Crystal Aura Gaze

Happy 4th of July! Unfortunately, with this heat wave, I could not go out today. Will be celebrating later this week, maybe.

For today’s homestead challenge, I made bread from scratch!

I’ve made sourdough bread before, but found it kind of overwhelming. So, I plan to return to that later, once I feel more confident with basic bread.

White bread is very easy to make — but still takes some practice and learning. I did find it to be a lot less overwhelming than sourdough. No scales, thermometer, or special tools required. Much more similar to baking a cake.

My only mistake was using a pan that was a little too wide. Next time, I’ll get myself a bread pan. This caused the bread to come out wider and flatter than expected — but still absolutely delicious.

Kneading the dough is my favorite part. It’s like silly putty for adults. It’s so much fun, so therapeutic. And it’s something I’m getting the hang of now.

It’s kind of funny when the directions say, “let it rest for X amount of time,” like the dough is a little person that needs a quick rest time before it can go back to baking. How adorable!

The second best part was the amazing smells of making bread. I loved how the dough smelt. And as it’s baking, the whole home smells like warm butter. So good!

What’s great about homemade food is that even when it’s imperfect, or you didn’t do it completely correct, it’s still SO TASTY! You would not expect white bread to taste so rich, buttery, and flavorful. This is nothing like grocery store sliced bread. I tried the first piece without any toppings, just on its own, and it was amazing.

Overall, this was a great success. Just next time, I’d use a proper bread pan to bake it. I would also like to get something better to store it in. I’d like to try this recipe a few more times before trying the sourdough again.