Dairy soy Free bread

Matt loves bread. My favorite food is sandwiches. I can put ANYTHING between two slices of bread and eat it. I have even been known to take a bread stuffing and make that into a sandwich yea so a bread sandwich made with bread.  I guess Matt comes by his love for bread naturally.  HOWEVER, I feel like a heel eating a sandwich in from of Matt and not letting him try it when he asks so I spend my time eating in hiding.  Not a good thing so I set out to make a new bread recipe. One with no dairy in it.

I want to say right now, this isn't 100% soy free,  I have greased the bread pans with Crisco. Which is made of soy oil.  Matt doesn't eat the crust so I think its OK for our use.  I think you could also use canola oil instead. I did it more out of habit.  Gotta work on those habits....

Before I get into the recipe, do yourself a favor if you are going to make bread on any real scale get this product! I know what you are thinking HOLY COW its a POUND! yea it is. best investment ever. My local bulk store carries this for an amazing price of under $5 the last time I bought three packets of yeast it was nearly that much.  This is what we used at the pizza joint I worked at.  Then I found it in the store and went WELL THEN.  It is vacuum packed in a brick.  I used an old 'country time' container to keep it in (that's what we used at work too)  and I keep it in the fridge and replace it every spring. What ever is left over I flush down my septic system, same thing as Rid X.   I want you to make certain of is that your yeast is INSTANT. (AKA bread machine yeast) this doesn't need to be re-hydrated and you can mix it in dry. None of that "is my water too warm or too cold?" However if you don't the correct temp would be 100 deg. and USE a thermometer!

NOW on with the show!

 put these indigence in the bowl in this order...

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg beaten
1 tab salt
2 3/4 cups warm water (not cool but not hot) at this point as long as its NOT HOT is all that matters....

mix all this together then add 10 (or so) cups of flour I normally start adding flour and getting it mixed in with a wisk until it gets a tid bit sticky then I change to a spoon, finally I put the last cup on my counter and knead it in...

knead untill you bet a spring back response
(like on a foam mattress)

...this was the hardest part for me to learn. I never kneaded it long enough. So I ended up with BIG holes and my bread wasn't very dense. It fell apart when I sliced it, and most of all, it would FALL when I baked it. The more I kneaded my bread the better I liked how it came out. I stop when I push on a dough ball and my finger prints spring back.

Tuck that ball into bed

Oil a fresh bowl and put your dough ball into the oil top down. flip it over, and now you have a completely oiled doughball. Cover with a tea towel (non terry cloth) I have ONE that I use over and over again. because it gets kinda infused with the oil.  I don't even try to get the oil out anymore, I just think of this as my bread towel.

 cut into three equal pieces and put into pans

after your bread rises in the pans to nearly the tops of the pan. Turn your oven on to 425 degrees and put the bread in RIGHT THEN. when your oven has preheated to the 425, turn it back to 350 to finish the baking.  I find this makes a nice chewy crust, its not all hard and nasty.

Cool on their sides 

this is the hardest part for me.. letting it cool without cutting into it and eating 1/2 a loaf before the family realizes you baked bread... Today bread was out of the oven at 3:30 First loaf gone by 9:30... But what a satisfying food:)

Isn't that a nice loaf?

If you try this and it doesnt come out on the first try dont give up, (after all you have all that yeast) Keep trying. our grandmothers made bread every week and how AWESOME was grandmas bread? yea how you think it got that way? PRACTICE! My bread used to SUCK EGGS its way better now i am truly getting the ahng of it and i make mine one a week I went almost a year without making it and once again i had to RE teach myself. very worth it. and even if your bread is "a brick" as we used to call bread that didnt turn out well or fell, it still makes great croutons, stuffing, bread crumbs, french toast, you CAN find use for it. and its the FLAVOR when you start the texture comes with practice. Dont give up.