Mmm... Fresh Baked Bread!

Among some of the things that I accomplished today (the list is not very long to begin with),

I decided to make bread!

I love making bread and there is one recipe in particular that I make all the time.

It was given to me by my mom's friend, Suzi,

and it is the best and easiest recipe...

It is kind of like a challah bread,

and very open to adding whatever you may like!

Sometimes I add fennel and cardamon like a nisu bread...

Very tasty!

Ingredients:

4 tbsp. butter

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup milk

2 1/2 cup flour

2 tbsp yeast

4 tbsp sugar or honey

2 tsp salt

1.

Heat the butter on low until it has melted and then add the milk (and water if needed) and heat to about body temp.

2.

In a bowl combine flour, yeast, sugar and salt.

3.

Add the butter, water and milk into the mixture and beat until it smooths out some.

Keep adding flour bit by bit until you have a ball of dough.

4.

Kneed the dough a good handful of times to get it worked and ready to form.

5.

Lightly flour a baking tray or bread stone.

Cut the ball of dough in to 3 equal sections.

Roll each seaction between your hands into long tubes (about the length of the pan) and lay them next to eachother.

With the 2 outside tubes, make and x in the middle and over the middle tube.

Then starting from the middle, braid out each side and tuck in the ends a little...

It should look like this:

I meant to take better pictures of this process, but I got excited and then it was already braided...

Oops, sorry!

6.

Once you have braided the dough, cover it and let it sit in a warm place to rise for 1/2 hour.

Meanwhile, preheat the stove to 375 degrees.

7.

When the dough has risen, you can either put it in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes,

or,

you can first add an egg glaze to make it that much prettier!

All you have to do is break one egg into a bowl, add a splash of milk,

whisk and then brush over the top of the loaf before it goes into the oven.

Doing this will give it a beautiful golden brown to the top!

When the bread is finished baking, let it cool a bit before you cut into it...

Yeah, thats what they always say, but I never do!

I can usually wait about 1 to 2 minutes (Andy can't usually even wait that long) and then the loaf is sliced up and loaded with butter...

We are BIG butter people...

"Its better with butter!!!"

Enjoy!

...BrittanButterfly...