Give a man a loaf of bread, feed him for a day...

Let a man know you can bake bread and he'll show up any time you mention you have dough rising. When me, Mom and my little brother moved up here from Ga, we were pretty poor for a while. Mom worked as much as she could at a little gas station in Dana, In, making minimum wage and cleaned houses on the side. We didn't always have everything we wanted but never did without the things we needed. We always had food, shelter, clothing and more love than you could stuff in a 53' Trailmobile. Mom was and is still pretty thrifty. The old man says that she can squeeze a nickle and get 6 pennys and I believe every word of it. One of the things that she did to save a little bit of coin was making bread instead of buying it. That ruined me on store bought bread. After she got a better job, she had extra dough to spend but no time to make dough, so I had to settle for store bought. Nearly two decades later I have my own family and all the bills that go along with it and a pretty good job. I can afford to and usually do buy my bread from the store, but sometimes I sit there and think about how wonderful Mom's bread tasted and the smells that filled the house while it was rising and baking and I head to the kitchen. Today was one of those days. I decided on cinnamon raisin.




If you would like to try it for your self:
1/2 Cup of milk
4 Tbsp sugar,
2 Tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter (you can use margarine if you choose o_0)
2 packages of very active dry yeast
1 1/2 Cups warm water (105-110 degrees)
5-6 cups all purpose flour
1 cup raisins
2 Tbsp butter, melted
cinnamon and sugar to suit your tastebuds

Put first four ingredients in a small sauce pan and heat on medium, stirring with a whisk, just until the butter melts. Let cool to luke warm. Add Yeast and water to a warmed mixing bowl (I usually put a Tbsp of sugar in now, also) Stir to disolve and let sit for 3-5 minutes for yeast to activate. Add the milk mixture and raisins. Stir a few times. Add 1/2 C of flour and stir, repeating til it is too stiff to stir. Put the dough on a dusted counter and add remaining flour, 1/2C at a time til the dough a little sticky. You may not need all of the flour. Knead 8-10 minutes til smooth and stretchy and put it in a greased bowl, spray with pam and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise til doubled in bulk, about an hour. I'll put it in the oven, turn to 400 for 1 minute and shut it off. its almost as good as having a proofer. After rising, punch down and divide in half. On a floured counter, roll out into a rectangle. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Roll like a jelly roll, pinch seams on bottom and end and put in a loaf pan with the ends folded under.



Let rise again til doubled in bulk and the top of the loaf is starting to stick up over the sides of the loaf pan. Put in a 400 Degree oven for 30 minutes, cool immediately on a rack. Enjoy



PS, I use my kitchenaid stand mixed... Screw that hand kneading crap :-)