Bread

A wonderful thing happens weekly at our house. The smell of freshly baked bread. Yuuummmm, there is nothing like it in the world. My wonderful husband agrees, although usually defers to his inferior store bought bread. He can't help it, he was raised on Wonderbread. He will line up for a piece of just out of the oven bread. Unfortunately for him, I usually bake on my days off. I love having the kids around while I'm in the process. They pull up the kitchen stool and peer into the bowl to make sure the yeast is "happy, happy". Mooommmm! It's happy! Which means they get to help measure ingredients into the KitchenAid mixer and watch it zoom around. Moooommmmm! It's clinging to the bread dough hook! Moooommmmm! Is it time to knead? Yes, they love to knead the bread. They share my joy in the rythmic thunk! squash, fold, squash, fold, thunk! I think they secretly love being able to THROW the dough down on the granite (really, it likes being treated that way) almost as much as the squash, fold, squash, fold...

Dawn's MultiGrain Honey Bread
1/3 cup honey
2 packages of yeast
4 cups warm water (100 - 110)
2 cups Kashi 5 grain cereal
1 cup oats
1 cup All Bran cereal
3 cups whole wheat flour
7 cups +/- all purpose flour
4 tsp. sea salt

Dissolve honey, water and yeast - let stand 5 minutes to proof (happy, happy).
Add oats, Kashi + All Bran cereal, let stand 2 - 3 minutes. Start mixer. Add whole wheat flour and 6 cups of all purpose flour. Stir, adding remaining cup of flour a little bit at at ime to prevent sticking to the side of the bowl (dough will feel sticky by hand).

Cover and let rise until doubled (more happy stuff) - 45 minutes.
Puch down and shape into loaves. Cover, let rise 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes. Loaves will be lightly browned and hollow when tapped. Remove from oven. Remove from pans within 5 minutes.

Or stop by on Friday afternoons :o)