is about bread!


Cinnamon Raisin


White Sandwich


Whole Wheat

We consume a fair amount of sandwich bread in this house, and I thought it was a great idea to learn to bake the kind of bread that we eat on a regular basis. I've always been just a little shy about baking anything that requires the use of yeast as a leavening agent. I never could get it just right (I've since learned that yeast doesn't need hot water to proof, it's really much happier at lukewarm).

So, we've identified three winning recipes that now serve as our staples, and we've woven their baking into a weekend ritual that satisfies my need to keep the belly's in this house full, while offering anyone who wants to join in the opportunity for family cooking.

I love everything about warm yeasty breads rising and baking on a Sunday morning.

Here are the recipes:

2 comments:

  1. Wow I'm impressed! I've never mastered making bread, we did it only a few times years ago with my husband's old bread maker.

    Do you think it's a lot cheaper than buying bread?

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  2. Each bag of flour has about 20 cups, and costs about 3 bucks. The ingredients for the two sandwich breads are pretty minimal, and since I can make about 6 loaves of bread per bag, I would say it is definitely cheaper. You should give one of these recipes a try--the white bread is particularly amazing, but all of them are so so easy. I was impressed with myself the first time I made them :), just because bread doesn't seem like an easy thing to bake. Try it!!

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