Marilyn Dishes

I love making bread! I sent Murray a video showing him some Soft Mennonite Bread and he really wanted me to make some. I could not find that video & neither could he! So, the next thing to do was to Google it.

This recipe is from Google AI! The bread was simple to make. Very soft & delicious day 1 and day 2 but now by day 3 it is a bit harder but perfect for toast!

A great recipe for everyone! PARVE & VEGAN & 2 LOAVES! EAT ONE & FREEZE ONE!

If you have not ever made bread before this is a good recipe to try! You can use a mix master, a food processor or mix it by hand. The ingredients are simple and you probably have them in your house already.

The recipe makes 2 loaves of bread. I gave our son the second loaf but otherwise I would just freeze the second loaf to pull out another time.

This bread was relatively fast to make. it rose nicely after one hour then another 45 minutes approximately to rise in the pan then bake for about 30 minutes

Another bonus I like about this bread is that it is Parve. No diary ingredients.

Here is some info about making bread:

• the temperature of the water that you are mixing the yeast into is very important. Too hot it will kill the yeast & too cool it won’t be warm enough to activate the yeast. If you do not have a thermometer to measure the temp of the water, just test it with you finger & it should feel slightly warm. If your yeast does not foam up it may be old or there is a water temp issue. Try again!! Youre bread won’t rise if the yeast isn’t activated
• When you add the flour & salt, mix them together since the salt should not come into direct contact with the activated yeast
• I have a stainless steel bowl for my mixer so I put some hot water in the bowl, swish it around then dump it out. This takes the chill out of the bowl
• Always add the least amount of flour in a recipe otherwise the dough will be tough. For example in this recipe Google A! said to add 6 cups of flour but I used 5 cups & then added more flour as needed for the correct texture. The texture of the dough should be soft but not sticky. I always mix bread dough in a mixer or food processor until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl but is still a bit soft. Then I knead it by hand for a bit, putting extra flour on the work surface & my hands and not directly onto the dough so that I don’t get too much
• Once the dough is smooth you can check to see if it has been kneaded enough but doing a windowpane test. Take some of your dough, about the size of a golf ball & then stretch it out and see if you can see through it. If the dough tears knead it some more until this windowpane test is successful

Here is the recipe makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

2 cups warm water ( 110°F).

1/3 cup white sugar, divided. you will use 1 tsp to activate the yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast

1/4 cup oil

5 – 6 cups flour, you can use bread flour or regular flout

1 1/2 tsp salt

Method

You will need 2 loaf pans, grease well

1. In a 4 cup measuring cup add the water, 1 tsp sugar & the yeast. Give it a stir & set aside until the yeast gets foamy,
2. Depending on how you are mixing this dough the order the ingredients are added matters. I am going to assume you are mixing this in a mixer. Use the dough hook. Put the activated yeast into the bowl of your mixer. Then add the oil, remaining sugar. Mix the salt into 3 cups of flour, then add this to the mixer.. Mix until comes together; Add the rest of the flour. I added 3 more cups of flour for a total of 6 cups of flour. Mix until the dough starts to come together The dough will start to come away from the bowl. At this point you can remove the dough from the mixer and knead by hand for approximately 10 minutes or let the mixer do the work! Continue mixing for about 5-6 minutes
3. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface & knead by hand for a minute or so just to bring the dough together. Do the windowpane test to see if the dough has been kneaded enough. ( the windowpane test is done by taking a piece of dough about the size of a golf ball, roll it into a black & stretch it out. If it stretches without tearing & breaking then it is kneaded enough, if it does not stretch it needs to be kneaded more)
4. When the dough has been kneaded enough, put it into a large slightly greased bowl to rise. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap o I like to use a silicone bowl lid. Put the dough into a warm place to rise for approximately an hour until the dough has doubled in size. I put this into my oven which I set on proof, if you do not have that you can put the dough in the oven with the oven light on, This warms the oven a bit. If your kitchen is warm just leave the dough on the counter. Another way to have a warm space is to put the bowl in your microwave with a cup of hot water.
5. Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down to release the air then put it on the workspace.
6. Divide the dough in half & shape each half into a loaf.
7. Put each loaf into the prepared loaf pan. Loosely cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel & put into a warm spot to rise until the dough is 1 inch above the edge of the loaf pan, about 30 minutes.
8. While the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 350°f
9. Bake for about 30 minutes until they are golden brown & hollow sounding, If you have an instant read themetor the internal temp should be 190f
10. Remove the bread from the pan & let cool on a rack. Slice when cool.

Enjoy!