Don't settle for bad bread

A follower recently had a baby who has since been diagnosed with soy and dairy allergies. At first thought that doesn't seem like a huge life altering disaster, but the baby is breast fed and thus mom can no longer eat soy or dairy products as she will pass those allergens through her system and breast milk to the baby. The only real problem mom has had with this restriction is finding bread at the store which does not contain soy or dairy (today food manufacturers get their kicks from putting dry milk solids and soy lecithin in everything!). She found one product at Whole Foods but stated that it tasted "atrocious". Being a bread fanatic myself, I understand her pain and so here, my dear, is a bread recipe you can make at home which will taste 4 times better anyway because you are going to eat it piping hot from your own oven!


1 teaspoon yeast (I get the Bread Machine yeast in a jar-it ends up being cheaper)
2 cups warm water
4-6 cups UNBLEACHED white flour (you might need even more)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon dried rosemary (optional)

1. Find a BIG bowl in your house. Combine yeast and water in the bowl. Give the yeast about 3 minutes to start to "wake up" before putting any more ingredients in.
2. Add 4 cups of flour, oil, then salt (and rosemary if desired).
3. Combine ingredients. Use one in the bowl, and hold onto the bowl with the other hand here is your motto, "One hand dry, one hand wet." Swirl the 'wet' hand around in ingredients to get the flour to incorporate into the water at the beginning.
4. Continue to add more flour (about 1/4 cup at a time). Each time making sure to kneed all the loose flour into the dough. You will have to kneed it for about 7-10 minutes, adding a dusting of flour each time the dough gets to sticky. You will kneed the dough until it starts to feel soft and look smooth - not straited or bubbly.
5. When the dough feels nice, take it out of the bowl and put a drizzle of olive oil in the bottom of the bowl. Replace the dough into bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with dish towel and let rise on counter top for 1+ hours.
6. Heat oven to 375. Spray a cookie sheet with Pam. Punch down dough and form into a ball or loaf-type shape and place on cookie sheet. Let dough rise a few minutes while the oven heats up.
7. Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes
ENJOY!