Store-bought bread (unless it’s local artisan bread like Acme Bread in paper bags) doesn’t taste that good, and it comes in plastic bags and has dough conditioners. I mentioned this in my post on homemade burger buns, but one common dough conditioner used in breads is L-Cysteine. L-Cysteine is made from human hair. Pretty gross, eh? But don’t worry. You can make this recipe instead of buying store-bought bread. If you don’t have time during the week, bake a few loaves on the weekend and freeze some of them for later in the week. I got this recipe off of the back of a King Arthur Bread Flour bag. Here are the ingredients I used:

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 cup rolled oats (I bought mine in bulk)
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 1 /4 cups milk or whey, heated to about 115 degrees (making bread is a great way to use up the whey leftover from cheese-making)
• 3/4 cup raisins (golden raisins are really good in this recipe, but I have yet to find them in bulk so I just used regular raisins.)

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Mix to form a ball of dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth, 8-10 minutes. (Kneading bread dough is a good excuse not to go to the gym that day, especially if you make several loaves :D)

Place dough in a greased bowl.

Cover bowl with a towel and let rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until doubled in bulk. I put mine in the oven since it has a pilot light.

After about an hour, my dough looked like this:

Deflate the dough with your fist. Pull it in from the sides to deflate it completely.

And… then my camera died and I had to switch to my phone. Sorry for the lesser quality of the rest of the pictures. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.

Roll the dough into a rectangle. Here is my attempt to roll the dough into a rectangle:

Okay, so it isn’t really a rectangle… Next, roll the dough up into a log. Place in a greased pan.

Cover with a towel and let rise for 30 minutes to an hour, or until the dough has crested over the top of the pan. Mine looked like this:

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the loaf is nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped.

Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Eat a slice warm with some butter and enjoy.