Simply Perfect Setpoint Bread

This is the bread recipe that was our family's favorite. It is found in the Set for Life cookbook wriiten by Jane P. Merrill and Karen M Sunderland - you can find this anywhere, even at Desert Book (the authors are an LDS mother/daughter team). The book gives you three different sized batches of the same recipe, a regular batch, medium batch and small batch. I'm giving you the medium batch which makes 4 regular sized loaves; refer to the cookbook for the other sized batches.

10-12 cups whole wheat flour (7 cups whole wheat kernal)
2 T. yeast
2/3 c. gluten flour (found at Winco in bulk- or 1/3 c. high gluten flour (higher protein content 80%- found in speciality store)
2 T. dough enhancer (I added this to the recipe)
4 cups warm water (120-130 degrees)
1/3 c. vegetable water
1/3 c. honey or sugar
1 t. salt


Grind your wheat into flour. Place 5 cups fresh flour into mixer bowl equipped with kneading arm (I use my Bosch). Add dry yeast, gluten flour, and dough enhancer. Pulse to mix well. Add water, and mix for 1 minute. Then turn off mixer, cover bowl, and let dough sponge (sit) for 10 minutes. This is very important if kneading by hand. Sponging makes lighter bread and reduces kneading time. Next, add oil, honey/sugar, and salt. Turn on mixer, and quickly add remaining flour 1 cup at a time, until dough forms a ball and cleans the sides of the bowl. The amount of flour needed may vary. Knead 7-10 minutes with Bosch-or similar machine. If mixing by hand, knead at least 12-15 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.

Lightly oil hands. Divide dough into equal portions. Shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans. Cover bread pans with saran wrap (spray saran wrap with pam - so as bread rises it doesn't stick to bread). Let rise until almost double in bulk, approx. 20-30 minutes. Bake in a preheated oven 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. When done, immediately remove from pans; let cool on wire racks. When it is cool, store it in plastic bags. I freeze my extra loaves. (Actually when I go to all the work of baking bread - I make a TON of it - because the clean up work is the same).

This recipe makes 4 loaves - 4" x 8 1/2".

p.s. I bought my dough enhancer in Utah - does anyone know where to buy it here, locally? It definitley does make a difference!

---my spelling check won't work!---Hummm.....oh, well.

Okay, I caught the bread bug again!

I don't know what came over me- I just had the thought of making bread because it would smell good and warm up the kitchen. Before I knew it I was grinding wheat, getting out the Bosch, and making quite a mess in the kitchen. Then I decided to take it one step further and make the three different recipes of bread that I bake regularly. I have been wondering which one really tastes the best. They all taste good when made individually but today we were going to know which one is the family favorite. I made one recipe - a favorite of one of the best cooks in the ward, the Set for Life recipe, and Bill Atkin's recipe. Then we had a little taste test - bread #1, bread #2, and bread #3. The Set for Life recipe was the winner! And that is the only one that was 100% whole wheat -the others were 80% whole wheat! Now I know which recipe I will stick too....it is the recipe that I use to always make.

After all the bread fun, I decided to do one more thing! I've always wanted to make cinnamon rolls and put them in the freezer - like the Rhodes cinnamon rolls that you buy in a bag (I just love those). So I made up a big batch of white bread dough and made them into cinnamon rolls with Vivian's assistance. I put them on a cookie sheet and put them directly into the freezer to freeze- once they are frozen I will put them into a freezer bag and bake them later. Oh, what fun I had - now who wants to clean up my kitchen?

Bread & More Bread

This week I bought some pre-made frozen soups at Cash and Carry (I had a great time shopping there - it has bulk food items like Costco). I decided to try the new soup. It was so easy - all I did was add 2 qts. of milk (Clam Chowder)and warm it up. I decided since that was so easy that I would quickly make some homemade wheat bread! Yummy! I make a double batch - which would normally makes 8 loaves of bread, but I made some mini loaves, also. If you are in the area when I bake - just stop on by for a loaf!

I was later at a friends house - she was baking some sweet bread. Her house smelled delicious- so I came home and baked up huge batch of whole wheat banana bread (recipe 6x).

Now I'm thinking that I want to dedicate another afternoon to baking bread. I have three whole wheat bread recipes that I use. I want to bake each recipe on the same day and do a taste test to see which one is my favorite! I love the smell of bread (can't you tell). I just bag up the extra loaves and freeze them for later.

Have you baked bread lately?