Leslie's Bread Recipe

I caused a little bit of a stir with my previous bread post. No pun intended. Some of you asked for the bread recipe and I have no problems sharing it. I asked my MIL for her recipe and she said, "Oh, sometimes I put a little of this, or a pinch of that . . " Well, that isn't so helpful, so finally I just told her I was coming over to watch her bake - I ended up writing down what she put in her bread on that particular day. This recipe makes 5 loaves of bread. I know it seems time consuming to many of you - it did to me. But now that I don't really go anywhere anymore, it is easy to fit in a mix here, a punch there, in between my laundry and therapy. So if you are planning a day at home soon, don't be afraid to add a bit of bread baking to your to-do list. Your husband will thank you for it!

Here it is:

Set aside:
1 C warm water
a sprinkle of sugar
2 Tbsp. yeast - sprinkled on top of the water

In a very large mixer (I use a Bosch - not sure my Kitchen Aid could do it) combine:
5 C warm water
1 egg
1/2 C oil
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C regular oats
1/2 C cracked wheat (I use a 9 grain cereal that I got from an emergency preparedness place)
1/2 C wheat germ
1 C rolled wheat (in cellophane bags in the organic section of Fry's - the wheat germ too)
7 C bread flour

Add the yeast mixture alternately with 3 cups of bread flour. Add 4-5 more cups of bread flour just until the dough leaves the sides of the mixing bowl. Knead in the mixer 3 minutes. Put dough in a large bowl greased with shortening. (Leslie kneads the dough a little on the counter to smooth it out before she puts it in the bowl.) Let rise for 1 hour covered with a damp towel. Punch down and rise again for 30 minutes. Grease 5 loaf pans with shortening. Form your bread and put in pans. (Leslie puts the smooth "top side" of the dough face down in the pan first to get some grease on it and then she flips it over.) Let rise again, covered. When the dough is about an inch above the lip of the pan, start heating your oven to 380-385 degrees. (I usually do 385.) Bake the bread for 35 minutes. Take bread out of pans immediately to cool on racks.

This dough is great for scones too. Use it after it has risen. Just put a little veg. oil in a pan and fry small pieces of dough that you have flattened out. Eat with ooey gooey butter and honey. Yum-O! Enjoy.