Earlier this week the Southern Savers radio show was on how to have frugal kitchen.  The #1 tip… avoid unnessary gadgets and appliances.  For us a bread machine fit that category.  I love fresh bread (even more so since my husband went gluten free and I get to eat more of the loaf) but don’t want to have another appliance filling the kitchen.  I know many of you love fresh bread, but don’t want to spend a crazy amount on a bread machine.

You can make delicious bread and really don’t need anything you probably don’t already have.  Well… there is one thing I would encourage you to invest in.

You’ll need a digital scale and a dutch oven (you can skip the digital scale if you really want to, but do so at your own risk). There is no bread machine needed though. The ingredients are cheap and I love that I know exactly what is in it. You can even use different variations. We love to add rosemary.

The recipe calls for 3 1/4 cups of bread flour, but I like to weigh the flour for more accuracy. I also wanted to make the recipe easier to duplicate. As you may know, one person’s cup of flour may be actually contain more or less flour than another person’s cup of flour depending on a lot of different variables (method of measurement, temperature, humidity, brand/type of flour, altitude, etc.)

When writing or following a recipe, weighing flour can make it easier to get consistent results. I weighed 3 1/4 cups of King Arthur bread flour and it came out to 17.5 oz. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, then just measure by volume but know that you may have to add more flour and water by the tablespoon as needed during the stirring phase.

When we have company coming over, I can start bread the day before. The next day, it will be ready to bake and I am able to serve warm, homemade bread without any hassle.

Here’s how to make homemade artisan-quality bread.

Ingredients:

17.5 oz (3 1/4 Cups) Bread Flour (We are a King Arthur family)
1.5 cups Water (12 oz)
2.5 Teaspoons Kosher Salt (not quite 1 tablespoon)
¼ Teaspoon of Active Dry Yeast (that’s it)

Note On Water

If you use municipal supply water, it could mess up the recipe. Chlorine and other chemicals in tap water, are designed to kill microorganisms (like yeast). This isn’t typically a negative thing, but if your yeast doesn’t survive the first rise, you may need to switch to bottled water.

Steps:

1) Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. I’ve found that a fork is the best tool to bring everything together. It doesn’t have to be thoroughly mixed, just make sure that most of the flour is in the mixture instead of the side of the bowl.

2) Let the mixture rise in the bowl covered in plastic wrap at room temperature for 19-24 hours. Read More→