Sandwich bread

I used to make my own bread. I think those were to days when I got a shower every day too. I had more time back then. 

When the Snow Blizzard '11 was on its way, I decided to bake up my own little storm. I realized I was craving home baked bread. I was tired of how expensive store bought bread was, and the one brand that didn't used to add soy anything now added soy flour. (We avoid processed soy for reasons you don't want to know about today.) 

So in the baking flurry, I decided to make a trial run with a recipe for bread that I hadn't tried in years. My super amazing, previously mentioned cooking/baking phenomenon of a friend, Jennifer L., gave me this recipe, and I made it for a long time before I got super busy (ie, had my third kid, whose mission in life most days is to destroy me.) 

Anyway. Here is the recipe. It makes two loaves. I'll rave about the bread in a bit.

4 1/2 t yeast (it's cheaper to get the yeast in a jar than in the packets)

1/2 cup warm water

dissolve

then add:

1 3/4 cup warm water

1/4 soft butter or coconut oil

1/3 cup honey

1T salt

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 oatmeal (old fashioned or quick)

1/3 cup cornmeal 

1T dry milk (totally optional - adds calcium)

blend well for 3 minutes with beater hook. 

Then add 2-3 1/2 cups of white flour until dough is still, elastic and smooth using dough hook.

Rise in warm oven (170 degrees then turned off) for 65-75 minutes.

Punch down and divide in half. Shape into loaves and put into well greased pans.

Rise 35 minutes again in warm oven. Take out and preheat oven.

Bake at 375 degrees 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

Oh. My. This bread is so good. I made grilled cheeses to go with our Chicken Noodle Soup, and it was so so so good.

I have a love affair with carbs. Can you tell? I love bread. Too much.

Oh, and I remembered Jennifer saying that using an electric knife was the best way to slice the bread. So after locating the base of the least used wedding gift we received 15 1/2 years ago, I had to search for the blades part of it. Then I realized they were dirty. I almost did an Edward Sissorhands trying to wash the blades. Then I put them in backwards. Then I almost cut my fingers off getting them in the right way. Then I forgot how to work the lock (lock?) on the knife. Then I forgot how to turn the knife on. Then I forgot how hard it was to actually slice the bread into straight, thin slices.

Oh well. I'll practice.

The bread is so large and dense, one slice makes a kid sandwich. I'm thinking if I baked bread once a week, we'd be good. I'm going to look at Costco and see what of those ingredients I can get in bulk to cheapen this whole process even more. It's so much better than store bought bread and better for you too.

I may need to go eat piece of cinnamon toast right now.