Old-Fashioned Yeast Breads

In an effort to be frugal & occupy a cold, dreary Saturday afternoon, we decided to whip up a few old-fashioned loaves of bread. Through our number crunching, we found that it cost us about $2.39/homemade loaf while specialty breads of similar or lesser quality cost anywhere from $3-5. After a short trip to the grocer, all you need is time (preferably a lazy day at home) & a little knowhow.


Most recipes will make 2 loaves so we chose 2 different recipes & made 4 loaves from this ancient bread cookbook cerca 1969. It suited us well since we don't have the technological aid of a bread machine. We did some modifying since I had RapidRise yeast instead Instant yeast.


Bingham wanted a more traditional bread so he chose "Old-fashioned White Bread with Wheat Germ." Bing already bought the wheat germ in bulk so that worked out nicely.

Bingham's Bread:
2 cups hot water
1 stick unsalted butter
2 pkgs (or 2 tbsp) RapidRise Yeast
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp crystalized honey
1/2 cup wheat germ
6 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

First off we warmed the liquids in the microwave: 2 cups water & 1 stick butter for



When your liquids are between 120-130 degrees, add in the yeast & sugar. The heat wakes up the yeast while the sugar feeds the little guys. We let it sit for a few minutes covered in plastic wrap until the yeast started fermenting (you should see rising & foaming of the liquid).


Wheat germ & flour were added in about 3 installments & mixed with a wooden spoon - a little elbow grease required.



Being a semi-veteran, I showed Bingham how to knead the bread, which is really very simple & didn't take very much instruction. For any of you rookies out there, my explanation is as follow:
1) After turning out the dough on a floured surface. Simply, push the dough together to make sure it is in one big clump
2) Take one side of the dough & fold it over towards the center, then push down with hard with the heel of your hand.
3) The dough should kinda resemble a cannoli after this, now take the short end (the part where the cream would show in a cannoli) and fold it over toward the middle & push down hard again.
4) Keep this folding & pushing in this way, the pattern will result in a circular motion around the dough.

Bingham kneaded for about 10 minutes until the dough was smooth & springy.


Kneading complete, turn the dough over & in a tuck into a ball. Place in a rinse & grease bowl, then grease the dough with cooking spray. Kinda roll the dough around in the bowl to make sure the sides are lathered up also. Cover with your butter wrapper (an extra measure to prevent sticking) & then with a warm, damp tea towel (preferably a very light one).


The dough then needs to rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour). Since it was a cold day, we put the oven on 150 for a minute or so then turned it off and put in the dough.

Now onto the second recipe - For something a little more nutrient rich I (Katie) chose the "Whole Wheat Bread" & threw in some soy flour to bump up the protein (a signiture twise). The steps for this recipe are similar to the other so I will just focus on the difference.

Katie's Bread:
2 cups warm water
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup honey
3/4 cup milk
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 pkgs (2 tbsp) RapidRise Yeast
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup soy flour
2 1/2 cup wheat flour
2 3/4 cup unbleached white flour

In my bowl, I mixed some sink-warm water with the sugar, salt & honey. TIP: Spray the measuring cup for the honey, it comes out a whole lot easier.



Warm the milk & butter together in the microwave until very hot then add to the bowl mixture. The temp should be 120-130 again (you may have to reheat/cool down).


Added the yeast and wheat germ & let it liven for a few minutes.


Now, when you're using Soy Flour as a substitute for regular flour you can only swap out 15% since the flour is protein-rich & can affect the rising. An easy way to measure this, is to place 2 tablespoons of soy flour in your 1 cup measure & then fill the rest with the usual flour. I did this for both the 3 cups of wheat flour & 3 cups of white flour.



I kneaded the dough & placed it in a greased bowl just like Bingham did before & let it rise.


After a good rising in the slightly warmed oven, we got good results:

Now its time to punch down the dough to deflate it. Bingham cut his dough in half, kneaded each shortly, then formed them into loaves. After placing the loaves in greased loaf pans & greasing the dough itself, we let them rise under a wet tea towel in the slightly-warmed oven until they doubled again.


Because my dough was a little denser with the wheat & soy flour, I let my dough rise again for extra lightness (after punching it down & reforming it.) For the 3rd and final rising, we punched it down again & divided it into loaves.


FINALLY! All of them baked at 400 for about 20 min or until the top is golden brown & sound hollow when tapped (we would suggest doing it at 400 for 10 min then turning it down to 375 for the last 10-15 to ensure none of the crust burns).
We also brushed them with butter after.

Bingham's White Bread:

Katie's Soy Wheat Bread:


Nothing beats warm bread fresh out the oven!

The texture of the white bread was better: light, fluffy, silky (the adjectives could go on forever). Sacrificing texture for flavor, the soy/wheat bread had a little nuttier, earthier taste. Needless to say, both were divine.

Toast yourself a slice of one of these luscious babies, slap on some butter & jelly and you've got yourself a damn good breakfast.