There's nothing better than the smell of freshly baked bread!  The warmth in the kitchen from the oven is a lovely added bonus!

A couple of years ago, we started baking our own bread at home.  In our attempt to know what goes on our plates and in our bellies, we swapped our store bought bread for homemade bread.  The taste of the bread and the versatility to use the bread recipe in so many ways, we have NOT looked back!

Today, I am sharing our homemade bread recipe from our farm kitchen.  It's easy to make and we love using the dough to make buns, cinnamon buns, ham & cheese pinwheels, cinnamon or cheese bread, pizza dough, and bread sticks.  You can have fun experimenting with your dough in lots of fun ways!

The recipe makes 2 loaves of bread but I always double the recipe!

Homemade Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups warm water
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup honey or sugar, optional
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil or melted lard
• 4 to 5 1/2 cups flour

Instructions:

In a large bowl, mix together yeast, water, and a pinch of honey/sugar.  Allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes until foamy and bubbly.  This is a proofing test - if the mixture doesn't foam, the yeast is likely no good.

Add remaining honey/sugar, salt, oil/lard, and 3 cups of flour.  Mix with fork to combine.

Add another cup of flour and mix to combine.  Add 1/2 cup of flour at a time until the dough begins to come together.  Dough should be smooth and elastic and slightly sticky with a clean finger.  If the dough is sticking to your hands, wash your hands, dry them well, and restart.  Add a little more flour, if needed.

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 to 8 minutes.

Grease a large bowl with olive oil or lard.  Place dough in bowl, cover with a clean tea towel, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.  This will take about 1 to 1.5 hours.

Grease the two bread pans.

Punch dough down.  Divide into two parts.  Shape each ball into an oblong ball and place in pans.  Cover with tea towel and let rise for 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Bake loaves fro 30 to 33 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool.