Cottage Bread Recipe

I have to admit it.

I haven’t tried making anything with yeast yet. I suppose I should ask my mother to teach me how, I just have never gotten around to it. But, I have a distinct memory of the smell of bread baking one time when Gram came to stay with us. It is a very comforting memory, and I’d like to give that to Melody. I’ll be brave and try it. Someday. Soon.

The next batch of recipes I will be featuring come from a well worn and much loved handwritten book I found last year. It is a small 3-section notebook with 150 sheets total. Recipes were written only on one side of the page and many pages have more than one recipe. About 1/2 of the book was used, and in the back section is a basic index. There are also many many clipped recipes. This looks like a lifetime project for whomever compiled these into one place. The cover is worn and torn, threatening to fall off, so I assume it was used a lot. The recipe above is the first one in the book, so that is where we will start.

Cottage Bread

2 3/4 cup warm water

Add: 2 pkgs Dry yeast (stir)

Add:

3 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp salt

2 Tbsp shortening

1/2 of 6 1/2 cups flour (i.e. 3 1/4 cups)

Beat 2 min until smooth. Mix in rest of flour. Cover. Let raise in warm place until double. Beat batter down for 1/2 a minute. Pour 1/2 into greased loaf pan and other 1/2 in loaf pat or 1/2 qt baking dish. Let raise 30 min. Brush with melted shortening. Bake 375 40-50 min.