by Allen Teal

Created on: January 25, 2007   Last Updated: May 04, 2007

Many years ago I came across some of the best fresh baked light bread ever. I was smart enough to get the easy recipe. Here how it's made:

Ingredients:

White all-purpose flour-9-12 cups depending on humidity. A five lb bag will do.
Eggs-2
Salt-1 tsp
Sugar-1 cup
Rapid Rise Active Dry Yeast-a three pack
Margarine-1 cup or 1 stick
Warm Water-4 cups

Place two tablespoons of the sugar in a small bowl with one cup of warm to the touch water and add the yeast. Stir gently just to get the yeast moistened.

In a large bowl, add in the rest of the sugar, the eggs, salt, and melted margarine. Mix these ingredients together and then add the remaining water. Stir gently until the sugar is dissolved. Add in the yeast mixture which should be foaming a little by now. Stir a few times just to get the yeast spread out in the water.

Add in about 2 cups of flour and stir until the flour is mostly blended in. Then repeat with 2 more cups at a time until about 8 cups are mixed in. The mixture should be getting to be sticky and hard to stir. Add in 1 cup of flour at a time until mixture is the consistency of soft playdoh. You don't need to use all of the flour if it isn't necessary. You may need to abandon your spoon and use your hands at this point to work the flour into your dough.

Try not to get the dough too dry. A slightly more moist dough will rise better later. The dough will triple in size so, make sure your bowl is big enough or split the dough into two pieces. Cover the dough with a dusting of flour. Cover the bowl(s) and refridgerate for 3-4 hours. Longer doesn't hurt. The dough will stay good for about a week. So, you can make it up a day or two ahead with no problem.

After the dough has risen, remove it from refridgerator and pinch it off in balls about 2 1/2 inches in diameter onto a cookie sheet or baking pan. Preferably a non-stick. But whatever you bake on should work. Use flour to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers. The balls will at least double in size so space them accordingly. Return any unused dough to the refridgerator to keep it fresh.

Place rolls in a warm area. If they are exposed, cover them with a light cloth to keep them from drying too much will they rise. If you put them in the oven to rise, keep the temperature below 150 degrees. When the rolls have doubled in size(expect this to take from 30-90 minutes), bake them in a 375 degree oven until they are golden brown. This takes about 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and if desired, you can paint margarine over the tops. Remove the rolls from the baking sheet and stack carefully on a plate to prevent them from sweating or getting crushed. Best if served while still warm.

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