About six months ago, I made the decision to stop purchasing bread. I found that I was throwing away about 3/4 of the loaf due to mold, and just simply not being able to eat it fast enough.

I absolutely LOVE PB&J, and knowing that, my delightful Mother sent me a few jars of Jam she made. So here I have been sitting and waiting until I have the time to make some bread. Since it is a bit of a new en devour for me, I like to make sure that I have enough time to make sure I do it right. Hopefully as time goes by, I will get more confident with my bread-making skills.

Finally the day had come! I had an entire afternoon to do nothing but bake. I found a very simple recipe and followed it the best I could.Since I do not eat much bread, and it tends to go bad on me, I like to freeze half of it. This time, I divided it and froze half of it right away, before letting it rise. As soon as it was mixed, kneaded and ready to let sit, I cut it in half. I rolled the dough up in parchment paper, and placed in a plastic bag – labeled of course.

The other half went according to plan, and after a few short hours I was finally able to enjoy a slice of homemade bread, fresh from the oven and topped with a bit of my Mothers yummy Jam

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Indredients:

• 1 (1/4 oz) package of active dry yeast
• 2 1/4 cups warm water
• 3 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons canola oil
• 6 1/4 – 6 3/4 Cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, salt, oil and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
• Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. (This is the point where I halved it.)  Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. (either more oil, or butter can be used. I like to use butter) Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours.
• Punch dough down. (some people suggest letting it rise and punching it down more than once to let it mix more thoroughly
• )  Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide dough in half. Shape each into a loaf. Place in two greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30-45 minutes.
• Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and bread sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Yield: 2 loaves (16 slices each).