Fresh Homemade Bread

On the weekend we made a couple loaves of fresh bread. Everyone seems to love fresh bread so it doesn't last much longer than a day or two. It probably wouldn't taste as good after the first or second day anyways so I guess it's a good thing it gets eaten up quickly.

The bread is nice soft on the inside and crispy on the outside when it first comes out of the oven.  After a few hours, it is still soft and moist on the inside, but the outside softens a bit as well and is not quite as crispy.

My parents got the bread recipe from a neighbor of theirs after he had given them a loaf of bread that he had made. They liked it so much and loved the fact that they didn't need a bread machine to make it.

Here is the simple, yet delicous bread recipe:

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons yeast

2 cups of warm water

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

10 cups flour

We used a KitchenAid Mixerwith the dough hook attachment to mix the bread dough and started off by putting the first 3 ingredients (1 cup warm water, 1 tsp. sugar and 2 tbsp. yeast) in the KitchenAid Mixing Bowl. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

Then add the next 3 ingredients (2 cups warm water, 1 tbsp. salt and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Mix well.

Add 1 cup of flour and mix until smooth.

Gradually mix in 9 cups of flour. The dough should still be a bit wet and elastic.

Cover the bowl with a clothand let the dough rise for 1 hour.

Remove the dough from the bowl and cut it into 3 even pieces. Place each piece of dough in separate Bread Pans, cover them with a clothand let them sit for 1 hour longer.

Bake them at 400 F for 20 minutes.

That's it, fresh homemade bread!

My favorite way to have the bread is with butter on it, but sometimes I have it plain with a bowl of nice hot soup.

Enjoy!