jane bakes things: Homemade Sweet Bread & Nutella

Is there any better way to enjoy a cold January day?

I love making bread. I've been asked before 'why make bread if you can just buy it'? Here's why: it's the most therapeutic thing ever. And it's so good smearing homemade Nutella on it when it's hot out of the oven.

Bread is one of those things to make if you have a day home to yourself since you've got to let it rise.

Sweet Bread:

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp honey

The short version to how it's made:

1. Heat milk, butter, sugar, and salt while activating yeast in a separate bowl.

2. Add flour to yeast mixture, follow with the milk mixture, and then whisk in eggs.

3. Form into a ball and knead about 10 minutes. Place into a bowl, cover it, and let it rise for about 2 hours.

4. Punch a hole in the dough once it's risen about 3x its original size. Take out, knead for another 10 minutes, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise for another hour.

5. Bake!

Heat your milk, butter, salt, and sugar (minus 2 tsp) in a saucepan. You're just trying to melt everything together, not simmer it, so set the heat on very low.

While that's heating up, in a large bowl, mix warm water with the yeast. Let it sit for about 10 minutes until it gets frothy. Once it's frothy, mix in the milk mixture and honey, and whisk in eggs quickly (you don't want the warm milk to cook the eggs slightly).

Frothy!

Whip the mixture quickly

Grab a spatula and fold in 3 1/4 cup flour (one cup at a time).

The unkempt dough before kneading

Generously flour your surface, pour out the dough, and begin kneading it. To kneed, form the dough into a ball with two hands, and push from the centre of the dough outwards with one hand. Fold it back into a ball and push from the centre outward again. Do this for about 8-10 minutes.

Form it into a ball again. Grease the sides of the large bowl, place the dough in and turn it around to grease on all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm place for about 2 hours.

Once its risen about 3 times its original volume, punch a big hole in the centre to get rid of the excess air. Flour your surface again, pour out the dough, and knead it for another 10 minutes or so.

Tripled!

Form it into a ball once again, cover with a damp, clean cloth, and let it sit in a warm place for another hour.

You're doing all of this so the bread will get nice and fluffy when baking. Once it's doubled-tripled in size again, you can brush it with an egg wash. Do this by beating an egg in a separate bowl, grabbing a pastry brush, and coating the top of the bread. This will give it a gorgeous golden shine.

Finally, bake in a 375 F oven for about 40 minutes. Let it take its time cooling before you slice in!

Between all the dough rising, you can make homemade Nutella! It's very very easy, almost astoundingly easy. Here's the recipe.