Homemade bread, the recipe used by my mother in my childhood!
Here they are proofing:
And here's the best part: Cinnamon Bread!!
To make Cinnamon bread, take one loaf after proofing, slice it, and dredge each slice through melted butter, then cinnamon sugar. Re-assemble the slices in the pan. Take the remaining butter and cinnamon sugar and combine them. Add this mixture to the top for cinnamon crumbles. Bake with the other loaves.
Story under the cut.
My mother made bread for most of my childhood. It started because my father wanted homemade bread like his mom made.
My mom, then a young wife, went to her mother in law to ask how to make bread. (This was probably in the early 70s.) This was the grandmother we called Nonnie.
Why didn't she ask her own mom?
My other grandmother had a...peculiar relationship with food, eating and cooking/baking. The memory that sums this up the best was the time we were visiting Grandma K, and she offered us some "Potato bread, freshly made." Folks, it was bread with hunks of potato in it.
So my mom very wisely went to her mother-in-law to learn proper bread making. She got so good at it that family members started to call it *her* recipe instead of Nonnie's.
Real homemade bread is a treasure. It is the best.
Last year (2024) for Christmas, mom gave out folders with "her" recipes in it. We were all thrilled!
This year, my mom had some medical complications in September, and has basically said that she won't be making bread this year. (We have been telling her for decades that the one thing we want for Christmas is a loaf of her bread. )
So, it is my turn.
I looked at her recipe. It was a copy of the bread recipe from the Joy of Cooking.
I love the Joy. My copy has been loved and worn and cracked.
But I know for sure that this isn't the right recipe. First of all, it's the one that calls for a dough hook instead of kneading. I don't own a dough hook, and neither does my mother.
Secondly, I have an extremely distinctive memory of seeing my mom scalding milk on the stove. She was putting sugar into the pot with the milk. "Mom, what are you making? Hot cocoa?"
She gave me a weird look, the smoked. "Sure. I thought I would try this new recipe," as she dropped some butter and salt into it.
Knowing my mom's sense of humor, I played along but then finally said, "No but seriously. What are you making."
"Bread. Wanna help?"
The Joy's recipe doesn't call for milk. Like, at all.
But I persevered and tried the "official" recipe last week.
It went poorly. I've identified the problem as probably the yeast? I worked very hard to maintain correct temperatures, but it went together tough and didn't ride enough either. (In my kitchen there are many thermometers. Thanks, Alton Brown!)
I mean, the bread was edible, and the cinnamon loaf was gorgeous, but it wasn't what I wanted.
This weekend (with Xmas looming large) I banged out a batch of the correct recipe. It's in the Better Homes and Gardens (than yours) Cookbook. I admit I had to look it up online. It was utterly perfect. I made two loaves, and went to bed satisfied.
Today I ran a double batch, and in the future I will start with a bigger bowl; this monster doubles exponentially. I had to add the flour on the counter and that was...sure an experience. (And one I also remember from baking with mom.) I was at her elbow dozens of times making bread over the years. I can knead with the best of them.
I've worked out what my stations are; where I can properly proof dough, what part of the counter works best for kneading, etc. I've figured out which saucepans are best for scalding milk, and I even beat that Joy recipe into submission one more time, in order to make a vegan single batch. (For the cinnamon loaf, I plan to use olive oil instead of butter.)
Merry Christmas to all, and to all, some good bread!
