b is for bread

About two years ago I decided I was done buying bread. I was going to stretch my dollar a little further by making the effort to make all our bread. Then I got pregnant and that little extra effort went down the tubes with everything else I let slide when I'm sitting on the couch trying not to be sick every day. So, I'm back on the wagon now. I've been making all our bread for about a month now and I'm still not pregnant, so I'm hoping it continues for a while. I even make our tortillas and hamburger buns from scratch, but that's another post. Today I'm going to share one of my favorite bread/roll recipes. It's from my Grandma Doxey, who is pictured above with my mother, me and my two daughters. Four generations in one super-comfy 1 1/2 chair. Anyway, it's in her cook book that we got about two years ago for Christmas. Here it is:

Grandma Lou's White Bread (which I make into wheat bread )

Combine:

2 Tbsp. yeast

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4-1/2 cup sugar

Let that rise and bubble for about 10 minutes and then add:

1 Tbsp. salt

1 cup hot water

2 cups white flour

3 cups wheat flour

Mix until the dough pulls from the sides of the bowl, adding more wheat flour as needed. Cover and let rise until double in bulk. Form 2 loaves and place in greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 until golden brown, about 25-30 minutes.

It always turns out good. I often mess with the wheat:white flour ratio, so you can be creative. We eat it as toast for breakfast, "butter-jams" for lunch (William's favorite way to say pb&j), and with soup for dinner. It's a staple around here lately.

Here are just a couple of other things I do when I make any bread:

1. Before I let the dough rise in the bowl I take it out and pour about 1 Tbsp. oil in the bowl. Then I add the dough and turn it to oil all sides. That keeps the dough from drying out while it rises. I always cover my bowl with a clean dish towel. My favorites are the ones my mom sent me from Russia.

2. I grease the loaf pans by spraying them with non-stick spray. Then I sprinkle cornmeal on the bottoms and tap it onto the sides (like flouring a cake pan). It really helps the loaves not stick to the pan and come out prettier.

3. Only add as much flour as is absolutely necessary in a bread recipe. The softer the dough is, the better it will taste and the longer it will stay soft. You know the homemade bread that is delicious right out of the oven and painfully dry 24 hours later. This helps eliminate that problem. It gets better and better with practice too.

4. Tapping on the bottom of the loaves after you remove them from the pans will tell you if they're done. They should sound hollow inside. Don't leave them in the pans long at all or they'll get soggy on the bottom.

5. To keep the tops of the loaves soft and protect the fragile corners, I take a stick of margarine and unwrap it until about a tablespoon is exposed. Then I rub that along the tops and down the sides of the loaves where it crumbles most when it's sliced. It doesn't add much calorically, but it helps with the softness. I usually end up using less than one tablespoon to soften both loaves.

I think a lot of people are really intimidated by the idea of making bread. If you are one of those people I think you should give this recipe a try. Let me know how it goes. And let me know if you have a recipe you love. Sharing makes everything more fun... That's what I tell my kids, at least.