December 19, 2007 | Chickens in the Road

My grandmother grew up on a farm not far from where I live now, and when she was a little girl it was her job to make bread every day. Every day. She learned to make bread from her mother, and her mother learned it from her mother before her, and so on. She taught her daughters to make bread, and when my mother came to West Virginia as a young bride, my grandmother taught my mother to make that bread, too.

When I was nine years old, my mother taught me to make the bread. I made bread periodically as a teenager–it wasn’t “my job” like it was my grandmother’s job. We mostly bought bread at the store, but whenever anyone in the house made that bread, everyone was excited and it went quickly.

When I set up housekeeping for the first time as an adult, among the first things I bought were bread pans and a bag of flour. I had never been in charge of grocery shopping before, so I didn’t really think too hard about how long flour could last and how much flour is really needed to make just a loaf or two of bread. I bought a 25-pound bag of flour. That bag of flour lasted a long time! But I made a lot of bread, trying to use up that 25-pound bag, and I fell in love with baking.

I have two sons, and yes, of course, we can and should teach our sons their way around a kitchen, but there is just something about a bread recipe that has been passed down from mother to daughter for a hundred years or more in my family that makes it special that I have a daughter.

She is the only granddaughter in the family. When she was nine, I told her, “It’s time for you to learn how to make bread.” She asked where the recipe was. I told her, “There is no written recipe. I’m going to teach you and you’re going to remember it for the rest of your life and someday you’re going to teach it to your daughter.”

She looked a little doubtful at the prospect of actually remembering a recipe for that long, then she said, “Are you sure you’re the right person to teach me how to make bread? Aren’t you the one who blew up the bread pan??” Okay, yes, that did happen. It was an oven malfunction, I swear! The oven got too hot one day due to a temperature problem with the thermostat and when I took the pan out, the glass bread pan exploded everywhere and I was finding tiny bits of glass in corners for weeks. I reminded her that I’d made hundreds, maybe thousands of loaves of bread over the years and had only blown up one pan.

So we got started and I had her doing every step on her own, me just watching. She started stirring in the flour and she was getting a little tired of stirring and she said, “Don’t we have electronics for this now?” Well, yes, in fact I did have a bread machine once. It was a gift, and I tried it out a few times, but it’s just not homemade bread if it isn’t made by hand, and I have no idea where that bread machine is now.

Making bread from scratch without using a bread machine takes some effort, but there are several benefits–for one thing, kneading bread is great exercise and good stress relief–but more importantly, putting your fist into the dough is like touching the past. People, particularly women, have done this very thing, stuck their fists into dough and kneaded it to a perfect elastic ball, for thousands of years. My mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and my great-great-grandmother made this bread, stuck their fists into this dough. There are few things left in this sophisticated day and age that are more elemental, more intrinsic to human existence, more real, than making bread.

I explained all of this to my daughter, and her eyes glazed over slightly, then I pointed out, “You are the only granddaughter, remember? That makes you the Keeper of the Bread.” Now that made sense to her, and suddenly she was very proud. And once she got into it, she thought kneading was fun. All that punching, you know. Her first batch of bread turned out great, and she couldn’t stop reminding her brothers that she’d made it, all by herself, and to this day, she is proud to make what she named Grandmother Bread. The recipe is a longtime family secret, passed from hand to hand, never written down, but you can find it here. In a world where baking homemade bread is a dying art, maybe you can be a Keeper of the Bread, too. And if you’ve never made homemade bread, learn how to make bread with a nine-year-old.

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Posted by Suzanne McMinn | Permalink

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Deliciously simple and simply delicious, Grandmother Bread is a daily staple in our farmhouse. This is a heritage recipe, tested by time and the hands of mothers and grandmothers for over a hundred years. This secret family recipe is different from many standard white bread recipes in that it contains no milk, egg, or oil, and its very simplicity produces a bread of light but sturdy texture that yields loaves for perfectly sliced sandwich bread (the best sandwich bread you’ll ever taste! also makes excellent french toast!), plus the same dough can be used to create dinner rolls, cinnamon-swirl loaves, sweet rolls, crispies, and apple-streudel ladder loaf. Many recipe variations for Grandmother Bread are included on this site. (See links below.) And, once you’ve grasped the concept of the standard Grandmother Bread recipe, you can create variations of your own–the possibilities are limitless!

Read all about the family history behind this bread recipe here.

Never baked homemade bread before? Learn how to make bread here.

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How to make Grandmother Bread:

Two-loaf standard recipe

3 cups warm water
1 tablespoon yeast (1 packet)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
7 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, sugar, and salt. Let sit five minutes. Stir in first three cups of flour with a heavy spoon. Add the next cup of flour a little at a time as needed, stirring until dough becomes too stiff to continue stirring easily. Add a little more flour and begin kneading. The amount of flour is approximate–your mileage may vary! Continue adding flour and kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let dough rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled. (Usually, about an hour.) Uncover bowl; sprinkle in a little more flour and knead again before dividing in half. With floured hands, shape dough into loaves and place in two greased loaf pans. Tear off two pieces of waxed paper and grease with oil spray (to prevent it from sticking to the loaves as they rise) and cover loaf pans. Let rise till loaves are tall and beautiful! (About an hour, depending on the temperature in your kitchen.)

Bake for 25 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven. Makes two loaves. Recipe can be cut in half.

One-loaf standard recipe

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
3 1/2 cups flour

Make Sourdough Grandmother Bread

Modify Grandmother Bread as follows to convert to sourdough. Learn more about baking Grandmother Bread with sourdough starter and how to make sourdough starter here.

One-loaf sourdough recipe

2/3 cup starter
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 1/2 cups flour

Two-loaf sourdough recipe

1 1/3 cups starter
2 2/3 cups warm water
1 tablespoon yeast (1 packet)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
7 cups flour

Follow general instructions for making Grandmother Bread above.

You can use sourdough starter in any Grandmother Bread recipe. Add the starter to the water/yeast mixture in the first step and add the baking soda along with the flour then carry on with the chosen recipe variation per instructions.

Pizza made with Sourdough Grandmother Bread. Each one-loaf recipe makes two large thin-crust pizzas.

More Grandmother Bread tips:

How to Make Homemade Dough Enhancer–for making Grandmother Bread with whole grains.
Freezing Grandmother Bread–for making Grandmother Bread ahead of time.

Grandmother Bread recipe variations:

Apple-Streudel Ladder Loaf
Cinnamon Crispies
Cinnamon-Swirl Bread
Go Savory: Whole Wheat Herb Loaf, Garlic-Cheese Rolls, and More
Homemade Hot Dog & Hamburger Buns
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls, Caramel-Pecan Rolls, Orange Rolls, and More
Pumpernickel Bread
Raisin Bread
Sourdough Pizza

Recipes using Grandmother Bread:

Breakfast with Grandmother Bread: Egg Grandwiches, Stuffed French Toast, Cheesy Poached Eggs (and more!)
Garlic-Herb Croutons
Shrimp Toast
Pepperoni Rolls
Tea Room Coconut Toast
The Ultimate Breakfast Casserole

Dinner rolls.

Cinnamon Crispies.

Egg Grandwiches.

Raisin Bread.

Grandmother Bread shaped in a french-style loaf with garlic and cheese.

Make more out of life. Eat more Grandma Bread!

See the Grandmother Bread Cookbook page for even MORE recipes.

Note: More Grandmother Bread recipes added regularly. Please check back! Also, feel free to ask questions about breadmaking here, or visit the forum to chat about Grandmother Bread with a bunch of fun people! Ask questions, share ideas, make friends. We’d love to see you.

See this recipe at Farm Bell Recipes and save it to your recipe box.

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Posted by Suzanne McMinn | Permalink

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Homemade bread makes a house smell like home–and it tastes soooo good. I love baking homemade bread. When I talk to people about baking bread, I find that sometimes people are afraid to make bread. They think it’s too hard, or that it takes too long. Bread is actually very easy to make and the time involved is mostly in the rising process. The actual preparation takes very little time–and the reward, fresh bread coming out of your oven, is huge. If you’ve never tried baking bread at home, learn how with a nine-year-old. If she can do it, so can you. Here are the simple techniques, with pictures:

Grandmother Bread is a good recipe to start with if you’ve never baked bread before. It’s easy, and quick. Read the history behind Grandmother Bread here. I taught my daughter to make this bread when she was nine.

How to Make Bread:

Start with the warm water, yeast, salt, and any other ingredients called for in your recipe before adding the flour. Let the water-yeast mixture sit for five minutes while the yeast activates. Start adding flour, one cup at a time at first, then in smaller and smaller amounts. Usually a recipe will need a range of flour and the exact amount will vary slightly, so don’t add it all at once.

Continue stirring in flour until the dough becomes too stiff to stir.

My daughter (age nine, left) wasn’t too enthusiastic at first. That stirring thing is hard!

She liked kneading better. Lots of fun punching action and getting her hands gooey.

When the dough is too stiff to stir, start kneading. Making bread is a messy job. Don’t plan on answering the phone. Kneading is no mystery–just get your hands in there and start turning and punching the dough, adding more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and the bowl.

Keep kneading until the dough is ready. When is the dough ready? When the dough feels smooth and elastic in your hands. When it doesn’t stick to the bowl and your hands anymore. When you are tired of kneading. When you just feel it in your bones. Usually, kneading takes a few minutes. No more than five. Don’t put in too much flour! That will make your bread heavy. Over-kneading isn’t good for the bread, either. Just knead till it doesn’t stick anymore. (Or, at least, it doesn’t stick much.)

Learning to know just when your dough is ready is something that takes practice. If your first batch of bread doesn’t come out perfect, try again. Every time you make bread, it will get better. It’s just a little flour, yeast, water, and a few other simple, cheap ingredients. Nobody’s gonna die if your first attempt at bread doesn’t work out. Try again.

Place prepared dough in a greased bowl. Turn once. Cover. I like to use plastic wrap sprayed with oil to cover. Let rise till doubled, usually an hour, depending on the temperature inside your house.

When dough has risen, remove cover, sprinkle with a little flour, and punch dough down. Continue as per the instructions in your recipe.

*If using rapid-rise yeast, in some recipes like this one you won’t need a second rise. In most cases, such as with Grandmother Bread, even if using rapid-rise yeast, a second rise is required. If the directions in your recipe don’t tell you specifically that a second rise isn’t needed with rapid-rise yeast, go ahead and give the bread a second rise. It won’t hurt anything.

Go bake some bread. And let me know how it comes out!

Check out the main Grandmother Bread page for many, many delicious ideas using this one simple recipe!

Also see: How to Make Homemade Dough Enhancer for lighter, fresher bread!

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Posted by Suzanne McMinn | Permalink