Since I was a child my family would make Bread in a Bag. Me being the youngest, with two older sisters, I rarely got to do anything "fun" in the kitchen. After all, I was too little to play with knives, to short to reach the mixer, and too messy to use the mixing bowls. But once every other week or so, I was finally able to makes something in the kitchen, something that was all mine.

Bread in the Bag is literally bread mixed in a Ziploc bag. A project that's a contained mess for people of all ages. My sisters and I would all line up with our zip lock bags and my mom would scoop each ingredient into the bags and advise what our next step was.

So without further ado . . . 4 easy steps to making Bread in a Bag

Step 1: Ingredients Per Loaf of Bread:

Takes about 20 minutes to make, 30 minutes to rise and 30 minutes to cook. Give or take your concentration level you will need about 1-1/2 hours to make this. Each loaf of bread takes these ingredients:

3 Cups Flour (plus a little for kneading)
3 Tablespoons Sugar
2-1/4 Teaspoons Yeast (1 package)

- I like Fleischmann`s® RapidRise® if that matters

1 Cup Warm Water
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Tablespoons Dry Milk
1-1/2 Teaspoons Salt
1 Ziploc Bag
Loaf dish, tin dish or something to cook the bread in.
Something to grease the pan
Cutting board - to knead bread on (optional)

If you are going to do this on your own, I recommend a small bowl to put the zip lock bag in, this helps give you both hands for adding ingredients.

Step 2: Smoosh

Add some of the flour (1 Cup), all the sugar (3 TBSP), the package of yeast and warm water (1 cup) to the ziploc bag.
Zip up the bag (leave a little air for easy mixing just not too much or you will "pop" the bag and make a mess)
Now SMOOSH!

Make sure you get all the ingredients mixed together. This will look really watered down, this step is mostly to get the yeast wet.

When all mixed, lay the bag flat on the table and let it "rest" for about 10 minutes. This activates the yeast.
Now add and more flour (1 Cup), the oil (3 TBSP), salt (1-1/2 TSP), and dry milk (3 TSBP) and SMOOSH. Smoosh more, and keep going until all mixed together.

It will now look very sticky and goopy. Good thing it is in a zip lock bag.

Add the last cup of flour and mix (smoosh) really well.

Step 3: Knead and Let Bread Rise

Grease yours bread pan, tin or whatever and set aside you're going to need it in a minute.

Now it gets a little messy. After all the smooshing you are going to knead the bread. This unfortunately has to be done outside the bag. And can get messy depending on who is doing the kneading.

Take a cutting board and add a little flour, just a dusting or what is called "lightly floured".
Next, we need to get the dough out and onto a cutting board. This works best if you just turn the zip lock bag inside out and let the dough ball fall onto the cutting board.
Now, knead the bread.

Usually you want to knead for about 3-5 minutes, or until the bread it smooth. Add more flour if it feels wet, a little sticky is Ok. The trick to good bread is kneading, the more you knead (without overdoing it) the more it rises and the fluffier it will be. I didn't knead mine enough when I did these pictures. This might be a good time to use a timer.

Knead the bread into the shape of your loaf pan. It can be round, rectangular, or whatever the dish you have is. The bread can be smaller than the dish, as it will rise to meet the edges.
Place the dough in the greased pan.
Cover it with a clean, dry towel and let it rise for about 30 minutes.
Durning this time set the oven to 375 degrees so it can warm up.

This is the hard part - no peeking at the loaf and definitely no touching. There are little bread fairy's that watch this particular stage VERY closely and if you touch the loaf or move the edge of the towel to peek, the bread will not rise or will rise lopsided and look funny.

Step 4: YUMMY BREAD

After 30 minutes, remove the towel and look at your beautiful bread. Still no touching!

Time to cook and enjoy. Put your bread in the oven, if you pre-warmed it, if not, pre-warm your oven now to 375 degrees and when ready put your bread in.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until bread is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and enjoy.

VERY hot so I recommend not touching for at least a few minutes, but hey, the bread fairies are gone now, so have at it. If your bread doesn't want to slide easily out of the pan, take a butter knife to the edges and it should loosen to come out easily.