Homemade Bread Recipe

WOW it is already January 30, 2014.... Crazy how this month has flew by! This month has been full of changes.... both within our family and personally.  More posts to come on updating all of that....but for now one of the biggest changes is how we have been living.  Eating healthy and working out....it feels soo good to get back into it all full force.  Its amazing how different you feel when you cut out most sugar and processed foods from your life....  we even give ourselves "free" cheat meals and even those have become healthy.  Of course being part Italian I love my bread and that has always been a hard thing for me to give up or limit in my life....so I have been working on a recipe that would not have sugars or oils.  Everyone has been asking me to post it, so here it is.  The steps are a little different and I have taken these from various recipes and through trial and error and this is by far my favorite so far!!!

DO NOT TURN THE OVEN ON UNTIL I SAY TOO!!! :-)

I just got the new Ninja 1500 Series Blender so I put the first two ingredients directly into it.

1 Cup Warm-Hot Water....  I don't use a thermometer and I always use water that is very warm.  Add in 2 1/4 Tsp Yeast.  I have tried quick rise and regular and do not see any difference.

Let this sit for 5 Minutes.


After the 5 Minutes, add in 2 1/2 Cups Flour, I use King Arthur's Unbleached Flour or Bread Flour.  I have tried this with their White Whole Wheat Flour as well and it also turns out good, but I love the first too the best! King Arthur's Quality is definitely worth the extra money!  YUM!!

Also add in approximately 1/2-3/4 Tsp Salt.... I don't measure this.....but this is usually about what I put in.... I use Pink Himalayan Salt in my salt grinder.... 

The nice part of the Ninja is you can put the lid on and push dough and it mixes it for you.

While this is mixing I run the microwave for 5 minutes to create a warm environment for the dough to rise during the next step.  

Take a glass bowl and using spray Olive Oil, spray the bowl all over.

Take your mixed dough out and I always still knead a few times by hand....then put into the bowl and rotate the dough a couple times so there is some of the oil on all parts.  

Cover your bowl with a warm towel and put into the microwave. (Microwave is off but will have a warm environment for the dough to rise)

Now just wait until the dough has doubled in size.... usually 20 minutes.  

Punch down the dough by hand and shape it into a loaf... you can make it shorter and fatter or long and skinny....  depending on what you are going to use the bread for.   

Place on a baking sheet and place into the COLD oven.... 

NOW TURN ON YOUR OVEN to 375 degrees.  

This odd step is that as the oven is slowly heating up, the bread will rise the perfect amount.

Bake for a total of 30 minutes and it is done!!!

SOOOO EASY!

Here is one of mine....

As you can see by the recipe, no sugars were added.  Trust me, you won't miss them.  Please let me know your comments after you have tried making this amazing bread!

Thank you everyone!!

XOXO Nicole