Full American Breakfast

 Kevin's Full American Breakfast

My husband loved the 'Full English Breakfast' served at B&Bs across England. Quite often, he  tries to replicate the Full English Breakfast here in Wisconsin and fries up the bacon, eggs, tomatoes, and mushrooms, serving them with a side of beans. But never has he resorted to frying bread. That just seems a little over the top. :-)  The photo is of Kevin's Full American Breakfast, including potatoes (something the Brits could take notice of, by the way) as served last Saturday. (Oh yeah, that's home-canned raspberry jam in that jar. YUM!)

And lest anyone tell you that it is 'a heart attack on a plate,' don't believe them. For the past several years in this country, when we've been told to stay away from meat and eggs - and instead eat more grains - obesity and heart disease have skyrocketed. They're also the same people who told us that coffee was bad for us - then good for us - then bad for us, etc.  Okay, I won't make this story any longer than absolutely necessary... 

What was I saying about grains?? So I realize I'm totally contradicting myself when I introduce you to these warm loaves of white bread, fresh from the oven!

We eat this for the pleasure of it, not the nutrition

But a nice addition to Kevin's Full American Breakfast is homemade white bread. White bread makes amazing toast, spread with soft Real Wisconsin Butter, of course! (And yes, I should get a kickback from the American Dairy Association, but I don't.)  Making homemade white bread is soooo easy, especially if you have an electric mixer with a dough hook. Mine is KitchenAid.

 My KitchenAid mixer on a different task. I was thrilled when I found this blood red mixer on sale!

Does anyone not love freshly-baked bread? So unless you're making this for yourself only, plan to go through one loaf as soon as it comes out of the oven. Making two loaves is hardly worth it, so I always make four at a time. One tends to get eaten up right away, another goes in the pantry to be eaten within a couple days, and two go into the freezer for later.

Recipe, White Bread -



Four small loaves (4 x 8 loaf pans). When our family was young, I would bake six loaves at a time and those were the large loaf pans! Amazing how life changes, isn't it!

Use shortening, not oil or butter, to generously grease four loaf pans. If you use oil or butter, your bread will stick to them and you'll have to use a chisel to get it out of the pans! I am not kidding!

In a large sauce pan, melt 6 T. butter, then pour in 1 qt. whole milk. Heat on low until it's just slightly warmer than tepid. Milk that is too warm will kill the yeast. So maybe I'd say warm like you'd want for a baby's bottle. Remove from heat. Stir in 6 T. sugar, 4 t. salt.

Sprinkle in 4 packages of dry yeast and stir slowly until it's dissolved.

Now pour mixture into your mixer bowl and add three cups of flour slowly while mixer is mixing. Continue adding flour until you've got a total of 10 cups of flour. You may need to add a little more if the dough is sticky. As the mixer continues to mix the dough, watch the dough to see when it has completely left the sides of the mixer bowl and is no longer soft and sticky.  Mix four or five minutes longer.

If this is hard on the motor of your electric mixer, you can always knead it by hand on a floured board, but the mixer - with a dough hook -  is just easier. Okay. Now, assuming that all is as it should be, turn off the mixer and turn dough out onto a floured counter. Dust the top of the dough with flour and knead by hand for a few minutes.

Turn dough ball into a large greased bowl (I like to use stainless steel). Turn the ball over a couple times to grease the top of it. Cover with a cloth and set in a warm location. When it has nearly doubled in size and if you touch it, it stays indented, then the dough is ready to make into loaves.

Now's a good time to preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Punch dough down to get rid of air bubbles. Divide dough into four equal pieces. Shape into loaves, being careful to tuck under edges and ends as you set the loaf into the pan. Set these loaves in a warm place and allow to rise until the dough is about 1/2 inch above the top of the sides of the loaf pans.

Place in preheated 400 degree oven. Bake 24-26 minutes. Tap loaves. They should be golden and sound hollow. Remove from oven and turn out onto racks. Set loaves on their sides and brush the tops with soft butter. Did I say Real Wisconsin Butter?? Allow loaves to cool enough so that you don't burn your mouth when you're trying to eat that first slice!  Go get the butter.

Kevin's grandpa always told me that it was dangerous to eat bread straight from the oven because it would form a ball in your stomach that couldn't be digested. I guess I've just been lucky.

You do have to have a pretty good bread knife to cut it when it's hot. Bread cuts much easier when it's had time to cool. 

Do yourself and everyone else a favor and go bake bread!  And please let me know how it turns out.

Oh yum!!

This post is linked to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
and Tasty Tuesday
and Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods
and Tuesdays at the Table