We have stopped buying bread in our house and I make it instead.  When I told my brother, he implied I have become a miser. It was pretty funny comment, I was like huh?  NO!  I don’t bake bread to save money. YES, it is a cheaper alternative but really switching to home-made bread is not going to get me haute couture with the saving!  I would need to bake 20000 loaves to justify a LV bag (I’m not into justifying my purchases btw!) hahaha.  Why do I bake bread?  It’s so tasty and so easy. Usually yeast creeps me out.  I have yeast-o-phobia – the whole bubbling process makes me sick.  However,  I came across this recipe and the simplicity of it made me want to try it.  The recipe was adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 minutes!  I changed the flour from all-purpose to strong white as that’s what I had on hand.  I loved it!  Will be trying multi-seed next time.

Advantages of home-made bread:

• YUMMY (most important!)
• Healthy – the recipe has zero oil.  Compare this 4-ingredient bread recipe to any store-bought that has 20 ingredients which are unnecessary! (It’s alarming if you read the ingredient list)
• Cost-effective (20000 loaves baked can buy you an LV BAG LOL)
• Your house will smell of fresh bread…Mmmmmm.

WARNING:  AFTER BAKING THIS, THERE’S NO GOING BACK!! A picture of my beautiful baked loaf…

Doesn’t that just look gorgeous?  The first time I baked it, I was amazed too.  How can something that simple to whip up, be that mouth-watering? Hmmmmm….

Here are a few snaps to demonstrate how I made it…

Mix the ingredients together for 2 minutes… Flour, Yeast, Salt and Lukewarm Water.  Amazingly easy. 😉

Cover with a foil and keep it away for 5 hours.

After 5 hours, it will look like this!  It’s extremely slimy to work with (on the first day)… But this is the dough!

Yummy… Bread slices pan fried. OMG. I have died and gone to heaven at this point.

I am typing this recipe by memory btw!  This emphasises on how easy it is, and how often I bake it!

EASY HOME-MADE ARTISAN BREAD

Makes: Enough 2 big loaves or 3 small loaves

Ingredients:

• 6 1/2 cup strong white flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons coarse sea salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
• 3 cups lukewarm water

Method:

1. Mix wall the ingredients together with a wooden spoon in a big bowl (as it will double in size later)
2. Cover with a foil for 5 hours.
3. Use a knife to divide dough into half (I’d recommend a day after as it’s slimy on the first day!  Hard to work with, but not impossible!)
4. Form a ball and cover with flour.
5. Grease a small roasting tin with butter and place dough there for half an hour.
6. Preheat oven to 235 C.
7. With a knife cut 3 lines in the bread (so air can escape while baking!).  Also dust a bit of flour for aesthetics.
8. Bake for 33-34 mins and leave to cool on a wire rack.  Place some water (about 1 cup) in another roasting tin and put beneath the bread.

Notes:  The dough can stay in the fridge in an airtight container for 2 weeks!  I’ve personally only tried till a week as my husband loves bread!  I prefer making the dough a day in advance as I find the dough much easier to work with.