Anne's Bread Recipe

[Cudedog]

Just finished mixing my bread, am now letting it do it's first rise.

Here is the recipe that I have had since I was a teenager. I used to hang out at my best girlfriend's house a lot when we were both in our teens. Her mother used to bake bread all the time - I don't think she actually ever bought bread at the store - and it was very yummy.

After a couple of months of enjoying her bread, I asked her for her recipe. She looked at me kind of funny (I was only about 14 or 15 at the time) and then kind of smiled and went on with what she was doing. I don't think she thought me serious. I somehow got up the nerve (I was very shy when young - now, not so much ) to ask her for it several more times, and finally she gave it to me.

I have kept this recipe for more than fifty (50) years.

Here it is, just the way I have it written down for all these years. If you are not a bread maker - yet! - there might be some parts that might be confusing, so if you don't understand something, please ask here or PM me.

Another thing - the most important thing to remember about bread making is that the yeast you add to your dough is a living organism - it is alive - so the liquid that you put it in must not be too hot (if too hot, the yeast will be killed and your bread won't rise) or too cold (if too cold, your yeast will not multiply, and your bread won't rise).

Still another thing - your warm bread dough is a nutritional medium (in a way) for your yeast. So you must make sure that all of your utensils are clean, and that you don't cough or sneeze into your dough - because any organisms in your sneeze or cough will be happy to grow in your bread dough too!

So, here we go:

1.) In your large mixing bowl, add:

5 Tablespoons of honey
4 teaspoons of salt

2.) In a separate bowl, add:

2 cups of milk
4 tablespoons of butter.
Heat this bowl in the microwave (or in a pan on the stove) until the butter is melted into the milk. Let cool to lukewarm.

3.) In a separate measuring cup, add:

1 1/4 cup of water (heat the water to lukewarm before adding the yeast)
2 packages of yeast granules
Stir

4.) In your original large bowl, add:

6 Tablespoons of wheat germ
1/2 cup of All Bran

5.) Making sure that the liquid is lukewarm (not hot!) add the milk (from #2) and the yeast water (#3) to your original large bowl (#1), add and mix in:

1 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
Unbleached white flour to bring your bread to a good kneading consistency (not too liquid, not too firm - somewhere in between)

6. When dough is fully mixed, pour out onto a floured board. Add unbleached white flour to the board as needed as you knead (the flour will prevent the dough from sticking to your board).

7. Knead until the dough is no longer so sticky, but is still soft and pliable. If you have a memory-foam pillow, squeeze it a bit - that is about the firmness your dough should have at this stage - maybe a little less, certainly no more than this!!

8. Put bread back into bowl, cover bowl with a cloth, and let rise to double. The bread must be placed in a warm place, or it will not rise.

9. Punch down risen dough, turn dough back out onto floured board.

10. Cut dough in half with a sharp knife.

11. Knead each half separately for about 5 minutes. Add flour to board to keep dough from sticking to board. At the end of 5 minutes or so, form each half into a rough loaf shape

12. Grease two large bread pans (I just use butter) and place each rough loaf into it's own pan.

13. Cover, and let rise until doubled.

14. Put bread in pans near the middle of your oven (not too close to the top, not too close to the bottom).

15. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes only. Then, without touching pans, turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes more. Ovens can vary a lot with their temperatures, look at your bread a time or two to be sure it is not getting too brown.

All of this sounds really complicated, I know. But it really is pretty simple, and easy to do (just takes a bit of time).

And the results are 100% worth it!!!

Again, any questions, please ask.



Thanks!!

Anne

[JudyJB]

Your bread uses milk, so it will be a little richer than mine, but maybe not hold together as well. I also often use honey instead of part of the sugar, and you make some very important points about yeast. You have to be very careful about not adding hot water and killing them. Did you ever forget to add salt?? I did once, and the bread tasted awful--like cardboard! I have never tried wheat germ, though it sounds good.

As you know, the thing about bread is that it is very forgiving, and you can experiment a lot with adding things. It is really a lot easier and less time consuming than most people think. I used to have a sweet roll dough recipe that had an egg and milk in it, plus more sugar. Made great cinnamon rolls! I'll have to see if I can find it.

My grandmother on my mother's side had 12 children, although they were pretty well spread out. She made bread twice a week, 6-8 loaves at a time. They were not poor, but not rich either, and my grandfather worked as a supervisor at the Ford Foundry all the way through the depression. My mother, who was child #6, said they had a laundress come in every Monday to help with the laundry. There were 7 boys and only 5 girls, and from what my mother said, the boys were bad and didn't help with much of anything, although they were supposed to scrub the kitchen and dining room floors. So there were not many girls to help with the real housework, especially since by the time my mother was about 13, the younger two girls were 7 and 1!

Supposedly there were only 7 kids home at once because the older ones moved out before the youngest were born, but I cannot imagine cooking for 9 people! But I can imagine how fast 12-16 loaves of bread went every week!

[Bethers]

I moved this into the recipe room.