Homemade Bread

This post has been in the works for awhile, which you can tell because some of the pictures were at our old house, and the rest of the pictures and the videos were done here at our new house. What you can’t see in the videos were my sexy striped pj pants. I tilted the camera quite carefully so as to avoid being made fun of!

It’s a rainy day today, so I stayed inside (in my pjs of course). And rainy, pj days are definitely the best bread making days. Mmm!

Hubby and I are spoiled as there’s always homemade bread around. When we run out, we refuse to eat any store-bought stuff!

You’ll definitely need an apron.

And a very large bowl.

And a bunch of loaf pans.

And a little helper is always good too!

I’ve put together a couple videos to help you with punching down the dough and shaping into loaves:

So here goes!

Inspiration and base recipe courtesy of The Gourmet Housewife’s Mom aka “GH’s Biggest Fan“.

Print Recipe

Homemade Bread

Servings: 8 loaves

Author: The Gourmet Housewife

Ingredients

• 10 cups warm water divided
• 2-3 tbsp traditional yeast
• 21 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup ground flax
• 1/2 cup whole flax seeds
• 2 cups oats
• 1 cup raw sunflower seeds or substitute another 1 cup of oats
• 8 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2/3 cup honey

Instructions

• Pour 6 cups of warm water into a large bowl. Stir in yeast and let sit 10 minutes, until foamy.
• Meanwhile, put all the remaining dry ingredients into your very large bowl. Mix them up and make a well in the center. Pour in the remaining 4 cups of water, olive oil, honey, and finally your water/yeast mixture. Mix as best you can (you may have to switch to your hands at this point). Add a little flour as needed (don't add too much or your dough will be very dense). At this point, it's okay if the dough is a little sticky.
• Put your dough in a warm place to rise. It's very important that the temperature in the house remains consistent. Doors opening, for example, can drastically affect the rising power of your dough. I like to place my bowl in the oven, with only the oven light on. It provides enough warmth, and with the door closed, the dough is resistant to any temperature changes. Let dough rise 1.5 hours.
• Punch down your dough. I've put together a video to help with this!
• Rise dough for another 1.5 hours, then shape the dough into loaves. I usually divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Here's a video to show you how to shape them into loaves.
• Once shaped into loaves, place them into lightly greased 8" x 4" loaf pans. Cover them with a light towel and put them in a warm place to rise. Let the loaves rise 20-30 minutes., until the bread is starting to peek over the top of your loaf pan (you want it about 1 inch above the top of the pan). At this point, preheat your oven to 350°F.
• Place the loaves in the preheated oven, and bake for 30-40 minutes or until tops are browned.
• Remove to wire racks and cool completely before placing in bags to store.

Notes

You can substitute up to 1/4 of the flour with whole wheat flour.

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