Her bread!

Here is a photo of my granddaughter after she completed her batch of bread. I was so proud of her! I told her what to do, and she did it all by herself (except I operated the oven for safety.)

I guess I should not be too surprised. This little mite is only 9 years old, but when her mother was 10 years old, she could, singlehandedly make 15 loaves of bread at a time. Truly!

Here is the recipe she used:

Whole Wheat Bread

In a large bowl place ~

6 cups of whole wheat flour and make a little well in the middle.

In the well, put 1 scant Tablespoon of active dry or instant yeast.

Gently pour in 2.5 cups of Very Warm (110 degrees F) water.

Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup honey.

Stir well, turn out onto kneading surface dusted with white flour. Wash and dry your bowl and oil the inside well. Adding just a little flour as you go, to prevent sticking, knead for 10 minutes.

Place dough in the bowl and turn over to oil the top. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set it in a warm place until it doubles in bulk and when you poke it with your finger, it "sighs" a little bit.

Punch down dough and re-cover. Allow to rise again.

Grease two medium bread pans. Form dough into two loaves. Place in pans. Begin preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. and put the bread pans on top of the stove.

Let the loaves rise until the dough is nicely springy, but when you gently push with your finger, it springs back. They say to let it raise "double", but that is hard to gauge. If it raises too much, the loaves will fall in the oven. If not enough, then you will not have a nice loaf, as it will be too dense. So..., starting after 20 minutes, poke it slightly, and do that every 5 - 10 minutes until you see that it is not "firm" but it is "springy." That is not very clear. Come to my house and I will show you!

Bake for 45 minutes, at 350 and then remove loaves and allow to cool on a rack or folded dish cloth. Please wait at least 10 minutes before attempting to slice it. It is still cooking!

After it is cool, slice, put in a food bag and seal. If you will use it in a couple of days, leave it out on the counter, in its bag. After that, put it in the refrigerator and use it to make toast or bread pudding. Otherwise, freeze it and you can either thaw out a whole loaf, or remove slices one at a time as you need them.

I will post a recipe for Bread Pudding soon!