I’ll happily admit that I get a wee thrill of pride from being able to say that I make all my own bread. I mean, that’s kind of cool, right? Or if not actually cool, it’s neat (please, let me have neat), and tells people that I have some free time and a lot of flour in my house. Anyhow, it took me some time to find a bread recipe that made a great, all-purpose loaf. Something soft enough for toast & eggs, with good flavour, a bit of healthy fat, and some flexibility. It also needs to freeze well because I don’t have that much free time.
I started my search with the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book series, because seriously, there is no reason to ever use any other bread cookbooks, especially if you’re looking for a bread you intend to make in largish quantities, by hand, on a weekly basis. I may be a bit biased here, but I love these books, and I love the bread you get from them. Best of all, you don’t really have to know anything at all about bread to bake their bread, or have fantastic kneading biceps. Nope. You just need a big ‘ol bowl and about 20 minutes of free time scattered throughout your day.
I started with their American Sandwich Bread recipe, and went from there. Zoe & Jeff (the authors, whom I somewhat oddly feel I am on a first name basis with) preface the recipe with a bit of disclaimer about this bread being for kids and not being as fancy as the other crispy-crusted, olive-studded, rosemary-laced loaves in their book. I don’t care. Before this beautiful loaf I tried many “fancy adult” loaves that left my mouth feeling like I’d had eggs and knives for breakfast instead of eggs and toast. I wanted something soft and delicious. So sue me.
I made it as is, and then went from there, finding things I liked as I went along. Change #1 was swapping the butter for coconut oil. I did this because I’d recently impulse-bought 2 gallons of coconut oil over the internet and had a massive barrel-like tub of it occupying a large amount of space in my pantry. It turned out to be a brilliant idea, yielding a slightly nutty loaf of bread that is just wonderful, as well as being loaded with all the awesome things that coconut oil fans love to rave about.
Change #2 was dropping the white sugar and a bit of water in favour of some raw, local honey. Yes, I know raw honey isn’t raw anymore once you’ve baked it, but I’ve yet to find local honey that isn’t raw, so I feel like it’s a good guarantee that your honey is local (and not corn syrup) if nothing else. Plus, one of the few bonuses of living in the middle of the prairies is that raw honey is roughly $10/kg here, so it’s pretty affordable.
Change #3 was switching it up with the flour a bit. The original recipe calls for 7 cups of all purpose flour, but I’ll generally swap one for something else (still in the flour category, of course). Be it spelt, whole wheat, kamut, rye, buckwheat, whatever—it always works out nicely.
I finally feel like I’ve perfected a fantastic sandwich loaf. A nice, flaky/crispy/lightly crunchy crust, soft, a little sweet, slightly nutty tasting, and awesome as toast (which is how I eat 99% of my bread). I love it, and I think you’ll love it, too.
My Favourite Homemade Bread
6 cups all-purpose flour (measured using the ABi5 “scoop & sweep” method)
1 cup whole grain flour of choice
1½ tbsp dry activated yeast
1½ tbsp kosher salt4–8 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil, melted & cooled a bit
2–3 tbsp local honey, melted
Warm water to make 3½ cups liquid (that’s oil + honey + water =3.5 cups liquid)
You can also swap one cup of water for 1 cup of milk or buttermilkCoconut oil, melted, for brushing & pan greasing
Stir together the flours, yeast, and salt in a large bowl.
Add the coconut oil, honey, and water, and mix everything together with your hands. You will probably have to get your hands wet to incorporate the last bit of flour, especially if you chose a hearty whole grain flour for your variety cup of flour. Now, you are not kneading this dough, so once you have a wet blob of dough without too much dry flour kicking around, stop.
Cover the bowl. I tried damp dish towels, but ended up with so many coated in blobs of dough that never really fully came off that I switched to clingfilm.
Let the bowl rise somewhere warm. The original books say your counter is fine, but these recipes were obviously not developed for life in Canada. I like to warm my oven briefly until it’s maybe 30°C, turn it off, and then pop the covered dough bowl in there. If you have a wood burning fireplace, you can also place the dough next to it while a fire burns away. Let rise for 2–5 hours.
After your initial rise, grease & flour two loaf pans. Dust your dough and your hands with flour, and tear the risen dough in half. Roughly shape each lump into an oblong shape and drop into a greased loaf pan. Don’t be too fussy or overenthusiastic about this part.
Brush the tops of the loaves with melted coconut oil to keep them from drying out. Let the loaves rise again in that warm place for another hour.
To bake, preheat your oven to 350°F (take the bread out first, if that’s where it was rising). Bake the loaves for about 35–40 minutes, until they’re golden and sound hollow when knocked on the bottom.
Let cool completely on wire racks before slicing. Enjoy!
As with all Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipes you can store this one in the fridge between the initial rise & baking. You can store this one in the fridge for up to 10 days. The only change you’ll have to make is to the second rise time—it’ll need closer to an hour and forty minutes rising time before baking.
I love home made bread – even if I don’t eat bread anymore! This sounds wonderful and healthy too, store-bought breads are so full of sugar and salt. Must make this sometime for guests…
You must have a will of steel if you can bake bread and not eat any 😉 Let me know how it goes over with your guests!
I’m so glad to see this recipe! I’ve been wanting to make my own bread for a few months now but just haven’t done it yet. I even have the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes book. I love the changes that you made so I’ll have to get off my back side and actually do it. Thank you!
Awesome! I’m so glad to have inspired you 🙂 Let me know how it turns out once you give it a go!
hello! i was recently on your titanic fan site and im kind of wondering why it went inactive?
thanks,
alicia
Hi Alicia! It’s all about time, sadly, combined with a general lack of anything new to post on Make it Count. I work more than full time, manage this website (and with 4 posts a week, plus comments and correspondence, takes up a lot of time), and then I theoretically have a social life and get some exercise and sleep on top of all that 😛 Also, there’s just not that much Titanic news these days, especially in relation to the film. I’ve already screen capped the entire movie, and posted audio and video clips. There’s character and costume overviews, free wallpapers, and loads of information. I feel like it’s pretty complete as it is, so I’m happy to leave it mostly as an archived resource at this point.
I like your changes. I’ll make one of my own, mollasas for the sweetener. I’ve always loved the flavor it gives to bread.
I to like a soft loaf for toast and sandwiches. Some breads are just too tough for my delicate dental work. Lol.
Oooh, I love molasses! I should give that a go one of these days as a swap for the honey 🙂 Mmmm! Great idea 😉
Hi Marie
Great idea to switch the butter to coconut oil. I love my organic coconut oil. It tastes delicious alone! I never would have thought to put in in bread so “high five” on that one. I can’t wait to try it.
Oh and I will confess, I used to kneed my bread and all that but a friend talked me into a bread machine and now I am spoiled. All you do is put the ingredients in and turn the machine on and walk away. I love it. It makes a 1# loaf (I think) which is perfect for me for a week.
Let me know how the bread turns out!
I remember when my mom got her first bread maker—fresh bread for our family for weeks!
…eggs and knives! lol –you make this sound so interesting and doable.
🙂 Give it a go, it’s so fun, and smells divine!
I make my own bread too. This recipe sounds a lot like a peasant bread I make…hadn’t thought to sub coconut oil for the butter but will do that tomorrow. I also like to add raw sunflower seeds to my dough…and sprinkle some on top of the loaves before setting them to rise (just lightly press them down). Don’t you love the smell of freshly baked bread? Yum!
OOoh, yum! Sunflower seeds are an awesome addition to breads with their perfect balance between crunchy and creamy… plus they don’t get caught in my teeth super easily like chia seeds do 😛
And yes, fresh baked bread is just divine 😀 It’s got to be the best perfume for houses!
I have been making my own bread for the past 50 years.
This is for two Loaves
Two cups of all purpose
Two cups of Whole wheat
3 Tsp yeast
1tsp of sea salt
2 table spoons of honey ( I’m a bee keeper)
2 table spoons of Virgin Olive oil
I use this recipe for buns as well
BTW I`m in my 79th year
Oooh, this sounds just delicious—especially when you have your very own honey! Mmmm 🙂
Ok, Marie, you tempted me into action this time! I saw your post, printed out your recipe, and dived right in. I have made small boules of no-knead bread for years, but this is the first time I’ve attempted regular, everyday-use bread. I used mostly King Arthur bread flour and one cup of the KA white wheat for my one cup of choice flour.
The results? WOW!! I only baked one of the loaves and put the dough for the other in the fridge for use at a later time. Mine did not come out as brown on the top, but I cooked it inside a roasting pan in the oven to keep the moisture in. The consistency is fabulous, and the taste? Out of this world. My breakfast, this morning, consisted of two slices of this delicious bread, butter, and some homemade strawberry jam I’ve been hoarding for such a special occasion as “Monday morning”. It was delicious, and I am completely satisfied. Thank you very much for sharing.
Awesome! I’d so thrilled to hear you dove right in, and I’m especially glad to hear it all worked out brilliantly! Enjoy your new all-purpose homemade bread addiction 😉
I’ve been reading this recipe and I would love to try it this weekend for Easter! I’ll let you know how it all turns out!
Also, where do you buy those awesome brown labels?
Sweet! Let me know how it goes 🙂
The labels are from Amazon. They’re a sheet of printable round brown kraft labels, and I use the strips of spare paper between the rounds to create the square ones 🙂
this looks great and I’ll definitely try it out. however, I find that measurements by volume (cups) almost invariably mean different results depending on whether the flour is sifted or not, what brand of flour it is, how humid the air is, and so on. I did a little test once and the amount of flour that went into the same recipe could vary by up to 150 grams! did you ever find the same?
Ah! You reminded me that I forgot to mention something in the recipe—the awesome “scoop and sweep” flour measurement method that’s part of the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day bread making method 🙂 When I’m baking things like cake and cookies I always measure my flour for weight for consistency, but for my everyday bread, I always use this scoop and sweep method, which is mucho easier and far less fussy. Sometimes I’ll have to add another spoonful of water to the dough, but I generally get very consistent results. Try it and let me know what you think 🙂
I made this bread today. AMAZING! I have never made good bread before. My husband was shocked. Thank you so much!
P.S. I saw someone asking you about your Titanic site earlier. I for one hope it will be up for a long time. I still visit it.
OOooh, fantastic! I’m so thrilled these loaves worked out for you (and a bit proud that they were your first real successes, not going to lie 😉 ).
I have no plans to take Make it Count down—it represents thousands of hours of work over the last 10+ years, so I’m more than happy to keep sharing it, even if it is a bit dead 😛
You know… When I was a young girl, I was in 4H. One if my favourite years was the bread unit. I was reading your recipe, pondering it over and trying to figure out how I could make it here in the deserts of China (bread making in a sand storm anyone?) especially with a high altitude. Not to mention I just went running to my oven thinking I was burning down my apartment- but it is the man outside burning whatever it is he is buring.
I used my 4H memories and your recipe and went crazy making this bread! It’s in the oven…. I wish I could tell the man outside to stop burning stuff so I could have the lovely scent of freshly baked Humble Bee and Me inspired bread!!
Thanks for the recipe idea and the inspiration! You know, have to share a funny China story. I am a very DIY person where I love working with my hands. I mean I practically grew up on a farm growing everything we ate. We preserved and froze for the winter, and we made over 90% of what we ate. My neighbours we Mennonites! I even make most if my own clothes! But, for some reason, Chinese kids are taught that foreigners (meaning anyone from a western country) don’t know how to do anything. We can’t cook, bake, do anything with our hands.
I get a laugh on this one when I proudly present a new quilt or a chocolate fudge cake or a roast or my new bookshelves to my Chinese friends. They are still stunned years later thinking that I must hire someone to come and do all of this stuff.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed the story! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Penny! How did the bread turn out? Hopefully you got a chance to catch a whiff of it as well 🙂
Cultural stereotypes can be so interesting, eh? I have been asked some pretty funny questions about Canada by Americans, including “do you have swimming pools in Canada?” (we definitely do) and “are there any shopping malls in Canada?” (uhhh YES lol). Thanks for the fun story!
It turned out ok… I didn’t let it rise long enough, need to try again to perfect it!!!!
Baking is all about trying, tweaking and trying again- here when you don’t have your ingredients that you grew up with. But that’s part of the fun!!!!
If I haven’t already, thank you for a wonderful blog!
Ah, well, I suppose you’ll have to eat your way through two more loaves of homemade bread… what hardship! I, too, found I needed to let these loaves rise longer than the original book/recipe recommended, though we’re fairly high above sea level, which does seem to confuse bread recipes 😛
Thanks so much for reading!
How do i know when its done rising on the 1st rise? Should it double? or more?
Just give it 2–5 hours, that’ll be fine 🙂 It really is foolproof!
I am gluten-free. I usually substitute the flour like this:
4 cups of all purpose/ swap out for/ 2 cups gluten-free all purpose and 2 cups almond meal. I’m not sure how to exchange the whole grain flour. Do you think this would work for your recipe? Any suggestions.
PS love your site (signed up). You are amazing!
Seine
He Seine—I love gluten, so I’m afraid I can’t be of any use here. I’d recommend checking out the Artisan Bread in 5 gluten free FAQ’s and their gluten free book 🙂
I tried to make this but I’m cursed with making bread badly I think — I’ve never made a loaf successfully without a bread maker machine.
The loaf tastes amazing, but I didn’t have a loaf pan so I just shaped the dough on the pan, but it just stayed flat and turned into a thick, doughy lump instead. The dough rose a lot when I let it sit in the bowl, so the yeast was working fine.
Any advice? Should I just buy a set of loaf pans?
Hey Sarah! You’ll definitely need loaf pans for this dough, it’s mucho too loose and sloppy for free-form loaves (as it sounds like you’ve discovered haha). It’ll head for the hills if you give it the room to!
Hi, Marie: Do you dissolve the dry-activated yeast first before using, whereas instant yeast can be mixed into the dry ingredients? I want to try this recipe. My experience with other bread recipes resulted in using the bread as door stoppers! I want to give the bread to my niece as a gift before she goes to university.
I just stir the dry-activated yeast in with everything right from the get-go; I haven’t proofed yeast in ages and it always works out! If you think your yeast might be old you can proof it, but I’ve found it to be an unnecessary step. Just make sure you give the bread enough time to rise; I often find the 20 minute guideline recipes give is far too short, I usually need 2x that, until the loaf wobbles a bit if I gently jerk the baking sheet/pan 🙂