Simple Bread Recipe for beginners

Hello all my beautiful friends around the world, as you may or may not know, my husband and I have been trying to live the simple life, and in these hard times with the Government Shutdown , the economy going down the crapper, etc, etc., we need to do everything we can to save. To continue on with this point, I decided that instead of buying bread every week, I would just bake it at home from scratch, which I think is really saving us a couple of bucks considering how expensive bread is getting. So being a beginner bread maker, I did some extensive research online and found this really easy bread recipe that I thought I would share with you all. As always feel free to make it your own as I did and hope you enjoy:

Prep Time: 3 hours

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp butter or vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup milk ( if your lactose intolerant like me, use Almond Milk)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, approximately

Preparation:

1. In large bowl, add the warm water. Slowly stir in dry yeast. Continue to stir until yeast is dissolved.
2. Add salt, sugar, shortening, and milk to bowl. Stir.
3. Mix in the first 2 cups of flour.
4. If needed, begin adding more flour, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough chases the spoon around the bowl.
5. Turn dough out onto floured board and knead, adding small spoonfuls of flour as needed, until the dough is soft and smooth, not sticky to the touch.
6. Put dough in buttered bowl, turn dough over so that the top of dough is greased with butter. Cover and let rise in warm spot for 1 hour.
7. Punch down dough. Turn out onto floured board and knead.
8. Preheat oven at 375 degrees farenheit.
9. Form dough into loaf and set in buttered bread pan. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.
10. Score dough by cutting three slashes across the top with a sharp knife. Put in oven with foil cover to prevent over browning and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.
11. Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy! I ate mine with olive oil and Balsamic vinegar...yum!