Seven Dollar Bread

3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (optional)
1/4 teaspoon fast acting yeast
1 teaspoon salt
big glob of honey or corn syrup (optional)
12 ounces water.
Mix in an 8 cup Pyrex bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature overnight. No kneading required.

Other ingredients that I am currently adding:
sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, oatmeal, raisins sometimes, and of course sesame seeds both white and now black! I'd add almonds if I had some, too.


The next morning while the coffee is brewing and the dawgs are eating their breakfast, I dump out the very wet dough onto the floured countertop and adding more flour, I arrange it into a loaf, pop it into a buttered pan and allow to rest for an hour or so. I take the pups to the doggie park  for our walkies and when I return, preheat the oven to 425F and brush the loaf with water, or half and half or if I'm enthusiastic, beaten egg, slash the surface and top with sesame seeds. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Done-a-roo.

Doncha just hate posts where they have a great thing you want to make and you have to wade through ads, photos, chatty stuff, and finally get to the recipe, only to find it has ingredients like buttermilk or tofu which you don't have in your pantry?

Here's the story:
Dave eats toast  and sandwiches day and night and I got pretty tired of running back and forth to the store to get more bread. And the bread I got was dull white bread. We have an artisan bakery just down the street and I did buy a great loaf there, for $7!!! and decided right then to make my own. Truth to tell, mine is better, because it is not day old which is what the $7 costs if you wait a day. Ha!

Homemade bread is a slippery slope and one can start resembling a loaf if one is not careful. So something had to go. In my case it was wine...or booze altogether. I figure I'd trade the calories for a slice of warm buttery goodness, and then walk extra fast at the doggie park.

The offshoot is that I can now remember what I read last night in bed. And no more four hour naps after a wine-y lunch. Amazing.  I still crave wine, especially while I cook, but it eventually goes away.

Leftover bread makes a great strata, another overnight sensation.
4 eggs
8 ounces milk, or half and half or evaporated milk,
bread chunks.
Mix together and soak overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning stir in cheeses, veggies like sauteed spinach, leftover chopped broccoli or asparagus, green peppers, or cooked sausage or ham. Bake in a buttered dish while bread is baking and top with crispy bacon. Serve to your sister when she miraculously shows up. Yum!