Bread for a Week

I have always loved homemade bread. One of my earliest memories is of being in my grandmother's kitchen while she made her bread. I've been baking bread for a few years now, usually one loaf at a time as an experiment, but with the way we go through it, I knew I had to find a way to keep fresh bread on hand all the time. The answer was in my freezer! By making enough dough for 5 loaves and only baking one at a time, I could do all the work on one day, and only have to actually bake the bread when I wanted it.

I used a variation from Paula's Bread recipe for 5 loaves which can be found here. It's super simple, and with some upper body strength and an over eager 3 year old helper, you can do it without a mixer - like I did.

Here's what you need:

Supplies:

• Heavy mixing spoon
• Measuring spoons/cup
• LARGE mixing bowl (I used a 5.5qt pyrex and just barely made it)
• Knife
• Bread/Pizza stone (preferred), bread pan, or baking sheet

Ingredients:

• 5.5c warm water
• 3Tbsp active dry yeast
• 2/3c Honey
• 2/3c oil
• 2Tbsp Salt
• 15c Whole Wheat Flour (more or less - see instructions)

How to:

• Mix yeast and water in your mixing bowl until all is dissolved and yeast begins to foam. If it doesn't foam, you have one of two problems - the yeast is dead, or the temperature is off (too hot/cold). Sometimes it takes a bit so give it a good five minutes to foam up.
• Once your yeast has activate, mix in the honey, oil and salt. It won't blend completely, but give it a good stir.
• Slowly, one cup at a time, add your flour while mixing. Use your spoon to start, but as you get to  about 8 cups, it may be helpful to have someone else add while you just dig in with your hands. I actually managed to knead one handed while adding flour - don't ask me how, it'll probably never happen again. 
• Knead and add flour until your have a slightly tacky, stretchy dough ball. For me, this was right at 15 c, although some did get left in the bowl and around 8 minutes of kneading. My arms would like to request the day off tomorrow.
• Divide your dough into 5 sections. The easiest way for me to do this was to shape it into a flat round and think of the points on a star. Press a line from that point to the center of the round, and the impression will stay for a bit - long enough for you to make first cuts.

I like to shape my dough into loaves before freezing, but you could theoretically wrap it and freeze it now... I also like to braid my loaves, so the following has instructions for that, other wise, place it in bread pans to bake.

• Take a section of dough and shape it into a long flat loaf - about 1/2" thick and 3" wide. You can round off the edges if you'd like, or square them.
• Using a sharp knife (I used a paring knife), about 1/2" from the top edge, so they're still attached, cut your dough lengthwise into 3 - 1" strips. Braid these strips till you reach the end, then pinch them together and turn them under.
• Double wrap loaves you don't plan to bake right away in Saran and Foil. Freeze.
• Allow bread you plan to bake immediately to rise for about 40 minutes, lightly covered by a towel.

Two loaves, after braiding, but before rising.

When it comes time to bake remove frozen bread from freezer, unwrap, and allow to thaw completely in a warm (not hot or cold!) area. 

• Preheat your oven (with your bread stone, if you have one - I use a pizza stone!) to 350 degrees. 
• Bake for 20-25 minutes.
• Check for doneness by holding the loaf upside down and thumping on the bottom. If it sounds like you're knocking on a hollow tree (or drywall) it's done. 
• Apparently you can use a thermometer to check doneness as well - 190 degrees is done - but I've never actually used that method, so try it if you want to - let me know how it works for you!

Voila! Enjoy!

This was a hit with everyone in the family. Peanut butter, jelly, butter, or just plain - everyone loved it. The best part? It took me a few hours this morning, and I still have 4.5 loaves left. And it barely cost anything at all... Gotta love that part.