Meal Stretcher Monday - Bread

Due to the drought conditions around our country, groceries are going up in price. Again. This is perfectly understandable, but also a cause for long-term concern. Remember when the gas prices shot up, then food prices shot up, then gas prices fell, then food prices...didn't? Yeah. I find myself scared that this is happening again.

Fittingly enough, it's time for...MEAL STRETCHER MONDAY! This is my weekly attempt to make some recipe that will save us grocery money in the long run. This week: bread!
Note: this is coming out on a Tuesday. Sorry! Our internet failed yesterday, so I'm a day late.

I have been trying to find a bread recipe that can mimic the springy quality of the store bought bread that we use for sandwiches/toast/etc around here.

Seeing as how I'm not terribly skilled at making bread...this could take me a while.

The recipe for this attempt comes from The Progressive Pioneer and claims to be no-fail. Hm... Let's give it a go!

Ingredients:
7 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
2 (heaping) Tbsp olive oil (or lecithin granules - which I don't own)
3.5 cups warm water
1.5 tsp yeast
1/4 cup honey

First, I mixed the warm water and honey together, then sprinkled the yeast over the top, then got distracted by the kids for a few minutes.

Next, I mixed half of the flour (3.5 cups), the salt, and the olive oil in the bowl of my mixer and stirred it together, slowly adding the yeast mixture.

Once it was mixed into a smooth batter, I added the remaining flour and switched to the dough hook.
The Progressive Pioneer recommended mixing for 7 minutes. I have no idea how long I mixed, because the kids managed took that moment to mutiny. Next time, seven minutes for sure.

After the mixing, my dough was a little less stretchy than it should have been (probably from over-kneading), but still looked good. I split the dough between my only two bread pans and baked.

Look at that deliciousness! You want to bite the screen, don't you? Yeah, you do.

It's tasty, it's springy, it's filling, it cuts beautifully without crumbling. I'm in love. Okay, my preschooler won't eat it because it's not exactly like the store-bought kind, but the toddler and I have been demolishing it. Amazing.