Several people ask for my bread recipes, here is one of them:

What you will need: 4 cups of whole wheat flour 3 cups of bread flour 2 Tablespoons of dry yeast 1 stick of butter 1 cup of honey 3 cups of water A few squirts of olive oil spray Time to mix: Pour yeast into 2 cups of warm water. Stir with a fork until smooth. Let set for about 10-15 minutes. Put on some mellow music (seriously yeast works better with smooth jazz or something mellow like Enya) and light a candle. I like Orthodox Christian chants but I don’t know if the yeast has any preference. Just don’t put on anything violent. It will not rise the way you want it to. Squirt the inside of your mixing bowl with olive oil cooking spray. If you don’t have olive oil spray something like Pam will do but your bread will taste a little different but not too noticeable. Add both whole wheat flour and bread flour to the mixing bowl. Toss in the butter. Pour in the honey and water. Mix the bread in a mixer with a bread hook or stir the ingredients until mixed then put flour on the counter then kneed till your arms are tired and the bread dough is of nice consistency. Get a bowl or use your mixing bowl and squirt some more olive oil spray in the bowl covering the inside of the container. Put the dough in a bowl. Let the dough rise anywhere from 30 – 60 minutes. When the bread dough is double in size it is time to bake. Baking the bread: Remove the dough unto your nice counter that you splashed with flour. Roll it out and cut into two lumps of dough. Put into 2 bread pans or on a cookie sheet sprayed with olive oil and powdered with flour. (This helps with clean up unless you like scrubbing pans or cookie sheets) Shape the bread any way you want. Knots are cool. A small slice down the middle is a good touch if you are using bread pans or the classic 3 slice like you see in French bread is a classic touch too if you are using a cookie sheet. Set your oven temperature for 375F, wait for it to heat and bake until the top turns a dark brown (about 20 minutes but keep checking because each oven is different) Once you are done baking remove the bread from the pans or cookie sheet and let cool. Now that you have that fresh bread smell in your house it is awesome to invite a friend to share the bread with you or show the house to a potential buyer. Hope you enjoy God Bless, Subdeacon Charles – Michael (Chuck)

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