Confidence

I think I would have been a decent cook years ago, but I lacked the confidence. Mentally I wasn't ready, I know that sounds so silly, but it's the truth. My confidence started quite by accident. I had an 8 month old at home who napped during my lunch. Sounds wonderful right? Not really! I wasn't able to go anywhere, I was totally stuck at home. I was sick and tired of cheap sandwich bread, but good bread was too expensive! When I was little my mom made homemade bread. I don't know what the mental block was, but there was something about making bread that just seemed impossible to me. I had heard about bread not rising & having to keep the yeast alive, that was enough to scare me off...until I was sick of cheap sandwich bread. I decided to give it a shot. I spoke with my mom and a friend who made bread all the time. I combined the 2 recipes they had given me off the top of their heads and the VERY first time I made bread it was fantastic! The smell that filled my entire house was almost worth the entire baking process. It wasn't even hard! Fast forward 3 years, my bread has risen every single time and my yeast has never died. AND, I have never bought store sandwich bread since, not one single time!

I started my bread baking with a wheat recipe, but quickly moved on to sourdough. Oh my word yall, is there anything better than fresh sourdough bread? The trouble with sourdough is you can't just buy the yeast at the store like the wheat recipe, but once you are given a starter you are golden.

Wheat bread

Once I realized bread wasn't impossible to make I started wondering if I could make other things too! Thus began my cooking journey. When I look at a recipe Im not scared off now! I now enjoy cooking! Its a wonderful thing!!!

Here is my wheat recipe, make it! I promise you will thank me later! If I can make it ANYONE can make it!

1. Heat on low

1 ½ cups water

½ cup butter (1 stick)

1/3 cup honey

2. Mix together in mixer on low (while butter mixture is melting on stove)

            2 T yeast

            3 cups whole wheat flour

            1 T salt

3. Slowly mix in liquid

4. Add 2 cups white flour (or wheat, but will be drier)

5. Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time, mixing between

6. Slowly add 1 more cup of white flour (or whole wheat)

7. Let sit in greased bowl and cover with a light towel until doubles in size, about 1 hour.

8. Spread flour onto dry surface. Cut the dough in half, then flatten each piece with a rolling pin into a rectangle shape, once flat roll the dough into a cylinder shape log and place in greased bread pans and cover with a light towel.

9. Let double in size again, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

10. Bake for 25 minutes on 350.

11. Cool on rack, do not leave in pan.

Just think, once you can make bread, the possibilities are endless!!

Happy baking!!