The Scary One: Yeast Bread

 Oh.... Bread. I love bread! But a lot of people are intimidated by the idea of using yeast. Really, though, it is not as scary as it sounds. I don't even use a recipe when I make bread anymore! That's right, no recipe, AND yeast, all in the same thing! Are you worried yet? Good. Let's begin.

  Now, a lot of bloggers will post big long tutorials about making something or other, but never give a list all at once. I hate that. So here is the complete list of ingredients. I don't measure anything, so this is just a estimated guess of about how much you will need. Something different about this recipe is it uses milk instead of water. It works with water too, but the bread has a much better flavor using milk.

Milk- about 1 1/2-2 cups
Butter, Shortening, Oil, Lard, or some other type of fat. I just put two large scoops of shortening, using a wooden spoon, usually. In these pictures, I used butter.- About 1/2 - 3/4 cup.
Sugar, honey, or something else sweet. Don't use Splenda or any other type of artificial sweetener. It won't work. Use about 4 tablespoons.
Yeast- about 2 tablespoons.
Flour- 1/2 cup, plus enough to make a soft dough ball, and for kneading.In these pictures, I used spelt flour instead of wheat, so it is slightly darker. You can use wheat or spelt.
Salt- about 1/2 teaspoon.

Step One: Heat the milk and fat on the stove, stirring constantly until the fats are melted.

 Step Two: Pour the milk and butter into a bowl and add the sugar. Let it cool for about 2-3 minutes, so you don't accidentally kill the yeast.

  Step Three: Add about 2 tablespoons of yeast to the milk, sugar and fat. Stir until it isn't lumpy anymore.

   Step Four: Add roughly one half cup of flour, and stir until it is no longer lumpy.

 Step Five: Let is sit for about 15 minutes, until it is very frothy. I am horrible about this, but DO NOT STIR IT, OR IT WON'T GET FROTHY! Leave. Nope, don't touch it. Go check for eggs in the coop, or something, BUT DO NOT TOUCH IT! It will look like it needs to be stirred, like it is begging you to stir it, but leave it!

 Has it been 15 minutes yet? Good. Now you may stir it. If it never got frothy, you either had bad yeast, or you killed it by putting it into the liquid when it was too hot.

Step Six:  Add flour until it forms a gloppy ball. It should be extremely sticky to the touch.

 Step Seven: Completely coat the topside with about 1/2 inch of flour. Don't mix this flour in.

 Step Eight: Cover it with a damp dish cloth, and let it rise until roughly double in size. The dough should put a little bump in the towel, as shown in this picture, after rising.

 Step Nine: Flour your counter so you can knead the dough. Also, remove any bracelets and rings. Bread dough is next to impossible to get out of it. Also, set your oven to 350 degrees.

Step Ten:  Add flour, and knead the dough until it makes a soft ball. It shouldn't be sticky any more.

 Step Eleven: You can skip this step if you want, as most people do not do this. But I think it makes the bread much softer and fluffier. So grab your damp dish cloth again, and cover your dough. Make sure there is enough flour so it doesn't stick to the towel or the counter. Let is rise for about a half an hour, or until double.

 Step Twelve: Re-Knead the dough, and form into bread loaves. It should make 2. Place it into your pre-floured, pre-greased bread loaf pan.

Step Thirteen: Let is rise for about half an hour again, in a warm place, until it fills the bread pan, and tops it just a little. Then bake at 350 degrees, for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown. Let it cool for about 30 minutes, then flip out of the pan. Enjoy your delicious, homemade bread!

This was delicious!!!