or something like that 
here’s a great recipe to get you started. i just made my first batch, and i’m thinking it will be the first of many!
Sara’s Whole Wheat Bread (i made it 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white so it wouldn’t shock my family too much…):
2 TBSP yeast
1/2 cup brown sugar + 1/2 cup white sugar OR 1 cup raw organic sugar
2 cups warm water (about the temperature of water you would use for a baby’s bath- too hot and you will kill the yeast; too cold and the yeast won’t multiply)
put these in a bowl together and set them aside for a few minutes so the yeast can get started eating up the sugar and getting nice and bubbly.
in another bowl, mix together:
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups oil
2 tsp sea salt (or you can use any you have on hand; i’m just being a pretentious seattle person to say sea salt! )
2 cups warm water
when this is mixed together, you can add it to the yeast stuff.
then add
6-7 cups white flour
6-7 cups wheat flour
and/or other flours as long as the total will be 13- 14 cups.
the darker your flours, the longer rising times you will want. plan on anywhere from 1-1/2 hour to 2-1/2 hours as a guideline… (depends on the heat and humidity in your house, but ideally you will want it to look smooth and springy and bouncy and somewhat airy when it’s ready to shape into loaves)
punch down and shape into loaves or rolls and put on or in greased pans, keeping in mind that they will expand as they bake (so leave room).
allow to rise for another 1/2 hour, brush with beaten egg, and bake at 350 for about 1/2 hour.
generally bread will have a hollow sound if you knock on it when it’s done baking. it should be a beautiful golden brown on the outside. bread also freezes great and can be thawed to eat at room temperature, or to really wow your family- wrap it in foil and let it reheat in a warm oven. not only will it make your house smell great, but it will get that fresh-out-of-the-oven warm yumminess back!
if you are brave and can roast a head of garlic in some olive oil and then smear it on this bread- watch out, you may have to create a new 12-step program!
have an awesome weekend!
Jun 15, 2012 @ 17:01:26
Very similar to one I baked for years when kids were growing up. Three boys and their dad took lunches made with it. If we ran out and had to use some commercial loaf in the freezer, they squawked like crazy! I got it from Adele Davis “Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit” and Let’s Cook it Right” and adapted it a bit. You Basses are most fortunate.
Jun 15, 2012 @ 17:58:16
There’s an old Russian saying: “May there be a Road!”.
I think they got tired of standing in line for bread
Jun 15, 2012 @ 18:42:50
hahahaha- or maybe they just needed more roads! ;0
Jun 15, 2012 @ 18:43:17
thanks- i’ll let my kids know!
Jun 17, 2012 @ 11:29:23
How many loaves will this make?!! I’ve learned that my family eats less bread and I don’t have freezer space for lots of bread. Bake at what temp and for how long?
Jun 17, 2012 @ 21:01:02
350 degrees for 1/2 an hour. you can definitely 1/2 the recipe, since what i put up is actually double the recipe i was given… i ended up with about 6 nice-sized loaves – i would guess they were 3/4- 1 pound size??? (don’t know how much they weighed; i’m just saying that’s how big they looked…) we tend to eat lots of bread at a meal if it is fresh and we easily polished off one whole loaf and could have used another at a single sitting if that’s any guideline for you… hope yours is as yummy as ours- enjoy!!
Jun 18, 2012 @ 00:51:48
Really cool trick I learned. Put parchment paper in the bottom of your crock pot – turn it on for a minute and put dough in and place the lid on. Makes perfect place to let dough rise. But this is the niffy part, you actually finish “baking” it there by just turning on the crock pot and letting it go. Exact time varies, but about 50 minutes for whole wheat. It comes out looking like the dinner rolls that you later put in the oven to brown. If you do want to brown it, just pop it under the broiler. Also great way to make humbow, or the best weekend morning monkey bread.
Ground wheat will help you start making sour dough. Just take some of your dough and set it aside and place in the refrigerator – then add it to your next recipe, each time setting some of the batch back. After about four repeats, your bread will have the rustic bread taste and if your want it to be more sour take it out of the refrigerator the day before making your next batch.
Jun 18, 2012 @ 14:53:55
Nice informative blog, thanks for sharing.
Jun 18, 2012 @ 17:04:38
sounds so yum! makes me want to go do some baking! thanks for the ideas
Jun 18, 2012 @ 17:06:22
thanks
Jun 18, 2012 @ 17:29:37
My rising trick worked every time. We had a double wall oven, electric. I would turn on one of them just to “warm,” turn it off when the red light clicked off
then stick the dough in. The ovens were lighted by another switch so I could see the rising progress through the glass door. This would be too warm in a gas oven.