I blogged a while ago about how I wanted to do more bread baking on a regular basis around here.  It was going well, but I still wasn’t 100% satisfied with any of the bread recipes I tried.  I tried lots of different ones since I enjoy giving new recipes a whirl.  What I found was that almost all bread recipes make great toast, but I was missing a good sandwich bread.  I needed the bread a bit denser.  And a bread that wouldn’t totally dry out by the time we were at the last slice of the last loaf.

Well…I think I found one!

This recipe is from Farmgirl Fare.  The recipe is called “Farmhouse White” and you can find it here.  I made this batch on Monday–3 loaves.

Here is my mixing bowl next to the laptop on the kitchen table.

Dough is now ready to knead.

Fresh bread is so wonderfully good, I can’t encourage you enough to give it a try.  The only equipment I needed to make this recipe was a big bowl, a wooden spoon, and loaf pans.  And TIME.  That is the hardest thing about bread.  You need about a 1/2 day to make it.  You are not working that entire time, but you need to be around to move it along to the next step.

I really hope you give homemade bread a try.  It blows store bought away!!

I made bread this weekend and made a very important discovery.  Bread takes a long time to rise and so it is helpful to have other things to do while you wait.   Well, I decided to run errands and it took me longer than I expected.  So…when you leave bread too long to rise it gets kind of a crust over the top and the yeast takes on a slightly sourdough taste.  It really was still edible, but not great.  Really good for garlic toast–take a few slices, butter them, sprinkle a little bit of garlic salt, top with shredded cheese, and put it under the broiler.  (We do this with the heels of bread as well.)

Tony has become a rather good photo man.  This picture was from when we were in Germany a couple years ago.  We were eating on this little back porch in a village.

This is the Japanese Lilac bush in our backyard.  Ahh, spring.  I can’t wait for your return!

I’m thinking I might have to get some chickens this spring…