Baking Bread

My little baby is sick, so here is a old post. Hopefully I’ll be back on Monday!

Yesterday I got up bright and early (not by choice, my little girls don’t know how to sleep in) and made two loaves of wheat bread and one loaf of banana bread. I always have “bake bread” on my to-do list but it never happens because I don’t get around to it until it’s too hot outside to turn the oven on inside. The house smelled so good yesterday though, I think I’ll try and get up and get the dough started early more often. Justin ate half the loaf at dinner time last night, so I think I’ll have to bake more bread in a few days anyways. The recipes I use always turn out really good so I thought I’d share them with you.

Wheat Bread
2 1/2 cup warm water
2 T. yeast
2 T. white vinegar
2/3 cup sugar or 1/2 cup honey
5 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (I do 3 cups wheat flour, 2 1/2 cups white flour)
1/2 cup wheat gluten
2 t. salt
4 T. dry powdered milk
2 T. oil
1/2 cup potato flakes
Mix ingredients in order listed for 12 to 15 minutes in mixer bowl with dough hook attachement. Let rise until double – 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Punch down, then shape into loaf or rolls. Let rise again until double and bake at 375 for 20 to 30 minutes until crust is golden brown and bread sounds hollow when lightly tapped.

Banana Nut Bread
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Heat oven to 350. Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs and beat well. Sift or mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Add bananas (I mash them up in a pie plate with a potato masher, it seems to work really good), vanilla and nuts. Put batter in a greased and floured loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.