Bread Recipie

Ok, I know I've owed Dasha this recipe since I posted about it here. Well, I thought I'd provide it to everyone who might want it.

What I like most about it is it's pretty much food storage ingredients. So in case there is some kind of disaster you can still have homemade bread! Assuming you still have an oven and electricity to run your mixer... :-)

Ok first we start out with your stand mixer. Mine of choice is a Bosch with the lovely dough hooks.


Mix together:
1 T Salt
1/4 C Sugar
1/4 C Oil (it could be shortening and you can melt it, but oil is easy)

Next you add:
4 C Milk (Scald 125 degrees)
OR
1 1/3 Powdered Milk + 3 3/4 warm water (make sure to follow the directions on the box to make 4 cups)

Also make sure the water is warm, but not too hot. This is what will activate your yeast.

So mix that all together.

Next sprinkle:
2 T yeast on top of what you have. Cover the surface and then add a little bit of sugar to feed the yeast. Your guess is as good as mine for how much. I'd just Rachael Ray it.

I put my lid on the bosch at this point and let the yeast bubble up for about 10-15 minutes.
It might take a little longer depending if it is warm in your kitchen or how warm of water you put in. If the water was too hot you might have killed the yeast.

So now that the yeast is all bubbly, mix it together.

Next we add:
8-10 Cups of Flour

I'd say add about half the flour mix it up and then add the rest a little at a time. You don't want it to be too sticky because that makes it hard to handle. You can scrape the sides of the bowl towards the end. It's probably good when it starts pulling away from the sides. Of course you also don't want too much flour...I hear it's not good.

Now we let it mix in the mixer for 12 minutes.

Done? Ok. Dump the dough into a greased bowl. Grease your hands too. Pull the sides from the bottom and punch it into the middle. Do this until you have a nice round ball. Flip the dough over, cover with a dishcloth and set the bowl somewhere warm for it to rise.

After it rises punch it down and pull the sides from the bottom and punch it in the middle like before. Flip. Cover. Let it rise some more.

After that get your greased breadpans. Lay down some shortening on the counter and pull apart chunks of dough to fit the pans. This recipe makes about 3 big loafs and 2 little ones. Squeeze the air out of the dough and shape into a loaf kind of using the same method as when it was being punched down. Put it into the pan. Then flip it.

Let the loaves rise then bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 34-35 minutes.

Flip out of the pans onto a dishcloth to cool.

Enjoy the efforts of your hard work.