Recipe: Easy Homemade bread

I’ve been telling myself that I should take more shortcuts, stop obsessing about couponing and order takeout food more often. But it melts my tired heart when my kids tell me that I’m the “best cooker” and I do want to feed them the healthiest food possible. However, this past week, I think I went too far. You see, I decided that my family deserved freshly baked bread, free from preservatives, glucose/fructose and large amounts of salt. For a working mom, this should have been a no-brainer: go buy a bread maker, toss in the ingredients, turn it on and go to bed. But no…in typical Cheapo fashion, I decided not to invest in another fancy kitchen appliance and I went searching on the Internet for a bread recipe. I found a fairly simple one on Ricardo Larrivée’s website and gave it a shot. The fourth time was the charm, because after making several loaves of bread that looked like bricks, this was the finished product:

Moist, chewy and oh so yummy!

The whole family was involved in making this successful loaf, taking turns mixing, kneading and inspecting the dough. Bread making is cheap Family Day entertainment!

Cheapo’s Easy Homemade Bread (Adapted from Ricardo’s Easy Sandwich Bread)

1 tbsp sugar
1.5 cups warm water
2 tsp instant yeast
4.5 cups all purpose white flour + extra for kneading if necessary
1 tsp salt