This post was most recently updated on April 11th, 2018

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Our family of six eats a lot of bread products.  Bread at the grocery store can be crazy expensive, which is why I always wanted to make my own homemade bread. For years I tried both traditional methods and bread machines, but never produced anything that was very good.  For a long time, I grudgingly bought bread for my family.  Until I finally discovered this amazingly simple, yet fool proof homemade bread recipe.

Homemade Bread Brings Back So Many Memories

When I was a little girl, I spent a lot of time with my Grandma Thelma.  She was, hands down, the best bread baker in the world.  Seriously.  She used a sourdough starter for her weekly baking, and from that one jar of weird, yeasty stuff she created loaves of light, fine-textured bread, perfect for making sandwiches, toasting, or just eating with butter and jam.  So. Good.

I watched her most every week and often helped her.  I knew the mechanics of bread baking and she made it look super easy.  And she told me it wasn’t hard:  Just mix the dough, let it rise, shape it, put it in the pan, let it rise again, then bake.  Simple, easy, glorious results.

Easy For Grandma To Say

When I moved out on my own at age 18, I attempted bread making.  I did not use a sourdough starter like my grandma did – although she offered to give me one.  But I followed her directions for making it with packaged yeast carefully.  I mixed the dough, let it rise, shaped it, put it in the pan, let it rise.

I ended up with doorstop bread.

Without a clue as to what I’d done wrong,  I tried again.  And again, I ended up with doorstop bread.

A third attempt yielded an even heavier, shorter loaf.  Toe-stubbing quality doorstop bread.

Clueless and Breadless

I was completely stumped.  (No pun intended – ha ha) I’d done everything exactly right.  Grandma was stumped, too – I’d gone through each step and she said I should have had light, fluffy, delicious bread.  Buuut I didn’t.

To make this long, tortured story shorter … over the years, I tried making bread again several times.  And every time, I ended up with doorstop bread.  It was disheartening.  I mean, I love to cook – and I’m good at it!  I’m a great baker, too – my cakes and pies and cookies have rocked people’s worlds.  But successful bread eluded me for years.

Modern Mechanics to the Rescue

Shortly after my husband and I got married, I bought a bread machine.  Excited and hopeful, I followed the directions exactly.  After adding the ingredientsI pushed the button.

For 3 hours I waited hopefully, as the tantalizing aroma of freshly baked bread filled the house.  The final beep sounded and I opened the machine to find … doorstop bread.  Are you kidding me??

In the weeks and months that followed, I tried different recipes and techniques.  But the process always ended with me in tears, not knowing what to do differently and feeling like an utter bread failure.  I put the bread machine away in a cupboard and resigned myself to store bought. For several years, the bread machine stayed in the cabinet, except for the brief move to a new cabinet in a new house.

Needs Must

Then, several years ago, my family went through a real financial pinch.  I started using coupons, canceling our satellite service, and trying to find any other way I could to save money.  One of the places I thought I might be able to save big bucks was by baking my own bread. If only I could figure out how to make it edible.

So I got out my bread machine and went searching for a bread recipe that even I couldn’t screw up.  And … I found one!  Now I want to share it with you, just in case I’m not the only hopeless bread maker wannabe out there.

The best part of this recipe is, obviously, the light, fluffy, delicious homemade bread.  But other benefits include:

  • It is sooooo easy
  • It only uses 5 ingredients!
  • It’s SUPER cheap to make
  • It. never. fails. to. work.  Never!

Fool-Proof Homemade Bread

Fool Proof Homemade Bread

Ingredients

  • 1 cup warm water
  • 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast (I use bread machine yeast in the jar but packets work fine)
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 cups flour (I use all purpose flour but you can sure use bread flour if you want)
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Fool Proof Homemade Bread

Important Note:

Add ingredients to bread machine pan in the order listed.  Follow the instructions on your bread machine. This recipe makes a 1 1/2 lb. loaf . Prepare to be bread-dazzled!

Fool Proof Homemade Bread       Fool Proof Homemade Bread

Bread Success At Last!

This bread turns out perfect every single time.  I’ve been baking it almost daily for the past year and a half and it’s absolutely amazing.  My family loves it so much, and it has saved us a TON of money.  In fact, my oldest daughter actually put together a cost-benefit analysis for the homemade bread and discovered that we were saving over $700.00 PER YEAR! That is a lot of dough (ba dum bump) saved on just one grocery item, my friends!

I think Grandma Thelma would be proud.

Do You Know How Versatile Bread Can Be?

Fresh from the machine, it’s soft and perfect for a sandwich.  Serve it warm with butter and jam.  If you slice a bit thin, it makes fantastic grilled sandwiches.  Then slice it a little thicker and you’ve can make toast that is crispy on the outside and fluffy soft on the inside.  But seriously, it’s so good with butter and jam.  (I really like jam, can y’all tell?)  And if it happens to get a bit dry or stale … cube it for stuffing or grind it up for breadcrumbs.  Maybe French toast. Mmmmm … It’s so versatile.  Watch for my post: ‘500 Delicious Things You Can Make With Homemade Bread’!

Doorstop Bread Rescue

If you have struggled to find the secret to homemade bread, please try this recipe! Thankfully, my days of doorstop bread are over.  My teenage son is a tiny bit sad over that, since he was about the only one who would actually eat it.  He is 17, though, so there really isn’t much he won’t eat.  But our  days of delicious homemade bread will continue forever.  Yay!

A World of Doughy Possibilities

Once I figured out how to make bread in the bread machine, I was anxious to expand my horizons.  I use it to make pizza dough, quick breads, etc.. And my successes have inspired me to attempt my Holy Grail of baking – Cinnamon Rolls … from scratch!

Bread is a comforting, delicious way to show love.  I’m so happy I was able to find a way to provide those things for my family and I hope this will help all y’all do the same.

Love & Blessings,

That Farm Mama

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