Eight Loaves of Bread Every Tuesday

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When I was growing up, my mom was in love with baking and cooking from scratch. I lived on all the homey foods any child would love, and since my mom was Italian, we had the added bonus of having authentic, Sicilian pastas, soups, and recipes, handed down to her from past generations. She also made a Biscotti cookie that was out of this world. My mom was always in the kitchen, either cooking or baking something, amazing! She was content as a homemaker and it showed; when she put on her crisp white apron, you just knew magic was going to happen. I remember the smell and aromas of something bubbling away at the stove, her curly, black hair pulled back, and her hands busily, kneading dough. The sounds and smells of a happy mom were all over the place.

When I was fourteen years old, she taught me how to make homemade bread and this started a tradition of weekly bread making. She bought for me a crisp, white apron to wear on our bread making day and she got me started with the wheat berry, itself. I would grind these berries in this small machine that I had to manually crank to make our flour. My arm was sore, but what I saw was exciting…I made flour! We spent the rest of our time together by teaching me how to proof yeast, knead the dough (this was fun because my hands were submerged in the soft dough) and to let rise. After my first batches of homemade bread—I was a changed young woman. I would bake a couple loaves and freeze the rest of the dough in separate bags for the rest of the week. Eight loaves of bread every Tuesday; it was my job, and it felt fantastic. Photographs of me pointing to my homemade breads are forever memories of my wonderful experience in our kitchen while I was young.

These aromatic memories are with me forever and I’ve been sharing all I know with my children who want to know the fine art of bread making. Like my mother, I, too, love to cook and bake from scratch and spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Homeschooling my children gives me such an awesome opportunity to always have them helping in the kitchen. It can get overwhelming when two or more chairs are being drug to the counter, but with everyone taking a turn, and a whole lot of patience, we not only learn math and science, and get to taste our homemade bread… we make memories. Like me, once they learn the fine art of bread making, they can take that with them forever. But even for those children of mine that don’t have the interest in learning how, they will always remember the smells and tastes of homemade delights coming out of our oven.

Eight loaves of bread every Tuesday; it was my job, and it felt fantastic!

Homemade White Bread Recipe
printable recipe

Makes two loaves of white bread.

Combine in mixer:
3 cups warm water
2 pkgs. Of yeast
2 tbsp. Honey or sugar

Let your yeast dissolve and proof in your mixer, about 5 minutes.
While waiting, in large bowl combine:

7 cups of flour
¾ cup of dry milk
¼ cup bran (optional)
¼ wheat germ (optional) I added these to add what the white flour was missing

Combine in mixer bowl on medium speed for 3 minutes:
4 tsp. Salt with 3 cups of flour mixture
When mixing is complete:
Add 2 tbsp. Vegetable oil with 3 more cups flour

Incorporate on medium speed, adding any remaining flour until it forms a soft ball.

Important: when making breads, how much flour you use fluctuates with the temperature in your house and the weather. So with the last step when adding your last cups of flour, add one cup at a time until the dough doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. When you’ve reached this, you know you’ve incorporated enough flour to your bread dough.

On floured surface, place your bread dough on the counter, and using the heel of the palm of your hand, knead the dough. Turning the dough each time to form a smooth ball, adding more flour if needed. Put into a greased bowl and cover with clean dishtowel. Let rise until doubled, about one hour. Punch down and let rise again for ½ hour.

Turn oven on to 350 degrees.

Punch down dough and put on floured surface. Form into shape of bread loaves and put into greased bread pans. Let rise until doubled, about an hour.
Bake until golden brown, about 40-45 minutes.
Let rest for 5-10 minutes and turn out onto cooling rack.

Warm bread awaits you. Enjoy!

Jenny Penton is a homeschooling mother of seven children and loves the closeness that being home with them provides. Un-schooling is how they live and learn and she blogs about their learning experiences at Homeschoolingbelle.com. Jenny also has a passion for inspiring women to become master life planners and that includes menu planning. Check out her sites for life planning and her inspiring recipes on her food blog at plannerperfect.com and plannerperfectmeals.com