Homemade Bread

Growing up my mom used to make delicious homemade bread in her bread maker. I loved waking up to the smell of that bread. My mouth would instantly water at the thought of the warm, fluffy bread, covered in butter and strawberry jam melting in my mouth for breakfast! Delicious!

When I found a recipe on Pinterest for easy homemade bread in a crockpot (because I don't have a bread machine) I could suddenly smell that familiar aroma and I think I might have drooled a little at the thought of eating the finished product.

Apparently my Pinterest pin came from Artisan Bread in 5. The bread dough takes about 5 minutes to make, (you can find the recipe from the same site here) it has to rise for 2 hours and then after that you can either bake it or let it refrigerate. I decided to let mine chill for a couple of hours because the website said it would be easier to handle and, well, I never try to push my luck in the kitchen. :)  It took about 90 minutes to bake in my crockpot. It said it would take about an hour so I was a little disappointed that it took longer because I had planned for it to be finished at the same time dinner would be ready... we had to eat some left over store bought bread with dinner but it worked out because then I could save the yummy bread for dessert!

Here is the dough right after I made it, before it started to rise.

Here is the finished product! I definitely slacked on all of the picture taking in between. But it was really easy. I dusted the dough with flour and pulled out a lump of dough about the size of a grapefruit. No kneading required... you just fold the edges of the bread under itself... I don't know how to explain it, the website definitely describes it better! And just like they mentioned in the post about baking it in the crockpot (you can use the same recipe to bake in the oven), it doesn't brown well in the crock pot so I put in under the broiler for about 4 minutes to get the nice crust. :)

We enjoyed a nice a snack of home made bread with butter and organic strawberry jam. 

It's not my mom's homemade bread, but it sure hit the spot. And I like the feeling of knowing I made it myself and I know exactly whats in the bread.