Baking Bread

This afternoon I finally got around to making bread. It's been awhile, and frankly I've just been too lazy to do it; but I decided today would be the day to make a comeback & start baking again. I went with the good ole Swiss bread recipe but decided to experiment and add wheat flour mixed in with the white. I think it turned out fan-freaking-tastic. We practically ate a whole loaf for dinner and dessert (dessert you say? yes. warm bread with homemade strawberry jam is delish!). I now have bread for hopefully 2 weeks-hopefully ;)-What's left of the one loaf we devoured into.
-Look at that yummy-ness; it was so soft & warm

-My six loaves of bread. Yes, two are not braided because I had a little girl crying & wanting attention so....

Here's the Recipe if you want to try (And if you've ever been to the Dairy Keen, you know that this is delicious):

Swiss Bread

1 Cup Sugar

2 T Salt

3 T Yeast

6 Cups Whole Wheat Flour (or reg flour if you want)

3/4 Cup (12 T) Powdered Milk

4 Eggs beatened

1 Cup Shortening

6 Cups Hot water

8 Cups of Reg. Flour (more or less)

In a large mixing bowl or in your bosch, add the first 5 ingredients (dry). Then add all of the wet ingredients. Turn your mixer on, and let it mix together, making sure that the shortening gets incorporated into everything. Start adding in your flour, one cup at a time. Keep adding flour until the dough comes clean off the sides and when you touch it, it's not sticky. Put dough into a big bowl & let it rest for 45 minutes. Divide dough into 6 parts, and with each of those parts, divide again into 3. Braid the three parts together into a loaf and place into a greased loaf pan. Let loaves rise again for 25-30 mintues. Before placing in the oven, brush each loaf with some beaten egg (that's what gives it that shiny color on top). Bake each loaf in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes-depending on your oven it could be more or less. The bread is done when it's nice and golden brown, and you can smell it.

-After I have let my bread cool, I'll usually keep out 2 loaves and then bag up the rest and put them in the freezer.