Homemade Bread
(from cokerlj’s recipe box)
“Antique Recipe”
Came over from Czechoslovakia with my grand mother in the late 1800’s.
Source: Vasek Family Recipe
Categories: Breads, Czech Family Recipes
Ingredients
- 3 cups water
- 2 packages yeast
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 3 tablespoons bacon drippings melted
- 8 cups better for bread flour
Directions
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Tip: The secret to good breads and rolls is high heat; the longer and slower you bake, the more the bread will dry out. Also remember to use a high gluten flour for better elasticity. For cracked wheat, rye or whole wheat breads, use the same recipe as above EXCEPT cut the white flour by 2 cups; add your favorite dark flour (2 cups). You can add 2 teaspoons of caraway seed in addition to the dark flour for rye bread.
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Heat water to luke warm, not hot. (Sometimes my mother would save and use the water from boiled potatoes; but don’t add salt to the dough if the potato water is salted.)
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Stir in salt and bacon drippings. (if you don’t have bacon drippings, use vegetable oil, Crisco, lard or margarine.)
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Begin adding flour; kneading well after each addition. It should take you about 15 minutes to work in all flour and knead until elastic.
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Grease top of dough in bowl and place in a warm place to rise. When dough is double in size, knead until smooth. Let rise again.
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When it is double; cut into 3 large loaves. Knead each and work until smooth. Place each piece of dough into a well greased bread pan. This amount will make a large dozen of hot rolls or two large loaves or 3 medium loaves. Let rise once more in baking pan.
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Grease top of bread before baking with bacon grease.
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Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes.
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Remove from pans and brush with bacon grease again.
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Cool, serve…if you can wait that long!