The Smell Of Home

I've had several requests to share my bread recipe, so for those of you who associate the smell of bread with home, here it is. Enjoy!

Half and Half Bread (This recipe makes four 2 pound loaves, so if you have smaller bread pans you may want to half it the first time to see how much you get.)

15 cups flour-half wheat flour and half white flour*
6 cups hot water
3/4 cup vital wheat gluten
2/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar or honey
1 1/2 TBL. salt
2 1/2 TBL. yeast

Mix the hot water and vital wheat gluten. Add oil. Mix. Add sugar or honey. Mix. Add salt. Mix. Mix in half of the flour. Add yeast. Mix. Add the remaining flour. Knead until smooth and dough bounces back when lightly poked.**

Fast Rise Method
While kneading, preheat oven to 150 degrees and then turn off. Shape loaves and place in greased pans (unless you use silicone pans- no greasing necessary). Rise in the warmed oven for 30 minutes. Turn the oven back on at 350 degrees and bake for 23 minutes. (In silicone pans, bake at 325 degrees for 28 minutes.) Remove from pans and cool on a cooling rack.***

Standard Rise Method
After kneading, cover dough with a clean dishtowel and let rise until double, about one hour. Shape loaves and place in greased pans (unless you use silicone pans- no greasing necessary). Cover and let rise until nearly double in size. Preheat oven to 35o degrees (325 degrees for silicone pans) and bake loaves for 30 minutes (35 minutes for silicone pans). Remove from pans and cool on a cooling rack.

*You can use any ratio of wheat to white flour as long as you have 15 cups. If you use all wheat, you may need a little less. If you use all white, eliminate the vital wheat gluten. You won't need it.

**If you prefer to just dump in everything but the flour all at once, use warm water instead of hot and make sure you mix really well so you don't end up with lumps of gluten in your bread.

***If you like a crunchy crust, let your loaves cool uncovered. If you prefer a soft crust, cover the loaves with a dishtowel while they cool. The steam will be reabsorbed into the loaf and you will end up with a nice soft crust.


On bread making day I usually do two batches, one using each rise method. I mix the fast rise batch first and then mix the second one while the fast rise loaves are rising. By the time the standard rise batch is ready to go into the pans, the fast rise loaves are finished. When the loaves are completely cool (don't put warm bread into plastic bags-it will get really soggy), I put them in Ziplock bags and freeze them until we are ready to use them.