I saw Olivia post her pound cake recipe and decided that I would share one of my bread recipes. While this bread is considered sweet (at least, it is to me), it isn't as sweet as a pound cake would be. It's not a dessert bread. It's more like a mildly sweet Italian bread that is great for making sandwiches, making toast with jam, etc. I would imagine that adding some rosemary to the recipe would also make it a nice rosemary bread, but I have yet to test that. Also, this recipe can be somewhat time-consuming since you have to let the dough rise multiple times before you bake it, but it's great to do when you're home on the weekend just doing work around the house. Also, making this bread during the warm summer months helps the dough rise quicker. Happy baking!
Makes about 5 loaves
INGREDIENTS
2 packages dry yeast
3 cups warm water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tablespoon salt
1 ¼ cup sugar
10 cups flour
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Dissolve yeast in warm water.
2. Mix in other ingredients with yeast water mixture (vegetable oil, eggs, salt, sugar, flour). I like to make a well in the pile of flour and combine the ingredients like that.
3. Knead it by hand until it makes a nice dough.
4. Put dough into greased bowl, preferably a big bowl (I lightly grease it with vegetable oil).
5. Turn dough over in bowl. Cover with a towel and let rise until dough has doubled in size. Then, punch the dough down.
6. Take out of bowl and knead dough until stretchy.
7. Put back in bowl and cover with towel until dough doubles in size again. Then, punch it down again and divide dough up to fit into greased bread pans.
8. Let the dough rise in the bread pans, covered with a towel.
9. Bake at 350°F (or at about 175°C for those who are on the metric system) for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.