Wheat Bread

Can you just smell it now? The best thing ever is smell bread baking in the oven. Then, eating the warm, soft bread with butter, jam, or honey. My mom has always been good at making bread. There's nothing like homemade bread to eat with stew, soup, or chili. This recipe is my mothers, but tweaked a tiny bit, to what I call perfection.
Being a newlywed and a college student means that you don't have much money. So, with a tight budget, every other Sunday I make loaves of wheat bread to last us for 2 weeks. Homemade bread is SO much cheaper than spending $3 or $4 on just one loaf. Plus, it is healthier and tastes a million times better! It's worth spending the time to make homemade bread. So go ahead and try this recipe!

Wheat Bread
1 cup warm water
2 Tbsp. yeast  $.30
1 cup warm milk   $.19
1/4 cup sugar   $.02
1/2 cup oil  $.24
1 Tbsp. salt   $.03
4 cups wheat flour   $.96
2+ cups white flour  $.16

This recipe makes two loaves.
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Let sit 5 minutes (this lets you see if the yeast is active and alive. It's not fun when you kill the yeast and waste lots of ingredients before realizing it. The yeast should start to dissolve and bubble). Heat milk, add to water and yeast. Add sugar. Let it sit 2 minutes longer to double check the yeast (I'm all about making sure the yeast is good). Add oil and salt. Stir ingredients. Add wheat flour and mix well. Add 2 cups white flour and mix well until it makes a soft dough. Knead until the dough is soft (not sticky) and elastic (you should be able to push on the dough, not have any come off on your fingers and have the dough bounce back). If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, just have it knead it for anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. The more you knead, the softer and more tender your bread will be. Let dough rise until it doubles (about 45 min). Form 2 loaves, grease loaf pans, place in pans, and let it rise until it's 1" above the loaf pan.

Bake at 350⁰F for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is brown and makes a "hollow" sound when thumped. Cool out of pans on rack.

Ideas: If you don't have 2 loaf pans, just grease a cookie sheet and make the loaves on there and let it rise about 30 minutes. This bread makes really good french toast, sandwiches, or is just good to eat alone.
Total Estimated Cost: $1.90
Servings: 2 loaves
Cost Per Serving:  $.95

Can you  imagine?! Less than $2 for two loaves of bread?! And it's SO good! You can't get bread that good anywhere for that cheap! You can only get the nasty white bread that feels like eating air for about $1. Trust me, save yourselves some money and give yourself something good. You can't go wrong with homemade bread.