Over the past few days in preparing to make Suzanne's Grandmother bread I read all the blog posts, comments and forum topics about making it.  Several posters mentioned ending up with a doughy soup or that their dough required more flour than the recipe called for.

In another forum post here I mentioned how many years ago when I tried to make yeast bread I encountered so many problems I ended up asking a professional baker what was the issue because as an accomplished cook I had no trouble baking biscuits, made my own pie crusts, etc, but anything with yeast went south.  She mentioned our region's humidity (coastal NC).  So I ended up getting a bread machine and that worked though I wasn't happy with the crust issue.

When I moved to the NC/VA mountains 10 years ago, miraculously I could make yeast bread without a bread machine!  I attributed it to less humidity and the altitude adjustment (went from sea level to 3000ft). The dough was easier to work with and I could actually follow recipes without too much variation, i.e., constantly adjusting moisture and flour.

I'm back on the coast of NC for the next few months while I get started in nursing school, and desperately missing my mountain yeast breads!  So yesterday I made Grandmother Bread.  Our humidity hit 93% yesterday, and with just a few adjustments I still succeeded!! 

I was so pleased with the size, softness, and crumb.  The softness, while not being as soft as store bought white bread which I did not want or expect, is a "sturdy" softness, perfect for making sandwiches!  My next ventures will be in seeing how much white whole wheat flour I can add without compromising that "sturdy" softness.

I made the one loaf recipe as my Chicago Metallic bread pans are in storage and I only had the rectangular bread pan from my bread baker to use (fingers crossed I can get back home and get my bread pans outta storage now that I've found a successful recipe, thanks Suzanne!).

To work with the dough in this humidity, I kept back 1/2 cup of the water, and used the full 3 1/2 cups flour.  I had to add additional flour tablespoon by tablespoon, until I ended up with a dough that was just barely sticky (occasionally the dough got too tough and I ended up adding 1/4 cup, tablespoon by tablespoon, of the reserved water too).  In total I used almost 4 1/2 cups of flour.  It was a compromise in taste and dough performance to reach a happy medium of being able to knead the dough without adding excessive flour.

First rise took about 1 1/2 hours, second rise took only 40 minutes. I also had to adjust the baking temp & length.  After 30 min at 350º which may or may not be the oven, I had to bump the temp to 375º and bake an extra 10 min.

So if you've been intimidated about baking yeast bread in high humidity areas, I urge you to try again!  I'm soo thrilled to be eating my sandwich today on my own home baked bread.  Now if there were just a mountain outside my kitchen window…

Thanks JeannieB!  I was thrilled, now to make more today!  

Glad someone else brought it up!  I was wondering how you got such nice slices!  And the bread looks great!

Hi! Welcome to the forum. I usually would get online everyday,but my hubby has been sick and I've been busy with him.  Is'nt homemade Grandma's bread the best? I  hate to buy bread in our local store because it is so expensive and is not as good as this bread.  I always tell my friends it is the simple things in life that my husband and I appreciate !