Bread

I love having home-made bread, but didn't make it very often because I hated the process of mixing the dough. I inherited an old Bosch Mixer over the weekend, it's a lot like a Kitchen Aide but more compact.

Mine looks a lot like this, but it's older. The mixer arm can be moved down so that it's parallel with the stand...does that make sense? It also came with the mixing tools in the picture, two mixing bowls, a blender attachment, slicer/shredder attachments, a citrus juicer, and a meat grinder. Not sure when or why I'd use a meat grinder but I have one!

Because of this wonderful mixer I'm making bread like there's no tomorrow! I just throw all the ingredients in and let the bread hook mixer do all the work. Sunday I made French bread that we used for our French bread pizza and yesterday I made Italian Cheese bread for dinner (and my breakfast) today.

Here's the Italian Cheese bread recipe since it's too delicious not to share and I've made it a lot. The words in parenthesis are how I change the recipe to meet my needs.

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
3 cups warm water
3 tablespoons shortening
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
(1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
(I usually divide the recipe in half to only make one loaf)

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the shortening, sugar, salt and 4 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Add the cheeses, garlic powder and onion powder. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Do not let rise. (When I'm not in a hurry I let the bread rise for an hour, it's not as dense and doesn't take as long to bake) Divide in half; shape into two loaves. Place in two greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pans. Do no let rise. (again I let it rise if I'm not in a hurry) Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown (I've found that if I didn't rise the bread it takes more like 40 minutes to completely bake, 30 if I did rise it). Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

Once the cheese bread is gone, which I expect to be by tomorrow at the most, I'm going to make some rolls. Then maybe I'll be brave and make a sour dough starter for my favorite bread of all time. :) I'm loving this mixer!