Homemade bread is one of those things that can feel daunting, but it doesn’t take as much time as you would imagine. You just need a day at home, and it freezes well if you want to bake several batches in one day!
Level up those campground sandwiches with your own homemade bread made ahead of time. This particular recipe is a rosemary flaxseed version, but as you notice with most of our recipes, you can customize it to your liking!
Now, one tip is that you can measure all you want, but with experience, you’ll learn to “feel” when your bread dough is perfect. Trust yourself and go confidently forth and bake this bread!
Recipes
“YOU CAN DO IT!” Homemade Bread
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pkg. Active dry yeast
- 2 tbsp. Local honey
- 2 ¼ c. warm water (use your meat thermometer to ensure water is 110-115 degrees and no hotter!)
- 2 tsp. Salt
- 6 c. flour (we love King Arthur brand flour!)
- 2 tbsp. Avocado oil
- 2 tbsp. Chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 tbsp. Ground flaxseed
- 1 egg yolk, whisked and set aside to spread on top of loaves
Directions
TOOLS:
It’s an old tradition to use only wooden tools and glass bowls for bread baking. We love a wooden chopstick for stirring!
Avoid metal bowls and utensils.
DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and honey with warm water. You’ll see bubbles forming on the surface!
In a separate bowl stir salt and flour together.
Stir avocado oil into the yeast mixture with a wooden chopstick.
Add flour mixture gradually to the yeast mixture, ½ cup at a time, until it’s a soft dough. Add in the rosemary and flaxseed, reserving a little of each to top each loaf at the end of the process.
Turn it out onto a generously floured clean surface. Add a little avocado oil to the empty bowl and swirl around. Set bowl aside.
Knead dough for 5-10 minutes until you feel elasticity in the dough, then set into the greased bowl. Toss the dough so the whole ball is covered. Cover with a towel and let it rise until doubled for 1-2 hours.
Punch dough down and turn back out onto floured surface. Divide dough in half and shape into loaves. There are great youtube videos on just how to shape your dough into a loaf, involving pulling and folding. If you aren’t familiar, give it a try!
Grease and flour two 9x5” loaf pans, or four smaller loaf pans.
PRO TIP: We love the one we have from Pampered Chef. It’s one pan with four loaf spaces. (If you use this option, divide dough into four segments and shape into four small loaves.)
Turn loaves into greased, floured pans, cover with towels and set in a warm place for 1-2 hours to rise, until doubled.
Brush top of each loaf with egg yolk, and sprinkle the remaining rosemary and flaxseed on top. Bake for 25-35 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.
PRO TIP: Put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven. It helps to create some steam while baking bread!
Bread storage: To freeze, wrap in plastic. To enjoy in the next few days, store in a plastic bag once completely cooled.
PRO TIP: If your bread gets stale, you can make amazingly delicious croutons! Simply cut into cubes, toss in a little olive oil with your favorite seasonings, and heat in a cast iron skillet until crispy!
