Homemade Bread

My family begs me to make homemade bread. I think I have spoiled them. So in honor of that I am sharing one of my family's favorite bread recipes.


Home Made Bread


To 4 cups of warm (not hot) water add 3 teaspoons (1 Tablespoon) of yeast. 1/4 cup sugar (more if you like it sweeter), 1/2 cup of instant potatoes (optional), 2/3 cup of instant milk. Let sit for a few minutes to soften yeast.

After sitting to soften add 1/4 to 2/3 cup of butter, oil or margarine to water mix and stir in 2 cups of flour. Add 1 Tablespoon of salt and continue stirring adding flour as needed until you have added between 8 and 12 cups of flour. After you have added about 6 cups of the flour you will need to turn the dough out on a counter or table and begin kneading it by hand. Gently fold the dough at one end, give it a quarter turn and again gently fold the dough adding flour as needed to keep it from sticking.

When your dough is a nice cohesive ball and looks stretchy gently place it in an oiled bowl and cover it with a clean towel.

Let it rise till it is about double (2 to 4 hours is usually sufficient). After it is done rising, gently dump it out of the bowl and shape it into bread loaves or rolls and place it in greased pans. Again cover with a towel and let rise a few more hours.

To bake, pre-heat your oven to 475 degrees. Place bread (or rolls) inside and immediately turn the oven down to 425 degrees. Set timer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes turn oven down to 375 degrees and continue baking til done. (ovens vary. This can be anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour depending on your oven).

When your bread is nicely browned and done gently tip it out of the pan and spread some more butter (margarine) on top and let it cool.

In my house the crowd starts as soon as the bread is out of the oven...."can we have some yet?"....

Depending on your loaf pans this will make 2 to 3 loaves of bread.

Enjoy!

With some practice this will come as second nature to you. After you are more familiar with the process you can begin adding special treats like oatmeal or flaxseed to your dough or on top o f your dough.