Loaves

I ran across the recipe my mom used to make homemade bread the other day. Instantly memories of being a child watching my mom make bread filled my head. She would use this huge no humongous green plastic bowl in which she would add the yeast, warm water, and brown sugar and let that sit for awhile to let the yeast come alive and start devouring the sugar. Next the flour (18 cups worth!) was added along with some salt and wheat germ. Then she would cut in the shortening and add more water.

Now the work started. She would flour the counter and her hands and begin working the dough kneading it for what seemed like hours. My mom did this bizarre thing where when she kneaded the dough she would lock her jaw so tight you could here her teeth creaking from the stress. After the kneading was done she would put the dough back in the bowl and cover with a towel and let the dough rise for awhile. I probably disappeared to watch Sesame Street or bust up my brothers Lego creation or something. After several repeated kneads and rises she would grease the loaf pans and form the dough into loaves and place in the pan except for one loaf which she just kept in a ball. This ball of dough is why I think I hung around to watch the process. After this ball of dough went through the final raise she would cut it into smaller balls and then roll them flat for what we called fried bread. This is basically what you get at the county fairs but they call them Elephant ears and there typically deepfried and covered in cinnamon. Anway she would poke holes in the middle of them and place 4 or 5 in a frying pan and fry them a nice golden brown. As soon as she took them out of the pan I was reaching for one I'm sure burning my hand more then once. I didn't put anything on them other then butter. These were some good eats. One time me and my brother ate too many and they made our stomach swell up from the dough rising from the inside. Don't ever do that. It hurts. Hmm I think there was an episode about that same thing on Emergency!

Her bread was fantastic and lasted the whole fam for at least a week or so. Here is the recipe in case you are interested. (the numbers in () is for tripling the recipe

(3) 1 cup warm water
(6) 2 teaspoons sugar Mix in a bowl, cover and set aside
(3) 1 pkg. Fleishmans dry yeast

(12) 4 cups whole wheat flour
(6) 2 cups white flour Measure in a large bowl, mix with hands, make well in center
(7 ½) 2 ½ teaspoons salt
handful of wheat germ

(3/4) ¼ cup shortening
(4 ½) 1 ½ cups warm water

Put in well, cut shortening with large spoon, mix slightly add yeast mixture, mix thoroughly with spoon, then grease hands and knead thoroughly.
Let rise in warm place free from drafts about 45 minutes.
Knead, let rise 30 minutes.
Knead let rise another 30 minutes
Put into loaf pans let raise 45 minutes
Bake at 375 degree oven for 40-50 minutes
Makes 2 or 3 loaves
(6-9 loaves)


I have been baking the shit out of some bread lately with on FMLA. We picked up a Cuisinart bread machine so I have been experimenting with some different recipes that was included with the machine. My fav thus far is the basic Rustic Loaf. This loaf uses the Artisan setting which does not actually bake the loaf but takes the dough on a magical trip of multiple rises and kneads for 5 1/2 hours. After the final knead the machine tells you to remove the dough by a series of annoying chimes. From there it is all manual labor of shaping it and letting it rise one more time before baking. This type of bread can be cooked in the oven but I prefer to use my gas grill with the awesome pizza stone my awesome wife got me. The stone is thicker then average to hold the heat better but also sits on an stainless steel elevated platform so the stone doesn't actually touch the rack but is a couple inches off the rack. This gives the proper air flow above so one side of the grill is cooking the top down while the side underneith the stone is cooking from the bottom. This is tricky to get the temperature adjusted just right especially with my cheap burners and temp controls but I think I finally got it dialed in.



Here is the dough after a few rises and kneads























Dough ready to be baked




























Finished Product.