Earl Eats "Turkey's" Home Baked Bread

KitchenAid Classic Stand Mixer

Sunbeam Stand Mixer

Life is a series of events that ultimately leads to better or worse events. Such a series, brought me BREAD! Let me explain. My wife "Turkey" as she is affectionately known, is a terrific cook. We all love the smell and taste of fresh baked bread, but how often do we get homemade? But let me digress. "Turkey" loves baking. For a long time, baking cookies was a regular event, but she had to use hand tools. So loving her baking, I thought I could encourage it by making it a bit easier. But after checking the price of KitchenAid stand mixers like they use on ALL the TV baking shows, I knew that was not in our budget or future. So I shopped around and found what I thought, as a non baker, was a substitute and surprised her with it. She was happy, sort of, I think, and I was happy because it was 1/4th the price! Have you ever heard the saying "you get what you pay for"? Even when you are poor, that holds true. But it was a step-up from hand mixing, so that was good. And it was just cookies right? How hard could they be, says the NON-BAKER! Well that may be just one of the reasons my wife doesn't let me bake or use her equipment, but back to the reason for the story. As the grandboys grew and we tried not to, the need for cookies faded. Quite sometime ago, a family of my daughter's acquaintance, updated their kitchen and gave her their older KitchenAid Classic. Of my 2 lovely daughters, I have that one that cooks and one that doesn't. This KitchenAid was now in the possession of the one that doesn't. Where it sat. She realized the value of the mixer, but had no real need for it, so she offered it to her mom, "Turkey". And she was elated to have a KitchenAid, but it went under-used UNTIL a light went on in her bakers brain that said "BREAD, HOMEMADE BREAD".

She found the perfect recipe, made it her own, tweaked it time and time again, and I think it is PERFECT every time! We have not bought bread from the store in many month. She ENJOYS making and baking it with her second hand KitchenAid! Not fancy artisan style bread this is bread just like I remember from my childhood. We slather each warm slice as it comes out of the oven with REAL butter and it is marvelous! She bakes 2 loves, one for each of us and if there are leftovers, they make great French Toast, Croûtons, Breadcrumbs