Learn 5 Important Tips and Strategies for How to Make Homemade Bread

The smell of fresh bread baking in your own oven.

The thought of adding a dollop of butter to it, watching it melt and soak into the warm bread.

Then biting into it and letting the warm, fresh bread melt in your mouth and fill your heart and tummy with that cozy comfort that only hot-out-of-the-oven, baked bread can bring.

If you’ve never made bread before in your own kitchen, it’s never too late.

In fact, you should bake some this week.

Chances are the only thing you will need to buy is yeast, as all the other ingredients are common pantry staple items.

5 Tips That Will Help You Make Homemade Bread

1. Use fresh ingredients that are at room temperature, except for the liquid, which is usually warmed.

Follow recipe directions for warming the liquid. If eggs are called for in the recipe, be sure they have had time to come to room temperature. If you forgot to take the eggs out of the fridge, place them in a bowl of lukewarm water for a few minutes.

If you store your yeast in the freezer, it’s best to let it warm up to room temperature as well, so that it can act most effectively and give your bread the soft and airy rise that you want.

2. Sift flour and then measure by scooping with a spoon into the dry ingredient measuring cup.

Do not press the flour into the cup, as this will make you have more flour than you need.

Scrape off excess flour by running a knife over the top of the measuring cup.

3. Knead the dough ball until it feels smooth like a baby’s skin.

If the dough is sticking to your fingers, dip your fingers and palm in a little flour and sprinkle it onto the dough.

Continue kneading and working the flour into the sticky dough until it’s soft.

4. Brush a little butter and sprinkle a little kosher salt on top of the dough before baking.

This will add a little flavor boost to your bread loaf or rolls.

5. Don’t be afraid to use your bread machine’s dough cycle. 

Really? How will a bread machine make my bread more exquisite? Because it does some or all of the work for you.

• Your bread machine can mix up and knead the dough for you. Then you can shape the dough into rolls or loaves that you can then bake.
• Your bread machine can also make the bread loaf for you. Follow the bread machine manufacturer’s directions for best results.

 My bread machine can be found here on Amazon.

Homemade Bread Recipes on $5 Dinners

• Homemade Whole Wheat Italian Breadsticks
• Homemade Hamburger Buns 
• Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Crust (below)
• Homemade Pizza Crust
• Homemade Naan Bread

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Homemade Freezer Friendly Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

A delicious labor of love!

Prep Time20 minutes minutes

Cook Time20 minutes minutes

Servings - 6 servings

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• 1 1/4 cup lukewarm water
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning (or 1/2 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp oregano)
• 1 Tbsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

Instructions

• Place all of the ingredients into the bread machine, in the order listed. Set on dough cycle and run it.
• Preheat oven to 400. If necessary, spray baking pan or dish with non-stick cooking spray.
• Once complete, add some whole wheat flour to the counter and knead the dough into a ball, coating the sticky spots well with the flour.
• Roll out into a large circle (or whatever shape your baking dish is) and transfer to the baking dish/pan/stone. Prepare the edges of the dough and roll out evenly.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Add sauce, cheese and toppings, then bake for another 8-10 minutes or until cheese has melted.
• Slice and serve Whole Wheat Pizza.
• To Freeze Dough: Take the kneaded and floured dough and place into a plastic freezer baggie and freeze. Thaw completely before reshaping and baking.
• To Freeze Crust: Bake the crust for the 10 minutes as specified, then let cool completely before wrapping in plastic wrap and freezer.
• To Freeze Pizza: Bake as directed and let cool before slicing and adding pizza slices to plastic freezer baggies and add to freezer.

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