4-H Memory

   This is my old 4-H book. I love making bread and this book was my inspiration.  For the last...at least...30 years, I've made all our own bread.  Well, I do confess, once in a while I get a hankering for a loaf of store-bought...but you can be sure there's always homemade for Wayne.  He was brought up on homemade white bread, but once I started making rye bread, that became his favorite.  My Mom used to make rye bread and I can remember her making it and selling it to help raise money for building a swimming pool in my hometown.  This is my old 4-H book.

   I still love looking at the step by step pictures.

   It told you everything you needed to know about making yeast bread.  All the different ways you can shape the dough.

  Just makes me want to go knead down a batch right now...except I just made a batch of 5 loaves yesterday. 
  To set the record straight...I think I have ruined batches in about every way I could...water too hot and killed the yeast...forgot the yeast...(that blob laid for a looooong time in our grove)...forgot the salt...forgot to add the cold water...baked too long...not baked long enough.  After 30 years and more...I think I've ruined it about every way I can.  The underbaked batch was redeemed by slicing the loaves and drying them in the oven and using it for rusks.  It wasn't bad...but did last for a long time.  
  I buy my white flour in 25# and always buy more than one jar of molasses at a time and it never fails but the store clerks always comment on it...you must bake a lot...what do you make with all that molasses?  
   There is something about the kneading and shaping the loaves that is so satisfying...and no perfume can match the aroma of bread baking in the oven.  And there is just something about slicing off the heel while it's still warm and slathering it with peanut butter and honey!  I know...call you next time I'm baking some...
                                            Jolyn