Happy New Year!




It's the blue moon from last night oooooooh!

And here is the recipe for the white bread...


White Bread

for 2-5X9 inch loaves

1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 tbsp. vegetable shortening
1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. salt
1/4 cup water at 105-115 degrees F
1 package of dry yeast
6 1/2 cups of sifted all-purpose flour

plus your choice of filling if you wish to do so, i'm using blueberry preserves for this one.


Scald the cup of milk in a heavy saucepan. With the heat still on, add the water, shortening, butter, sugar and salt and let it all melt together. Cool mixture till lukewarm.

In separate bowl, combine 1/4 cup of water (at 105-115 degrees) and the dry yeast. Mix it together by swishing the bowl around, don't use a spoon or whisk. Let it sit for 3-5 minutes.


Add the lukewarm mixture to the dissolved yeast.



Stir in 3 cups of the sifted flour, keep adding flour until you are able to put the dough on a bread board (large cutting board) without it sticking. Keep flour down on the board to prevent sticking while kneading. Then knead, knead good man or woman, knead to your hearts desire! Until the dough is smooth and elastic.



Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a cloth to let it rise till doubled in size, at least an hour.




Punch down the dough after it's risen and do it again! (if there's time, if not, no worries, just skip the second bowl rising and...)

Divide the dough into 2 balls, I mean loaves. Place them both in greased bowls, cover, and let the dough rise again till almost doubled in size.

Now is a good time to grease the bread pans that the loaves will be baked in.

Once they have risen for the last time, take one ball, I mean loaf, at a time and put it back on the bread board with some flour. Take a rolling pin and roll that baby out! It can be kind of tough because the bread dough is springy and elastic-y and wants to come back together when you try to spread it out. But hang in there, keep going, persevere, and all will be well and flat and spread out soon. Once it is, drizzle a little melted butter, or brush it on to the dough leaving about an inch around the perimeter without the butter. Then spread some of the blueberry preserves or jam over the buttered part. And, if you are compelled to do so, you can sprinkle some cinnamon over the blueberry also, mmmmm.

Then, start to roll it up back into a loaf (no more ball shape), kind of the way you roll a burrito. Seal the edges together while you go so none of the blueberry comes out the sides.

When it's all sealed up, it'll be in a loaf shape, and ready to stick into the greased up bread pans to be followed by oven time...


Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Shape the loaves for the bread pans and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes longer. If the loaf has shrunk from the sides of the pan, she's done.


Dig in!