As a family of six, we go through an average of a loaf of bread a day...toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, you know the drill.
Like everything these days, bread is getting pretty darn expensive. As I have the time I thought I should try my hand at making the bread. Only problem with that idea is that I have no desire to be making bread every stinkin day. Every few days maybe.
I used have to make the bread when Alex was a baby as he didn't tolerate something in the store bread but I had a bread machine for part of that time (burned the poor thing out by messing up the timer option on a loaf of raisin bread). Got the advise of a bread guru friend on kneading bread (Thanks Joyce!) and continued making homemade bread until Alex got to the point where the store stuff didn't bother him.
Like everything when you fall out of the habit, convenience steps in. I still made bread...special occasions or special breads that have always been expensive like that well loved raisin bread...
Anyway, I remembered my Mom having a recipe for making six loaves at a time in a large roasting pan. She does and I got a copy (Thanks Mom!).
Tried it for the first time on Saturday (and I've been trying to blog about it since Sunday but I kept being logged out of blogger or blogger not saving and then the week started LOL) and let me just say I have a whole new respect for the women of ol' who had to make multiple loaves of bread daily!
Kneading that size dough is a workout let me tell you LOL and I thought my kneading muscles were in pretty good shape. Think about it people...that's 18 cups of flour plus all the other ingredients. This recipe is a refrigerator raising bread...double in size...I almost didn't have the counter space in my little, one butt only please, kitchen. Then you have to kneed each loaf section...approximately 40 turns per loaf times 6 loaves...shape and place in the roasting pan. You line 'em up and walla you have six loaves of bread ready to rise again...this time in a warm place -- in Nevada everywhere is warm LOL as long as you aren't under an A/C vent.
Bake for approximately an hour...yummy I LOVE the smell of bread baking in the oven, it just screams home to me. Cool, pull apart the loaves, yada yada...the boys and I couldn't even wait for it to cool down before we were cutting into a loaf to try it out. YUM
The real test of this however will be when I'm able to sit down a figure the cost difference...if making it saves anything because 18 cups of flour is almost five pounds.
3 comments:
Next to the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking there is nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread. My mouth waters just thinking of it. Did Mark luck out to get any or did the 5 of you eat up all 6 loaves before he got home from work (I know I would have done serious damage to the bread)?
Mom
He he...we had some for dinner including Mark (who actually arrived home just before the second rise). I froze 3 and we're already most of the way through the third LOL I'll have to take one out for tomorrow's breakfast.
Glad the recipe worked out for you, Sherri.
Yes, it does take some muscle to do all the kneading, but at the end of the cycle, it's worth it, isn't it?
I think you'll find the price is worth it. I know flour will have gone up, but bread has gone up significantly. And, if you are baking regularly, you could purchase the flour in larger quantities and save a bit there.
Have fun!
Love,
Mom & Dad
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