Homemade bread for our large family

making bread has been a huge part of my life as a mother...

here’s the problem, don’t start making homemade bread, unless you plan on doing it forever!!! Once you eat homemade bread, it’s didficult to eat store brought breads!!! Even some of the nicest, most expensive, they just seem so dry and bland. 

That being said, I can make all our bread for our family of 11 (currently in the house) in about 15 minutes! (Not including the rise and bake time) I usually make it on the weekend, and then again around Wednesday or Thursday each week. Whenever I make it, I incorporate it into our dinner that night. Usually making 3 or 4  loaves of bread and 1 pan of rolls- for dinner. You see if you don’t do that, you’ll end up eating all of it the first night, right!!! No one can resist hot, fresh, homemade bread- especially with melted butter!!! 💖

So here’s the recipe, I know you’re all dying to have! 

This should make about 5 loaves of bread, or a mix of bread and rolls 

6 cups of warm water (you want the water like warm, think nice warm soothing bath) 

3 Tablespoons yeast

1-11/2 cups of gluten (gluten is what gives the bread it’s elasticity, and ability to stick together) 

3/4 cup sugar or 1 c honey (if using honey, it may take mode flour. The dough will be more liquidy) 

Put those in your mixer, or bowl. (Yes I did hand mix our bread in the beginning. It was a great arm toner! But may it’s a lot of work) lightly mix these together and let sit. You want to see bubbles, sort of foam looking to form. That means the yeast is activated and “awake” so to speak. 

Then add 

7-8 cups of flour (lately I’ve been adding almost 9-10 cups. My grinder is only gridding fine right now. 

2 Tabelspoons of salt. 

You want to add the salt with the flour. The salt is what makes the yeast stop activating, so to speak. If you add the salt to the yeast, omit sort of kills it and makes it not rise as well

Knead for 7-10 minutes. You want it to be well kneaded and slightly warmed up. The kneading helps that. 

Oil your pans well. Form the dough and cover with a towel to rise. You want the dough to double in size.  Turn your oven on to preheat, 350 degrees 

Bake for 25-30 minutes. 

Our current ovens bake weird. I start the loaves at 350 until the tops brown, then I turn it down to 300 until the sides are finished. Our current ovens are a bit difficult. The heating elements are on the top, and it’s definitley a different baking style then I’m used to.



Bread is served! Enjoy!!