What? Me? Picky? I bet that surprises you! HAHahahaha!!ha! ha.ha.ho.ho.
Hm.
Well. I am. We/I don't like the soft, squishy bread impersonators on the grocery store shelves. I grew up on hearty, grainy bread and homemade bread too. We're them kinda people. Health nuts. Granolas. Oregonians. So for the family I now get the health nut's delight Nature Bake but the only way I can afford it (it's around $5 a loaf in the stores) is to get it from their headquarters where they sell it frozen for $2 a loaf. Their headquarters is far away.
She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.... I so relate to that.
But my bread ship didn't come in this week so...
I decided to make bread.
Except for Katie's artisan sourdough bread, I haven't made old fashioned sandwich bread in a while.I pulled out my trusty old recipe and scrounged together some flour and got to it.
Have I told you that my favorite possession in the whole wide world is my Kitchenaid professional oven? If my house was on fire, this is the object you would see me trying to drag out of the house. Okay, maybe not, but I would want to.
Mr. Dirtywrench says we paid more for it than we ever paid for a family car. That's only because we don't pay much for family cars. This was a floor model and I got a screaming deal on it too. It was soooooo worth it! I love everything about it. I love that it has a proofing setting for raising bread dough. I don't have to hover bowls around the woodstove any more.
Oops. Shoulda used a bigger bowl.I'm not sure why but this bread rose perfectly and didn't fall. I used a combination of bread flour, whole wheat flour and all purpose flour- because that is what I had.
And on the convection setting of my most favorite possession in the whole wide world, the bread baked up golden.
It's funny but this bread turned out soft and squishy and fluffy and light. Not hearty and grainy like I prefer at all. Probably because I didn't put anything hearty and grainy in it. And it still called like a siren to me all day. Buttered.....toasted.....honey.....jam......buttered.....
Help! I'm eschewing grains these days. I'm really not eating bread. It's just for the family. I confess I ate more bread yesterday than I ate all last month.
Here's my recipe:Old Fashioned Sandwich Bread
Dissolve together and proof for five minutes:
3 packages of instant yeast (or six teaspoons)
One cup warm (110 degrees) water
1 Tablespoon sugar
Mix together in a large bowl mix with a whisk or beater:
1 cup white flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup warm water
and the yeast mixture
Place bowl in a warm place for fifteen minutes.
Add:
3 cups warm milk
5 Tablespoons sugar
5 teaspoons salt
5 cups white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
5 Tablespoons oil
Beat together then gradually add in 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and 3 1/2 of white flour to the dough. Using a dough hook in a mixer or kneading by hand add in up to two more cups of white flour until the dough is elastic and smooth, about ten minutes.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl to rise until double in a warm place one to two hours.
Cut the dough into four equal parts and shape into loaves. Place into greased bread pans and let rise until doubled one hour or so. Bake at 375 degrees until golden, about 20 minutes. The loaves should sound hollow when tapped lightly.