My Bread Recipes and Routine

There is something to be said about the satisfaction of making bread for your family and those you love. I cannot even tell you how fulfilling this has become for me and the look on my kids faces when they come upstairs to see fresh bread made will never ever get old.

Everything I do including hobbies has to fit into my daily routine otherwise it might as well be a special occasion only! This is why I wanted to outline not only the recipes but also when I do this throughout my week so you can see a possible way to integrate this into your day!

If you try any of these out, tag me on IG so I can support you! The community of bread makers is growing and it’s so fun to be apart of!

Homemade Bread & Bagels Recipe

Making my white bread and bagels is something I do on Sundays when I know I have a couple hours (2-3) to be home and not to mention it is so therapeutic to bake on a Sunday! I turn on some chill music and just enjoy the process 🙂 Plan on being present for the first 20-30 minutes to get everything mixed and kneaded and then you can step away for the next hour while it rises.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup warm water

Pinch Sugar

2Tbsp yeast (active dry yeast)

5 cups hot water

14-16 cups all purpose , unbleached flour

2/3 cup avocado oil

2/3 cup honey

2 Tbsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add yeast & sugar to 1/2 cup of water and let sit for up to 5 minutes
   1. Make sure the water is warm-hot but not too hot you can’t put your finger in it. You’ll know when the yeast is activated because it will create a froth on top of the water and start to “grow”.
2. Combine the yeast mixture with 5 cups of hot water, then add 7 cups of flour
   1. The water needs to be hot because it helps the dough start to rise in the mixer
3. After the flour mixes in evenly then add the avocado oil, honey and salt. And let it knead in the mixture for 10 minutes.
   1. If you want your bread to have more flavor then experiment with more coarse salts and different brands of honey
4. Add the rest of the flour to the mixer gradually until the dough can clear the sides of the bowl
5. Divide the dough into 4-5 sections and place into greased bread pans to rise for an hour
   1. Cover the bread pans with a light towel while it rises. If the timer goes over an hour its okay
6. Preheat the oven to 365-375 depending on how “hot” your oven tends to be. Bake the bread loaves for 35-39 minutes.
7. After baking, take the loaves out of the pans , apply butter to the top of the loaves and let them cool for AN HOUR.
   1. Cooling is so important to help them last longer. Look at it like it’s part of the baking process.

To make Bagels with part of your Bread batch, use 1 or 2 of your loaves of dough and after they rise for an hour you’ll set these aside once you put the bread in the oven.

BAGEL PIVOT INSTRUCTIONS

1. Roll out those few loaves into longer cylinders and divide them into 2×2 or 3×3 size sections and those are your bagel sizes. Keep in mind that they will grow about 30% more by the time you are done with them!
2. Push a hole into the center of each ball and shape them before you lay them on a pan to rise for 10 minutes
3. As the bagels are rising, get a large pan or Dutch oven and fill it with water half way to boil
4. Place 3-4 bagels as many will fit in the boiling water and let boil for 2 minutes and then flip them for another 2 minutes
5. Move the bagels from the boiling water to parchment paper to cool a little.
6. Mix up an egg wash (one egg & some milk beaten together) and brush onto the bagels.
7. Season the bagels if you want or leave just as the egg wash
8. By now the bread should be finishing up and once you pull the bread out you can heat the oven to 420
9. Place the bagels in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

SOURDOUGH ROUTINE & RECIPE

Let’s start in the evening…

1. Around 7 -9 pm I “feed” my starter so that it is ready to use in the morning
2. While I’m making breakfast for my kids around 7am I start my sourdough prep

RECIPE

Grab a food scale and a large bowl because trust me this dough will RISE a lot!

150g of your starter /200g 

300g of water / 400g

450g of flour / 600g

10g of salt / 12g

1. Using my dough hook I mix up the ingredients and sometimes need to add a bit more water after because the dough needs to be very sticky when its done mixing
2. Let the dough sit for 15 min
3. Wet your hand and scrape the bowl and fold the dough into itself. Do a quarter turn and repeat 3 more times
4. Cover the bowl with a lid and let it rise for 10-12 hours

This process is so quick to do in the morning and if more or less time goes by in between then it’s okay.

1. After the dough has done its first rise you should see it more than double in your bowl at 10-12 hours
2. Flour the counter or use a pastry cloth and scape the dough out of the bowl
3. Flour your hands and begin to knead the dough a few times then flip the dough over and “shape”it. This means your tuck under the dough to create a smooth top and round shape.
4. Place parchment paper in your Dutch oven that comes up just over the sides. Place the shaped dough into the bowl and cover with the lid to do a second rise for an hour.
5. At 45 min into the rise, preheat your oven to 470 degrees.
6. Once the dough has finished the second rise it should have risen to almost twice the size it was. Then using a blade you get to score the dough. (This is when you see those beautiful designs come to life that people do but at a minimum just cut two ( ) on top so the dough can expand in the oven) if you want you can sprinkle some flour on top after you score just for esthetic.
7. Place the Dutch oven in the oven to bake for 35 minutes you can then take the lid off after the 35 min and put It back in for another 5 minutes if you like a more golden top of the loaf
8. Remove from the oven and take the loaf out of the Dutch oven to cool for a minimum of 30 min.