Easy Rustic Homemade Bread

I have to thank Pinterest for this discovery. While it’s a total time suck (pinterest, not the bread)…I do love looking at the pretty pictures, and I’ve found many of great DIY and recipe ideas. Making homemade (yeast based) bread has always been a bit of a baking pipe dream for me. It always seems too hard to figure out the right temperature to keep the yeast alive…or maybe I was just too lazy.

Yeah, apparently I’ve just been too lazy…because I MADE THIS LOAF OF BREAD!!!

…and ate it all by myself (not as proud of that fact though).

I followed the recipe by Simply So Good, and it was incredibly easy. In fact the hardest part was locating the Instant Yeast. I wasn’t able to find it in any local store, but finally scored some through Amazon. The instant yeast is a baking miracle, since it doesn’t require a special liquid temp. In fact I was sure that I screwed up the recipe since the dough seemed drier than it should be, but it worked!

I didn’t round the ball of dough very well, so the finished product was a bit flat. However, it was crusty, dense and absolutely delicious. I kept it simple and just went with butter most of the time, but I did break out my stash of apple butter and pineapple butter!

Yes, I said PINEAPPLE BUTTER! It’s Amazing.