Easy Homemade Yeast Bread, with a variety of variations of herbs and spices or just plain, can become a fabulous loaf, rolls or a great pizza!
Easy Homemade Bread
Easiest homemade bread anyone can make, is what we’re all after, and this one delivers!
Just the mention of the word sounds comforting.
That’s because bread is the number one comfort food.
We want it when we’re happy, or sad, or feeling under the weather, and we want it easily homemade!
Bread mysteriously, comforts.
Well, maybe not so mysteriously.
Homemade Bread Is Comfort Food
Feel good food. Did you know there is actually scientific fact that proves that foods high in fats, salt or sugar tend to sweeten our mood by stimulating the brain’s reward system?
A kind of ‘hug yourself’ through the stimulation of the palate.
Bread happens to provide two out of three of the stimulants; salt and the composition of flour.
Flour, being a carbohydrate starch, which by the way, has three or more molecules of sugar, a kind of time-release capsule of sugar.
Schmear some butter on that bread and you’ve got yourself the perfect ‘hug yourself’ comfort food reward!
Make Your Own Bread
I promise you, You Can!
I raised four children as a single mom, while working full-time. Fortunately, built into my home, was the place where I worked, a beauty salon.
I was able to earn a living for the five of us, keeping my eye on them, all while making most of their meals from scratch.
Bread, was my lifesaver for many reasons, the most significant is that they quickly learned how to make bread too.
From the dough they often made while I was working, pizzas, stromboli, sandwich bread and breakfast toast was created and they felt part in the contribution to the daily meals.
Homemade Bread Makes A Simple Meal Feel Special
It made the simplest of meals feel special.
A big, crusty, delicious hot loaf of bread out of the oven to serve with a soup, stew, sometimes a roasted meat dinner, made the house smell of love.
It always brought a sparkle to my children’s eyes when they came to the table, after a long day, to a hot loaf of homemade bread.
Easy Homemade Yeast Bread Is Cooking With Love
As my children entered the teen years, they each found a special niche in the kitchen they enjoyed doing as their contribution to the family.
My third child, when he was twelve, wanted to learn to make mama’s bread.
He was a natural and my recipe being so easy, that it was impossible to have it go wrong.
We were all so proud of our little computer geek who turned out to be the family bread maker! Because of his ease with which he found bread making, I am telling you that you too can make a simple loaf of bread.
Confidence Comes Fast With Yeast Breads
Once you are confident with a simple loaf of basic bread, the sky’s the limit.
From there, we can make every kind of bread; sweet bread, rolls, stuff the bread with anything you like, add herbs or olives to the bread, even make Burger Buns.
You will never buy burger buns in the store again, once you enjoy your own.
We can play around with breads made from various other types of flour as well.
Yes, they are a little more work because they don’t have the gluten that makes bread rise easily, but they too are amazing to make.
Olive and rosemary bread – if you could bite into a loaf of this bread with your eyes closed, you could almost smell the Mediterranean countryside.
Butterfly Pea Flower Bread – Whether purple or blue this bread is too pretty for words and easy to make.
Pretzels – The Easiest Yeast Bread Of All
Nothing says ‘After School Snack’ like a platter of Homemade Pretzels.
The pretzels I like to make for the kids (pooch too), are simply made from my basic homemade bread dough recipe; rolled thin after rising, shaped anyway you like and bake.
Dip in a little mustard or spread a little peanut butter and you’ve got a delicious snack for the kids, or You!
Sweet Yeast Bread
Once you have made a few loaves of basic bread, you are ready to spruce up the recipe for something more.
Let’s say a sweet tooth hits, or you feel ready to impress family and friends with a loaf of some type of sweet bread.
I’ve got one they will never forget, because you will simply be stuffing your bread dough with lots of sweet goodies.
Mediterranean Homemade Sweet Yeast Breads
A few added ingredients to the basic bread dough recipe, such as an egg, a sprinkle of sugar and maybe a little butter and the bread dough is transformed into a richer dough.
Mediterranean spices, such as Mastic or Mahleb, flavors that come from trees, are traditional in the sweet breads in that part of the world.
Everything imaginable can go inside a rolled out dough then rolled back into a log and baked to perfection.
One of my favorite sweet fillings, is a paste made of dates, cacao and nuts.
Once the filling is made, it is simply rolled inside of the dough and baked to luscious perfection.
Words can’t describe how delicious!
Homemade Yeast Breads For A Busy Lifestyle
Let’s say you have a busy work day ahead of you, but want something easy to throw together at the end of the day.
How about, if you want to have a few friends over at the end of that long work day, simply because it is relaxing to end the day chatting with a few friends.
You want a few easy selections of food that can be made in advance to serve alongside a few cocktails.
Easy Savory Do-Ahead Homemade Bread
This bread dough can be made a day or two in advance, once it rises it can be put in a zip bag and stored in the fridge until ready to use.
When you are ready, it gets rolled out and made into a pizza or stuffed with delicious antipasto type ingredients and rolled into a Stromboli.
Kick back, bake and enjoy a fantastic meal with little effort!
Stromboli is practically a slice of pizza rolled into a loaf of bread.
Easy Yeast Bread Makes The Best Pizza Dough
Stuff it with anything you want, but the basic homemade bread dough recipe here, is what you will use for this Stromboli recipe.
Using this same recipe for all your open-faced pizzas is so easy I’ve taught my young grandsons to make it!
Ingredients Needed
- Flour
- Water
- Yeast
- Salt
- Sugar
- Egg
Equipment Needed
- Mixing bowl
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Kitchen towel – to cover dough while rising
- Oven
- Basting brush
Easy Homemade Yeast Bread
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Sheet pan
Ingredients
- 2 tsp Yeast
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 3-4 cups Flour extra as needed
- 1 1/4 cups Water lukewarm
- Optional Extras on top egg wash, coarse salt, any seeds
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
Instructions
- Pour the water into a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the yeast and sugar on top. Let it sit for 5-minutes to form a foam. Sprinkle the salt and add a little flour. Stir. Slowly add flour and stir until it becomes difficult to stir and begin to press added flour into the dough by hand, adding more flour as needed until the dough is no longer sticky.
- In a clean bowl, pour a little oil to glaze the bowl. Place dough ball in the oiled bowl, cover and let it sit in a warm (not hot) place to rise. It will rise in about one hour. A little longer in a cooler climate.
- Once it rises, sprinkle a little flour on top, and punch it down. On a floured surface, roll into a long log, and transfer to a baking sheet pan.
- Preheat oven to 400 – Once the dough is on the pan, the time it takes for the oven to get hot, is a perfect amount of time for the dough to rise a little more again. If you are using an egg wash, now is when you can brush it on top of the dough, sprinkle with coarse salt, or seeds. A brush of water or milk can be done instead of egg wash but the egg wash gives it a golden shiny finish.
- Bake for 18 – 20 minutes, until golden on top.
Video
Notes
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.