Bread Maker Rising (that's the title of my next movie)

We've been making a lot of bread at Coming Up Rosemary. After my first successful loaf, I made the lofty goal of seeing how long I could go without buying any bread. So far, so good.

My friend Melissa gave me a fantastic recipe, which you can find at allrecipes.com (look up 'Fabulous Homemade Bread'). I recommend looking it up because there are a lot of helpful tips in the comments section. But, for the sake of ease, I'll also post the recipe here.

Fabulous Homemade Bread

1/2 cup warm water
1.5 T active dry yeast
1/4 bread flour
1 T white sugar
2 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 T salt
2/3 cups brown sugar
2/3 cups vegetable oil
10 cups bread flour

1. In the mixing bowl of an electric mixer, stir together 1/2 cup warm water, 1 T sugar, 1/4 cup bread flour, and yeast. Let grow for about 5 minutes. It will bubble almost immediately.

2. Measure oats, 4 1/2 cups warm water, whole wheat flour, salt, 2/3 cup brown sugar, and 2/3 cup oil into the mixing bowl. Mix on low speed with a dough hook for 1 to 2 minutes. Increase speed slightly (very slightly in my opinion), and begin adding bread flour 1/2 to 1 cup at a time until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Humidity determines how much lour you need before the bread pulls away from the edge of the bowl. It is normal for the dough to be sticky.

3. Place dough in a large, oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

4. Divide dough into 6 pieces. Shape loaves (If you don't know how to properly shape a loaf, try tipnut.com), and place in greased 8x4 inch pans.* Let rise until dough is 1 inch above rim of pans, usually 1 hour.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 minutes, or until tops are browned. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

To speed up the rising process, I put a glass pan full of water into the oven and preheated the oven to 200 degrees F. Once heated, I turned it off, put the bread dough inside, and left the oven door cracked. Our house being not very warm (sarcastic thank you to northern Minnesota ...), the rising would otherwise take hours.

I have to tell you this bread is DELICIOUS. And I think being able to say that after my first ever attempt at making bread says a lot for the recipe. I think the next time I make it, I'm going to experiment with making hamburger buns as well. Thanks so much to Melissa for the recipe!

*I put some loaves in a 9x5 inch pan for more sandwich-sized bread.