Basic But Devine Yeast Bread Recipe - My Mother's Pride And Joy

Combine:

Milk, Sugar, Salt & Shortening in a large bowl.

Heat in the Microwave on High for 21/2 to 3 Minutes.

The Liquid Should Be Very Warm (between 115 - 120 degrees) But Not Hot Enough To Burn Your Finger. Keep An Eye On It Checking Every 30 seconds.

While that's nuking, go to the next step (flour/yeast)

Mix the yeast with 2 Cups of Flour (sift mixture well with a fork)

Set Aside

Mix the flour/yeast mixture with the liquid mixture but do so slowly, adding a little (of the flour) at a time to assure everything mixes well and doesn't cause lumps (some lumps ok).

Blend for 2 minutes on high.

Add in the eggs and blend for another 2 minutes on high.

Add remaining flour and mix with a wooden spoon until semi-solid.

Knead the dough into a ball. Add flour to the mixture and coat your hands as needed to avoid stickiness. Do this until the mixture can be removed and put on a cutting board and continue kneeding until dough is pliable.

In a spacious (compared to the size of the dough ball) bowl grease the sides with shortening and put the dough ball inside it.

Cover with a towel and let rise for 1 hour.

After an hour or so, punch a hole into the middle (to remove excess air).

Flour up the cutting board and put the dough on it.

We usually pinch off about 1/4 of the dough and roll it into a ball then shape that into a small "loaf". Place this inside a bread pan that's been greased up (shortening) and cover with a towel- let rise for another hour or until it breaches the parameter of the pan (loafs out to look like bread).

Pinch off a small chunk of the dough, about the size of a golf ball and roll into a perfect ball.

Place on a greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart in all directions. Your going to cover this with a towel and let rise for another hour (or until desired size), 2 hours max.

If you'd like to make some sweeter, more yummy cinnamon rolls there's a few cool ways to do this.

Take a good chunk of the dough and roll it out like your making pizza dough. Using a knife, cut off the edges until you have a perfect rectangle (horozontal).

Recycle edge pieces back into the rest of the dough and kneed it in.

Spread your favorite butter over the top of the square dough in a semi thick layer (not too much).

In another bowl mix together 1 to 2 ratios of cinnamon and sugar (you can alternatively use brown sugar as well- experiment, that's the fun of it!).

On the butter sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Don't be stingy, when your done the top should look a nice golden brown but you should still see the dough shine through.

Roll the dough into a log and pinch the long edge to seal the log into a solid log.

Next, cut the log every two inches into "buns"

Lay the buns on a greased cookie sheet and cover with a towel to let rise for 1-2 hours.

If you want to make a fancy delicious braided loaf, roll a good amount of dough into 3 thick ropes. Lay side by side vertically. Pinch the bottom of all three together to create an end seal. Braid the "strands" like you'd braid hair- layer the last one over the next one, then the other side do the same and keep going until you have a braid- pinch the top like you did the bottom and put this in a long bread pan. Let rise for 1-2 hours then bake.

You can make all three with one batch although if your planning loafs I'd double, maybe triple the recipe (either all at once or just repeat it 3 different times (make the first batch, let rise, start second, and so on).

The smell this will permeate in the house while it's cooking is to die for. You wouldn't think so with such a basic recipe but just wait- especially the cinnamon rolls!

We often add raisins to the cinnamon buns to create raisin cinnamon buns. You can also add raisins to just the basic bread (after it's in dough form you roll it out and push in raisins then fold, fold, fold until it's a nice loaf or pinch off into rolls.

You can experiment with other flavors and spices to make any kind of bread you want. The beauty of this recipe is that it starts off VERY Basic, (but even basic is delicious and an amazing aroma therapy for the home- trust me people will want some just smelling it.

Goes wonderful with beef stew and just about any dish.

My mom makes this every holiday (I suspect she invites us early so we can indulge in the "baking" smell it leaves- it's pretty potent, like a bakery!

Once you have all your rolls, loafs, braided loafs, cinnamon buns, raised for the second time, your ready to bake and start the air freshener stage.

Space permitting, you can bake everything at the same time. If you don't have room, just bake them in segments- the remaining pieces will continue to rise.

You don't want to rise your bread too much because at some point they will get so big that just walking across the room or putting a cup on the counter will cause it to fall. So be careful :)

Bake at 375 (adjust for mountain elevations) for about 45 minutes to an hour. You'll know it's getting close to done when you start to daydream about sugar plums and fairies, and your guests are salivating wondering where the wonderful smell is. Some have asked us if there was a bakery near by because it smells the same way!

Check on it when this happens, you want it to bake to a golden (dark but not too dark) brown.

Once this is done, take it out of the oven but before you remove anything from the pans, take a stick of butter and start buttering the tops of the buns, loafs, etc...

The butter will soften the tops and infuse a delicious buttery taste into the bread that will last even after it cools (but it won't be wet or sticky).

Pour the buns out of their pans and the loaf and cover with a towel to cool off slow enough to remain extra soft when cooled. If they cool down too fast they may get hard.

We usually cut the buns in half and butter them inside before they cool.

They taste amazing hot/warm! When they cool make sure to store them in ziploc bags or they'll get hard after a day. You want to keep these babies soft.

My favorite thing to do when they are a day or more old is to butter them (same with bread slices) and put them in the microwave for about 20 seconds- this reinvigorates them making them soft, moist, and delicious again (although they are good too cold, but that's my preference (hot).