9 cups flour
2½ TBL yeast
¼ cup honey
¼ cup oil
In a bowl measure out
- 3 cups warm water
- 2½ TBL (3 packets) yeast
- ¼ cup honey
Let stand a few minutes, stirring occasionally until all the yeast is dissolved and the honey is distributed. Note: in total, the recipe calls for 9 cups of flour; I usually use 5 cups of bread flour and 4 cups of whole wheat flour, but you can vary this as you like.
To the liquid, add
- 5 cups flour
- 5 tsp salt
stir with a sturdy spoon and continue adding
- 4 cups flour
Eventually you may need to knead the dough (in the bowl) to complete the mixing although usually I can do this with a spoon. You may need a little more flour depending on the humidity and the flour.
Pour
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
over the dough and knead it into the dough until it is mostly absorbed. This will take 2-3 minutes at most. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise until it doubles, about 45 minutes normally.
Preheat the oven to 400º F. Punch down the dough, divide and knead each piece on a board, forming loaf. Place each loaf in a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 25 minutes. When the dough is doubled, bake until done, about 30 minutes. Turn out the loaves and let them cool on a rack.
Adapted from a recipe in A World of Bread by Dolores Casella.