Bread…

Is there anything better than fresh homemade bread?

There probably is, but I’ll bet you nothing smells more wonderful. Maybe its reminiscent of my childhood. Early in the morning before the sun came up, I would wake to the smell of fresh bread coming out of the bread machine. My dad would slice it hot, slather butter on top and hand it to my little sister and I as if it were our cup o’ joe. Hmmm….good times.

Not surprisingly, I started my bread making journey with a bread machine. A huge honkin cuisanart, here she is in all her glory. She looks pretty banged up, huh? That because my dear sweet bread machine took a tumble or two…or three…right off the counter. That’s what bread machines do, or so I’m told. She busted her lid clean off, but her beauty shines from within and she can still perform her duties just as well as any shiny new machine on the market. Perhaps better, you know, with her years of experience under her belt.

Goodbye bread machine, hello Pain de Mie.

Eventually, I put on my big girl pants and decided to graduate myself from bread machine bread baker to oven bread baker. Dun dun dun. Yes, it was that dramatic.

Since I didn’t yet have any bread pans-gasp!!-I decided a virtual trip to my favorite store Amazon (don’t worry, I’ll go into plenty of detail about why I love amazon so much in a later post) was in order to see what I could find. And there she was…

It was love at first sight. I just knew that we were meant to be in each others lives. And not like one of those fleeting relationships, but a lasting one. One where I will introduce her to my grandchildren. They will be up on the stool in my kitchen, kneading dough and I will pull her out with a twinkle in my eye and a “I think the time has come for you to meet Grammy’s secret baking weapon.”

No, I have never been accused of being dramatic. NEVER.. Or sarcastic.

This little beauty is called a Pullman loaf, or a pain de mie loaf. To put it simply, it’s a bread pan. A bread pan for beautiful, glorious, delicious bread. Don’t be fooled by its luscious aluminized steel exterior or its curvy fluted hips. This bread pan is a workhorse, it’ll BAKE that bread.

Your bread will come out looking like this, and instead of slicing and eating it, you can leave it on your counter all day admiring its under-exaggerated beauty. When you finally work up the nerve to run a knife through it, you will then get to enjoy the best bread you have ever made.

If I haven’t yet convinced you to run (virtually, of course) to amazon, order yourself this pan and wait anxiously for two days for it to arrive (because you have amazon prime, obviously) then you are a stone cold monster. A stone cold monster who can just watch me eat my delicious bread and turn green with envy. I’m not sharing. Unless you ask nicely, because I’m not a monster. I’m also a mom, and manners are important.

The end.

Oh wait, you want my recipe don’t you? Ok, twist my arm.

This recipe originally came from my dear sister-in-law for my bread machine, but I adapted it for the oven.

The Recipe

Kristin’s Awesome Bread

1 1/2 cups very warm water

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

drizzle of olive oil

1 T honey

4 cups flour

3 teaspoons yeast

350 degrees

Add the water to your mixer bowl. (You can also mix by hand if you don’t have a mixer) Add the salt, olive oil and the honey and gently stir until the honey is dissolved.

Add four cups flour and the yeast. Mix until the dough has come together, then dump out on a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elasticized-about 3-5 minutes, adding a sprinkle of flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Don’t over flour-you want the dough to be slightly tacky, but not pull away and stick to your hand.

Place dough in large lightly oiled bowl and cover. Let rise about 30 minutes, until it has doubled in size.

Turn out onto work surface again and knead a few times to press out the air. Gently form into a long loaf shape about the length of your pan. Lightly oil your pan-including the lid if you are using a Pullman loaf, and place the dough inside. Cover and let rise until it is about an inch or two from the top of the pan.

When it is finished rising a second time, uncover, slide the lid on your pan and place in the oven.

Bake for 40 minutes. (If you are using a different pan, the second rise and bake times could vary)

When the bread has finished baking, pull out of the oven and carefully remove the lid, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Let cool completely before slicing (unless you can’t wait, understandably) and only slice as much bread as you are going to use immediately.

To store, you can wrap in plastic or place it in a bread container.

Good for about 5 days if stored properly, but I suspect it wont make it that long.

If you are using this recipe in a bread machine:

Follow the directions above, but let your machine do the kneading, rising and baking.

Super easy.

So, what’s MY favorite way to use this delicious homemade bread?

I can’t answer that. It would be like asking me which of my children is my favorite.

However, I DO love me some french toast. And sandwiches. And toast with butter. And croutons. And bread crumbs. And every other imaginable way to use bread.