Brown Bread

The whole process of making bread was very satisfying. Especially the kneading. It just felt good to work off some extra energy.

Of course eating the bread was super! I was reminded of my Grandpa Ben. He always said the bread Grandma made was bread. Anything you buy at the store is "brind"  --more wind than bread.

Here's the recipe I used. I cut it in half. The original recipe called for 24 cups of flour and made 8 loaves. I didn't feel that energetic!

                        Brown Bread
4 cups warm water
1/2 cup honey
2 T. molasses
2 T. salt  (I think I will use less salt next time)
1/2 cup shortening
6 cups whole wheat flour
4 - 6 cups white flour

Mix 2 T. yeast with 3/4 cup warm water.
Stir everything together and add 6 cups whole wheat flour. Mix very good. Add 4 cups white flour and start to knead. I keep some shortening on hand to grease the sides of the bowl and my knuckles to keep dough from sticking. Then knead, knead, knead. About 10 minutes or more if you really get into the mood. Great for your arms!

Here comes the great controversy... do you knead dough in the bowl or on the counter?
You know what? It doesn't make any difference.  It's all personal preference. Do what you have always done. Or if your mom always kneaded bread dough in the bowl and you'd like to try kneading it on the counter, go for it. If you've never heard of such a red neck method of keeping the dough in the bowl to knead, maybe you want to shake up your life and try that. (It's one less surface to clean so that's my reason for doing it that way.) Lazy or efficient - whatever you want to call it.

Let the dough rise until double, grease pans and knead the dough again, then shape into loaves and let it rise again in the pans. I poke the loaves with a fork before they rise. Again personal preference. It makes a cool design on the top of the bread. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes. Take out of pans and cool. Makes four loaves. Freeze the extra loaves or give them away.

I got teased by my husband who thought I'd forgotten how to bake bread. It comes back to a person - a little like ice skating or riding bike. How did I happen to have yeast and whole wheat flour, molasses and honey on hand? Even white flour for that matter...
Everything was right here in my freezer and cupboards just waiting to be mixed together.