So post stuffs regarding making food the old fashioned way, instead of just buying it at the store like a normal person.
Bread. You really can make it yourself. I've been using Julia Child's recipe, which is excellent, cheap, and fully usable for sandwiches. The most expensive part is probably the butter, and each loaf only has 1/8th of a cup. KF formatting is annoying, so sorry if this is ugly:
2 1/2 Cups warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
6 Cups flour
2 tsp salt
1/4 Cup butter
Run the tap as hot as it can go, and measure out the water. Put this in a bowl with the yeast and the sugar.
Mix the flour and salt, and heat the butter a bit to melt it. Bread flour is better, but all-purpose works too.
The yeast mixture should be getting foamy, if not, either wait some more, or accept that your yeast is dead and get more.
Mix up the flour if it settled, and make a dent in the middle. Pour in the butter and the yeast water.
Using a fork, scrape the dry flour on the outside into the middle, while turning the bowl. The goal here is just to wet all the flour.
Mix aggressively with the fork, making sure that everything is wet. It should clump up and look terrible, that's okay.
Pinch the dough off of the fork, and use your hands to squish everything in the bowl together. Scrape down the sides with your fingers, and put the bits on top, poking them into the dough.
Squish the dough flat and fold it in half, then squish is flat again. If you've ever tried to fold a piece of paper in half eleven times, do it like that. Stop when it seems to be getting firm, probably way before eleven times.
Take the dough out of the bowl, and put it on a clean smooth counter. Don't sprinkle any flour yet. Fold over one corner just a little bit, an inch or two, and gently press it into the dough. Spin it a little and repeat this. It's hard to describe a good knead properly over text, so get your Grandma to show you how, or at least find a video.
You should work the dough for a long time to develop the gluten, and it should be smooth and elastic by the end. If you poke it, the dent should vanish in a few seconds.
Put it in a bowl, cover the top with plastic wrap, and leave it somewhere warm until it doubles in size, probably around an hour if your yeast is virile.
Grease two loaf pans with a bit of butter.
Gently press it down with your fist, deflating most of the big air bubbles. Pinch it into two blobs, and fold each blob into thirds, like a letter. Curl the rolled ends under and place the loaves in the greased pans.
Wait for them to rise again, until the top of the dough is past the top of the pans by a little bit.
Heat the oven to 375 F, or convert those units yourself, commie.
Put the loaves in and let them cook until the top is a darker golden color and they sound hollow when you flick them gently.
Some notes:
The bread does not brown when toasted, no idea why. It still toasts great, just doesn't change color.
Do not cut bread when it's hot, wait for it to cool off first.
If you have a rack, take the bread out of the pans as soon as you can, and let it cool on it's side, flipping it every once in a while to keep it dry.
Don't be afraid to overwork the dough, just make sure you knead it in the most wimpy way possible. Trust me, it will work, you just have to go longer.
Do be afraid to add flour. Only sprinkle some flour down if it rips when you pull it off of the counter. It should stick a bit, but come off cleanly if you pull slowly.
Rotate and switch the bread pans halfway through baking, so any inconsistency in your oven doesn't make one loaf darker.
Freeze your bread and reheat it. Bread keeps forever and doesn't get weird in the freezer for a long time.
This got autistic, but I really love bread. If you have questions feel free to PM me, but ask your Grandma first.
aspect.
