keeping us in bread
I've been having to work harder to not run out of bread these days. The kids are getting bigger and eating more, and our fuller fall schedule means more packed lunches, so more sandwiches. Maybe we just want to eat more as the weather gets colder. Maybe it's a temporary blip. For whatever reason, baking a batch of two loaves once a week isn't enough any more. So the trick becomes finding time for a second baking day—and that's in addition to a couple times a week that I make sourdough bread (much beloved when it's hot out of the oven, but not much good for sandwiches).
My theory about making your own bread has been that it isn't actually very hard—it just requires being home for a certain amount of time in a day. To that I can now add that you need to know you're going to be home for a certain amount of time in order to be able to safely start the baking. While we certainly spend more time at home than the average American family, we also like to keep our schedule flexible, which has really slowed down my bread production. But needs must, so I'm working on figuring it out. If I get up early enough I can have it done by 10:30... that works, right?
I'm still using the same recipe I have for years and years, which you can find here. The only differences are that I've now started using melted butter rather than oil, I've increased the oven temperature to 360 or 365°F (though that may just be our oven) and 40 minutes is the shortest baking time I'd do... sometimes it needs a bit more.