Instructions: BREAD - A 7-grain bread for toasting or eating plain.

This bread was first made from whatever was settin round the kitchen when I started baking. It has a wonderful texture and flavor.

(2 large loaves)

PROCEDURE

1. Melt the shortening and the butter. Let them cool a bit, so as not to kill the yeast when they are added to the dough. If you want to scald the milk, do so, and also let it cool (it is common practice to scald milk before baking with it, though I never do.)

2. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the 1/4 cup of lukewarm water.

3. Mix the cinnamon, oats, corn meal, bran, cracked wheat, buckwheat, soy flour, and rye flour. Add the rest of the water, the milk, butter, shortening, egg, and honey, and mix well. Stir in the dissolved yeast mixture. Mix in the salt, and the whole wheat flour.

4. Stir in the white flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, until the mixture is stiff enough to knead. Youll probably have about half of it left.

5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl, onto a floured surface. Knead the dough, adding more white flour as necessary to keep the dough workable.

Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about ten minutes. Its okay if you end up using less than or more than the three cups of white flour; just use whatever it takes.

6. Put the dough back into a bowl thats been very lightly greased. Let it rise, covered, in a still, warm place (around 85 deg. F is best, though room temperature will work) for 45 minutes, or until it has doubled in bulk.

7. Punch the dough down, divide in half, shape into loaves, and place each half into a loaf pan which has been very lightly greased. Let rise again, for another 45 minutes, in a still, warm place, until the loaves have about doubled in bulk.

8. Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F as the bread finishes rising. Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes, until it sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from the loaf pans, and rub the top of the loaves with some butter to give them a nice, soft, chewy crust.

RATING

Difficulty: moderate. Time: about 3 hours (half of it rising time).

Precision: approximate measurement OK.

Alan M. Marcum
sun!nescorna!marcum

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