Our Daily Bread

Matthew 6:11

Give us today our daily bread.

A few weeks ago, I published a post about the perfect bread that my husband, Danny, stumbled upon when following a recipe for pizza dough.  Many of you expressed interest in this recipe, but I wanted to wait and see if Danny was able to successfully recreate what might have been a fluke.  Now that he's done that several times, I'll share it with you, along with some photos to illustrate the process.

Here are the ingredients you will need to make what we now call the Perfect Bread:

• 3 1/4 - 4 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 envelope dry active yeast
• 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt (if using fine salt, 1 teaspoon)
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (105 - 110 degrees)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil + extra bit to oil a bowl and plastic wrap

Danny starts by placing 3 cups of bread flour in our Kitchen Aid mixer.

He creates a mound at the top.  This is for the salt and a pinch of the sugar.

The yeast, as you can see above, and the remainder of the sugar go at the bottom.  The reason for the separation?  Yeast does better when NOT in direct contact with the salt.  Next, Danny pours warm water into the yeast side of the bowl.

Now, it's time to mix!  Danny adds the olive oil to the other ingredients.

Danny starts slow, #2 speed, adding a 1/4 cup of flour as seems appropriate.  But don't be afraid to put the mixer on Speed 4 once the ingredients have come together.  This is the actual kneading process for the bread.

The dough is ready when none sticks to the bottom of the bowl.

On a floured surface, Danny prepares to stretch the dough.

He stretches the dough on all sides, doing so at least 8 times before forming it into a ball.  This little guy is placed in a lightly oiled bowl and covered with plastic wrap that is also oiled so it won't stick to the bread as it rises.

Danny lets it rise for about two hours, or until doubled in size.

He turns the risen dough back on the floured surface, divides it into two loaves and does some more stretching until the bread begins to fight elasticity.

The two loaves are placed on a cookie sheet, covered again with oiled plastic wrap, and allowed to rise for another 2 hours.

Look how well these babies did!

Now is the time to preheat your oven to 375, placing a pan of water on the lowest rack to steam and form a crispier crust on the bread.  In the photo above, Danny is placing a dusting of flour on each of the loaves.

It's baking time!  Make sure to set your kitchen timer for 30 minutes.

And at the end of the baking cycle, look what we have!  Two golden brown loaves of melt-in-your-mouth bread.

I hope many of you will try making this tasty bread for yourself, your family or friends, remembering that our daily bread is something for which we should thank the Lord each and very day.

Amen!