Home Baked Goodness on New Year's Day

I don't know about you, but I've been wanting more and more to nest at home and make more home made goodies. After the indulgences of the holidays, I just feel like hunkering down by the fire, eating simple home made food, and having some quiet time.

We did just that on New Year's Day. We hosted a brunch for family, and hubby was inspired to make a rustic loaf of bread after his success with a thin crust potato pizza. We started off with the most basic of ingredients: yeast, some sugar, organic whole wheat flour and regular white flour, milk and eggs. And no recipe - made up by hubby as he went along.

The process started the night before with prepping the dough. Plenty of kneading and mixing...

There was something satisfying about watching the dough rise into a giant ball over time. The kneading process was repeated a few times.

By morning, we were ready to put our masterpiece into the oven. An irregular shaped loaf was formed.

And voilà, freshly sliced bread. I was just stirring out of bed when this popped into the oven so waking up to the aromas was wonderful.

To accompany, we made pancakes with blueberry and strawberry compotes, sausages, Irish cut bacon, and mimosas. We had a few slices leftover the next day which made the BEST toast with smoked salmon and faux hollandaise sauce that we made with creme fraiche.