Daily Bread

It’s bread weather, at last.

I love bread. It’s one of the staples of a large family menu, let’s be honest. Plus, it’s just so good. Making it is therapeutic, and smelling a loaf baking in the oven just makes a house feel like home. Then there’s the act of pulling it out of the oven and setting it to cool. Is there anything more homey?

Despite the fact that I’m not currently able to partake of much in the way of bread (or carbs in general), I’ve been making bread like crazy. In a world gone a little off kilter, baking bread feels like a steadying act of homemaking rebellion. I thought I’d pass along a few of my favorite recipes in case you need a cozy vibe in your kitchen right now, too.

Breakfast

Biscuits are a Southern go-to, of course. I usually serve ours with sausage gravy or fried ham. But sometimes you just want a good slather of strawberry preserves or a drizzle of honey on your biscuit, and that’s ok, too. (I HIGHLY suggest the trick of keeping your butter frozen and grating into flour to streamline biscuit making!)

Scones sound intimidating, but I promise, they’re not. Personally, I find them easier and faster than biscuits. This is the basic recipe I use as a base. You can easily fold in dried fruit, or fresh blueberries or blackberries. If you’re feeling fancy some morning, surprise your people with these Lemon Blueberry Scones. In our house, scones are served with either lemon curd (must be made the night before!) or Devonshire Cream. FYI, I use powdered sugar in that particular recipe.

Lunch

If you’re looking for a good, basic sandwich bread, you can’t go wrong with this Amish white bread. It’s pretty foolproof, in my experience. If you want something with a bit more taste on its own, I recommend the King Arthur Flour recipe. It’s my personal favorite.

Sourdough is another great lunch option. Christopher is a big fan of Beth Hensperger’s The Bread Bible (affiliate link). This is her recipe, which he uses. When it comes to bread baking, I am the basic baker, and he likes variation and experimentation. If he wrote this post, it would be full of challah and za’atar. Maybe I’ll bug him and have him write his own version!

Tea Time

A loaf of banana bread makes a great accompaniment to an afternoon tea time. I like this version the best because it’s not overly sweet, but still feels substantial as one reads poetry or “just another chapter.”

Autumn is the perfect time to pull out this copycat Starbuck’s Pumpkin Bread recipe. Warning: no flavored teas with this one. If your kids are given to raspberry zinger or something of the like, give them earl grey with a heavy dollop of milk, or you’re setting up some overwhelmed palates.

Blueberry Oatmeal Bread is not something to make if you’re passing a book around for chorale reading (those blueberry stained pages will forever remind you of that mistake!) but on a chilly, blustery day when summer seems like a memory, it’s the perfect mid-afternoon treat.

If you’ve had a lighter lunch and dinner is still a long ways off, Vanilla Oatmeal Applesauce Bread will fill your people’s tummies and feel like your own little secret party. This one is so yummy, even if you reduce the sugar— which I do.

Dinner

I make a lot of soups in the fall and winter months; Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup, and Ham and Potato Soup are on the menu this week. Soup, of course, needs bread. I have several go-to options that pair perfectly with different kinds of soups.

Crusty Dutch-Oven Bread is what’s called for when the soup is thick and needs plenty of dipping and scooping. My husband really enjoys the crust on this one, and says it’s a very versatile bread for multiple flavors.

This Easy Homemade French Bread is a basic staple in my house. I make it so often that I’ve got it memorized. It goes with just about anything, and is allergen-free for my family as long as I skip the egg glaze.

I do not put sugar in my cornbread. It doesn’t belong there. (Fight me on this.) This is my basic recipe. However, several of my children are heathens and like theirs sweet, so I will make Golden Delicious Cornbread from time to time, cringing all the while. Please reduce the sugar in this by half. Trust me…. it’s still too sweet.

Naan is fun to make, but if your family goes through as much as mine does when curry is on the menu, double this recipe. Naan doesn’t give me all the autumn vibes, but it does take a simple “I just threw together this curry and am scooping it over rice,” into something that’s infinitely more awe-worthy and also so much more filling.

And finally, if you need a lovely, balanced loaf full of it’s own flavor and sure to round out a meal that might not be quite enough, go for WHO bread. If you skip the cinnamon (I always do) you have a lovely slice for buttering alongside any main dish, not just soup. Bonus, kids love helping make this one, so you get the full-on cozy kitchen vibe from start to finish!