Baking Bread

I'm relatively new to the whole baking bread thing. Mom made bread and I would help her, but having the full responsibility from flour-to-loaf was intimidating to me! Before we married, my husband would make bread and invested in a fancy machine to make it easier. Since I stay home and he works full time, it seemed logical that I would take over the bread-making chore. 

Well, I like detailed instructions until I get the hang of things, and the recipes I was using didn't tell me exactly how to work with said fancy machine--a Bosch. So like any modern kitchen maven *cough* I googled it. As in specifics. As in "make bread bosch machine". I landed on the perfect step-by-step guide--with pictures!!! And it works. Ever since then my bread has been great. This was at least a year ago.

Just last week when I was making bread I realized my snazzy instructions were from a real live blogger. Like me! I finally took the time to comment and thanked Jennifer at Colourful Threads for allowing me to be the bread-maker for my bread-winner husband. :)

I'm going to go ahead and post my pictures and some additions to the basic whole wheat flour that I like to include, but go here to get the details. I'm sure you could adapt it to work with a stand mixer or even by hand.  Enjoy!

Handy-dandy bread-making machine

Ingredients for sponge (+ flour)

Whole wheat flour

Foamy sponge

Things I like to add just for fun

I use unbleached white flour, whole wheat flour, flax seeds (sometimes I use a coffee mill to grind them up), wheat bran or wheat germ, gluten flour, and of course salt. I sometimes add a cup of oatmeal, dry or leftover 7-grain cereal, corn flour, sunflower seeds, or ground nuts.

When the dough doesn't stick to the sides,
 you've added enough flour.

The Bosch kneads the dough so effectively
that it eliminates the first rise!

Properly kneaded dough

Turned out on the work surface 

Quartered

Shaped into a loaf

Lined up and waiting to rise

All done--and the house smells SO good!

Turned out to cool on racks.

Seriously, it's so good! Try it!

The worst part of the job:
Washing the bowl and dough hook.