Warm And Fresh Bread

The Shamrock is filled with smell of fresh bread. Every week or so the house is filled with this warm, amazing smell. In my attempt to keep my diet simple, and free of chemicals I try to make most of my own bread. Here is my tweaked recipe originally from the Joy of Cooking:

1 1/4 cup of warm water
4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast
2 tablespoons honey, or molasses
1 cup of warm milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups white flour
2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

Mix the water, yeast, and honey (molasses) together, set aside to let the yeast activate. Melt the butter in the warm butter. In the mixing bowl mix the flours and salt, add the milk mixture, and then the yeast mixture. Blend until it forms dough, spend plenty of time mixing and kneading it, this will make a more tender bread. Put the dough in a greased bowl and let rise to double its size at least twice. Divide the dough in two, take 1/2 and roll out and form a loaf, repeat with the other part. Let the loaves rise once more in the greased pans. Preheat the oven to 450, bake the loaves for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven to 350 for 30 minutes.

Enjoy ~SJ