In my last blog, I gave the recipe for homemade crockpot yogurt. hmmmmm…yum! And it really is easy. The by-product you get from making yogurt is whey…a lovely, high in protein, liquid. I have heard of people using whey in smoothies and even drinking it plain. I use it all the time in the bread that I bake for our family. It is perfect!

I have been making bread for my family for about 3 years now. I was sick of the store bought stuff and wanted to try to succeed in getting a bread shop quality bread without paying the extra “dough.” {Plus I didn’t want to make multiple store stops with 2 little kids along!} So after some trial and error here is the recipe that I call “Daily Bread.” It’s good fresh, good as toast, and best yet…makes good sandwiches without toasting even after a few days! So many recipes made good fresh bread and toast…but the sandwich bread…we needed good sandwich bread for our little family. So this is it! Hardest part is being around the house long enough to move the bread along from one step to the next. All you need is a bowl and a spoon!

A note on the flours used. When I was experimenting with recipes, I found that bread flour makes a HUGE difference. I know, I know. Now you have to add something to your grocery list, but it is worth it. In the recipe you can sub out different amounts of white and wheat flour. If you want to use all wheat flour you can. All white flour, you can. I have also subbed oatmeal in for some of the flour.

In a large bowl mix the following:
4 cups all purpose white flour (You can sub in wheat flour here if you want.)
1 1/2 Tablespoons yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
4 slightly warm cups of whey (milk or water works if you don’t have whey)
2 Tablespoons oil

Mix that and then add 3 cups of wheat flour. (I use wheat bread flour, but you could also use white bread flour.)

Your dough will now be a wet sticky dough that is called shag. Cover it with a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, add 1 1/2 Tablespoons of salt. Slowly add 3 cups of white bread flour. Knead for 10 minutes. Yes, this is putzy. Try to relax and enjoy the process. 🙂

After kneading, place dough back in the bowl and let rise for about 75 minutes.
Punch down and shape into 3 loaves, making sure all the air bubbles are out. Place in greased loaf pans and let rise another hour, or until you think it looks like a good height. (How’s that for technical.)

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 35 minutes.

Enjoy a slice of goodness!

We enjoy it with natural peanut butter and homemade rhubarb jam.

I make bread probably just shy of every 2 weeks. I place 2 of the 3 loaves in the freezer and then take them out as needed. I have tried to come up with an eco way of storing bread instead of tinfoil…but so far nothing keeps it as fresh. If you have any ideas, please share!!