There are  just a few days left in the month. I used the last of our grocery money on Monday and discovered this morning that we are out of bread. It matters because all the kids pack their own lunches in a half asleep state at 6:30 am and when there’s no bread they get confused, and require my help.  I’m not good help at 6:30 am.

I haven’t baked bread in a long time.  I just needed a little motivation to get back to it. Thankfully none of us are gluten sensitive.  Here’s why we still eat wheat: “Wheat ranks first among the grains for its nutritional value.  Wheat is an excellent source of fiber and many critical B-vitamins when used in its entirety, including the bran, germ, and endosperm.  Wheat germ is one of the richest sources of vitamin E if used when freshly milled, before oxidation takes place.” Source Plus it tastes good and it’s affordable.

Here’s why I don’t always soak it.  Well, that’s how I sleep at night.  The actual reason I don’t soak is it’s an extra step that stresses me out, and we prefer the taste without soaking.

My all time favorite bread recipe is Vickilynn’s Absolute Best Challah. I usually bake her 2 loaf version, but today went with the whopper 6 loaf one.  It takes 15 cups of flour!  My kitchen aid can only handle about 6 before the dough starts climbing up into the motor shaft….so I mixed this by hand with a Danish Dough Wisk.  When it got too hard to do with the wisk, I dumped it out and kneaded it by hand for 15 minutes (while watching Brain Games on Netflix.)

I really wanted a lot of bread, but I only have 3 loaf pans.

No matter, the dough makes good rolls too.  I usually do clover leaf rolls with 3 small balls of dough in each muffin tin, but we had to leave for violin lessons in 5 minutes and I just plopped a big ball in each well.

And then I ran out of muffin tins….so I made crescents.

Before rising.

When we got back from violin, they were nice and big.  Time to proof the oven and let them rise a little more.

They went over well :).