Homemade Bread

Hello!  I hope you all had a pleasant Christmas!  My Christmas went wonderfully.  Today's recipe is homemade bread!  It is delicious.  The bread is a bit time consuming, so make sure you have a day to do it.

Homemade Bread

1/2 cup warm water(not hot)

2 pkg. active dry yeast

1 3/4 cups lukewarm liquid

7 cups sifted flour

3 T. sugar

1 T. salt

2 T. softened butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 425*.

Combine warm water and yeast until yeast is dissolved.

Add 3 1/2 cups flour, and, with spoon, stir until dough falls from spoon in "sheets".  Add the remaining flour and ingredients and combine with hands until dough pulls away from bowl.  Cover, and let rest 10-15 minutes.

Knead until smooth and blistered(about 10 minutes).  Round up in a greased bowl; bring greased side up.  Cover with cloth.

Let rise in a warm place until it doubles in size(about 1 hour). 

Press two fingers into dough.  It will leave indentations when dough is doubled.  Punch down.  Let rise again until almost double(about 30 minutes).

Divide into two parts.  Round up cover; let rest 10 minutes.  Put two parts into greased 9x5x3 loaf pans.  Cover, and let rise until sides of dough reach the top of pan and center is well rounded(50 to 60 minutes).

Test gently with finger.  A slight indentation shows loaves are ready to bake.  Be careful loaves do not rise too much.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes.  To test the loaf, tap crust.  It should sound hollow.  If it does not, bake for a few more minutes.

Whew, what a recipe!  I will admit, this was a long one.  I hope you all enjoy it!