Bill's HomeMade Bread

Don't know why exactly; but Bill has always loved making bread.  His mother did.  My mother did.  We come from a long line of bread baking. Buns. Cinnamon rolls.  And I love to make scones too.  In our retirement years; we have learned to stream line our baking; although Bill not only bakes for us but our neighbors - Britton and Jason, lol.  We have been asked to write it down - so here it is:

First of all there are a couple of comments. Some people do not mind bread made in a bread machine - it's ok; but we prefer the homemade kind. Now if you ever do become serious about bread baking it is really not that hard at all. After I retired; as a gift to myself - I bought a Viking 7 qt. Mixer. (Higher quality that Kitchen Aide) - of course, at the time they were $500. Ouch!

Anyway, I am digressing - reason being, that it was getting harder for Bill to punch the bread and this made it so much easier.

Now, I searched around to find the perfect recipe for this mixer (as the recipe we used to use was 16 cups of flour and too large for this mixer) and I found this one was the best. It makes 3 perfect loaves every time. I will list the ingredients and then explain our method.

Bill's White Bread

3 cups warm water

3 Tablespoons active dry yeast

3 teaspoons salt

4 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sugar

8 cups "unbleached" flour (most important item must be unbleached)

In mixer, put 4 cups flour, salt, yeast and sugar. Turn on mixer a few minutes to incorporate all ingredients.

In a separate bowl, put 3 cups warm(on the hot side) water and 4 Tablespoons of vegetable oil.

Then pour wet into dry and mix well. Stop once to scrap down sides. Should be a sloppy mix. Let it sit for about 20 to 30 minutes. Then add the remaining 4 cups of flour, ONE AT A TIME. Then allow the mixer on usually medium speed, knead the dough for 10 minutes. (put on timer if needed, don't' guess)

Take the dough out and spray bowl with non stick spray and return the dough to bowl. Cover with towel and let raise to double in size. Usually takes about an hour - depends on the weather, lol.

Remove, divide into 3 equal parts. Bill uses a scale. Spray ahead of time, 3 loaf tins. Form into the logs and place in tins. Cover with a towel to raise. This usually takes about 1 1/2 hours. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes. Once removed, we butter the tops. Cool. Bag. The next day, we slice and freeze them.

Molasses Bread: Only difference is: add 1/2 cup Molasses and ONE extra Cup of flour. Yum!!

**We get our Unbleached flour from the Amish Colony here; but you can buy unbleached in the store if you really look for it. I would recommend you search around for some. IF you use regular flour - two things happen, drier/heavier bread. There is big, big difference