Bread

Yesterday was a bread making day. We love fresh homemade bread! This is a recipe I got from Once a Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg. It is excellent! I've altered it a little. The version I use is:

Mimi's Nutritious Bread (Altered)
1 pkg. active dry yeast

3 cups lukewarm water

1 cup powdered dry milk (not reconstituted)

1/2 cup honey

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup wheat bran

1/2 cup oat bran

1 1/2 tbs. salt

1/2 cup oil (canola or olive oil)

5 to 6 cups all purpose flour

melted butter

In a large mixing bowl dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the milk powder and honey, then the whole wheat, wheat germ and brans. Beat with whisk until lumps disappear.

Let batter rise 60 minutes.
Add salt, oil and white flour, working in all the flour the dough will take - until it's not sticky.

Knead 3 to 4 minutes, until dough is smooth. Put the dough into a large greased bowl and turn it once so it's greased on all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 50 minutes.

Punch down and let rise 40 more minutes.

Divide into 3 equal parts and shape into loaves.

Place in greased loaf pans (9X5 inches), cover and let rise 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

When right out of the oven, brush with melted butter.

This is a pretty long, drawn out process, but each part of it is really easy. You just have to be there to do it! And it is SO worth the trouble.

We're going to have some of it for lunch today as grilled cheese sandwiches with homemade chicken noodle soup. Yum!

Have a great day!

~Elaine~