If at first you don't succeed try try again...

 I have only succeeded in making rocks every time I try to make bread but I still continue to try so when I found this dough recipe I thought I would try again.
I found this dough recipe here:

• 8 Cups of Flour (I prefer to use a combination of White Wheat and All Purpose Flour)
• 3 Tablespoons of Instant/Fast Acting Yeast
• 3 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoons of Sea Salt
• 3 Cups of Hot from the tap Water

Note: This recipe makes a large batch of dough (enough to make 2 large loaves).

I use a stand mixer with a dough hook.  I add 6 cups of the flour and the remaining dry ingredients.  I mix them for just a few seconds, then I add the water slowly as it is kneading.

Once you’ve added all your water and it has mixed in, you will need to add your remaining 2 cups of flour.  Depending on the humidity or alignment of the Earth, you may or may not need all of the flour.  Add flour slowly until the dough is “cleaning” the sides of your bowl.  You can knead this for as long as you prefer.  I just mix it thoroughly until it makes a dough ball on my hook and call it good.

Next, place your dough ball in a large bowl.  I spray mine with oil and make sure it coats the entire dough ball.  Cover with a warm damp hand towel to aid in rising.  Sometimes, I turn my oven on for just a few minutes and then turn it off.  I  place my bowl in the oven during the rise time.  Do not put your bowl or dough in a hot oven to rise, it could melt your bowl and cook your bread.  You just need a warm oven.  Use common sense here.

Once your dough has risen for 15 minutes, punch it down.  Divide your dough.  Shape it and you are ready for cooking. 

With this recipe you have two cooking options, which is another reason I love this recipe. 

Option 1 – Put your shaped dough in a COLD oven and turn it on to 400 degrees.  Check on it in 20 minutes.

Option 2 – Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  While it is preheating, cover your shaped dough and let it rise on the stove until the oven is ready.  Check on it in 20 minutes.

I love this recipe because it consistently yields good bread.  It freezes well and is quick.
I liked how the author "likes how it consistently yields good bread" This encouraged me to try again.

Ressurection Sunday

Morning broke at 430 am as usual around here. Little-man has a bad cough. He went back to sleep until 6am. I am ashamed to admit we didn't go to a church service today. Aaron went out to mom's to sit with David while she went to church. I baked the bread the kids made last night. It was so good. I think we've finally found the trick to homemade bread from scratch. It could've been lighter but our flour mixup made me knead it too long. The kids liked the bread in a bag concept. It was less messy that way. I will definately make it that way again with the kids. There's nothing like hot bread and butter. Our previous attempts turned out to be more like rocks than food.
After bread and butter for breakfast the kids got their Easter baskets. We kept it simple this year.
Camryn is reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Pitty-pat and Tippy-toe so I can blog this and then go finish making our Sunday Dinner. Carolyn and Taylor will be here at noon to eat. Aaron will be grilling venison and pork loin. I am making scalloped corn casserole, green beans, and biscuits,deviled eggs, and a simple pasta salad. I made jello yesterday. My jello was a disaster waiting to happen. First the mold wasn't together tight and boiling hot jello ran everywhere. The phone kept ringing and I just wanted to get all my prepwork done while littleman wasn't under foot during his nap. But everything was covered it orange jello including me and the phone, and the kitchen counter and floor.

Baking Bread with JonBoy

Today Jon and I are baking bread. He was so amazed with the yeast when it bubbled over the measureing cup. Let's forget when I let the milk on to scald and it went over the pan while I was giving little man a cracker. Jon likes it when I let him help me in the kitchen. He is doing a kindergarden program on his leapster. The time for the bread to rise is flying by for him since he has been without a powercord for his leapster for about eight months now. This is only my third or fourth time trying to make bread without a breadmachine. I hope it turns out for him. I read an article this morning while looking for homeschool ideas and thought since the girls are gone with Aaron I would try the recipe with Jon. Little Man has fallen asleep in his giant play yard and our cat tiger is curled up with him. I will try to post some photos. I plan to use this blog to record our home school activities for our first year. I am not using a planner but have some unit studies I have put together into lapbooks. We use workbooks we have found and printouts for our math concepts. We are checking out most of our books we don't already own from the local library. this week we read The Mitten a folk tale illustrated by Jan Brett. We used the lapbook ideas from homeschool share and jan bretts web page to make our lap books. We are also reading M is for Mitten by Annie Appleford since we do live in the mitten state...Michigan.