Food Friday: Milk and Honey Bread

Bread.  It has kind of a bad reputation.  It's high in carbs and therefore is bad for us.  But it tastes so good!  Especially warm from the oven, slathered with butter and raw, local honey.  Or apple butter.  Or jam.  Or just butter.  Or just plain with nothing on it. 

I stayed up late last night baking two loaves of this particular bread, and impatiently waiting for it to cool enough that I could slice it without burning my fingers.  I don't have any photos of it being made because it's really hard to take pictures when you are up to your elbows in flour.  I will post a photo of a finished loaf, though, so you can be tempted by it too. 



This one deflated slightly, they don't normally do that. 

Milk and Honey Bread. 

What you need:

pinch of sugar

2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast

2-1/2 cups warm milk (110° to 115°)

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 teaspoons salt (I only use 1 teaspoon because I think 2 is too much)

8 to 8-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

 

What you do:

 

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk with the pinch of sugar for 5 to 10 minutes, or until foamy. Add your honey, butter, salt and 5 cups of flour; beat until smooth. Add enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough--it may not take all 8 cups.  The two loaves I made last night only took about 7 cups.  It depends on the humidity and altitude and the type of flour you use.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead it until it is smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place it in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.  (I don't really have a warm place in my house when it's cold outside, so I put my dough in a glass bowl and set it on top of a heating pad turned on low.) 

Once your dough has doubled in size, uncover it and punch it down.  Divide it in half and shape it into two loaves. Place the loaves in greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans, then cover them and let your dough rise until doubled again, about 30 minutes. (Again, I place the pans on the warm heating pad.)

Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.  If necessary, you can cover the pans loosely with foil if you notice the top of your bread is browning too quickly. Remove from the pans and cool your yummy bread completely on wire racks.   

 

Next week, I will teach you how to make home made apple butter to put on your yummy warm bread.
 

 Bread recipe slightly adapted from Taste of Home.