Grandma Coombs' Original Bread Recipes

These are Grandma's Coombs' actual original bread recipes (as copied and remembered by Mom):


Quick White Bread – 2 loaves
(Mom's comments are in red)
2 pkgs active dry yeast
½ c. warm water
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. shortening (this one she eventually changed to margarine, and I used margarine until I stopped using it and went to butter.)
1 T. salt
1 c. warm milk
¾ c. warm water
6 to 7 c. Pillsbury all purpose flour
(add a little flour before you add yeast)
Soften yeast in ½ c. warm water. No need to sift. Measure up lightly spooning into cup, leveling off. In bowl blend sugar, shortening, salt, milk ¾ c. water and 2 c. flour. Beat till smother (with spoon). Add softened yeast mixture. Gradually add remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and satiny – 7 to 10 min. adding flour as necessary. Place in greased bowl. Grease all sides. Cover with towel. Let rise in warm place 85 to 90 degrees until light and doubled in bulk – 1 ½ hr. Punch dough down. Cover and let rise for 30 min. Place on floured surface. Knead for 1 min. to remove air bubbles. Divide in 2 portions. Cover. Let rest 10 min. Shape in loaves. Cover in pan, rise for 1 hour. Don’t rise too much. Bake at 400 for 35 to 40 min. to double, double all but yeast – only use 3 pkgs. (she never shaped the loaves, she always rolled them out. I suspect that this was a recipe she had gotten somewhere and I copied it)


Quick White Bread (Variation 2)
4 loaves
½ c. shortening
½ c. sugar (save about 1 T. to put in yeast)
2 T. salt
2 c. warm milk
Scald the above 4 ingredients
3 pkg yeast
1 c. warm water
Little sugar
These 3 make the yeast mixture
After milk is scalded add 1 & 1/2 c. cold water to help cool scalded milk.
Add 4 c. flour, beat with beater, then add yeast mixture. Then add 2 more c. flour and beat with beater. Knead with hand after adding 4 more c. flour.
Raise till rounded
Knead
Raise 30 min.

Quick White Bread (variation 3)
Scald: 1/4 c. margarine
1/4 c. sugar
1 T. salt
1 c. milk
Mix 2 T. yeast and 1/2 c. warm water
After milk is scalded, add 3/4 c. cold water to help cool scalded milk.
Flour - 6 to 7 cups
Add 2 cups flour, beat then add yeast mixture, then remaining flour a little at a time. Knead, raise til rounded, knead, raise 30 min. Roll out and put in tins, raise, bake 350 for 30 min.
Makes 2 loaves

Quick White Bread (variation 4)
Scald: ¼ butter or margarine, ¼ c. sugar, 1 T. salt, 1 c. milk (skim doesn’t work as well)
In a separate container mix ½ c. warm water and 2 T. yeast. Add about 1 to 2 t. of sugar to this mixture. (If when you are ready to add the yeast mixture it has not raised at all, you need to discard this mixture and try again. You yeast is dead). When milk mixture is scalded add to it ¾ c. cold water to help it cool. Then to that mixture, add 2 cups loosened flour – a little at a time. Then add yeast mixture and mix. Then add the remainder of the flour. Total flour is 6 to 8 c. Don’t add it all. Sometimes you don’t need all the flour. The difference is how packed or loose the flour is in each cup. Loosen is the key.

Knead the bread about 5 to 8 minutes, or mix with bread hook. Spray a pan with Pam, put the dough in it, cover it, and let raise until it is double in size – and rounded. This usually takes around an hour but the house temperature makes a lot of difference. Knead the bread down, cover, and let raise 30 more minutes. Divide dough in half, roll out in a rectangle the width of a bread pan. Roll up. Spray pans with pam or coat the sides with shortening. The dough needs to be rolled in the pan so it is slightly coated with the Pam or shortening. Let raise – probably about 30 min. Mother had a cardboard measure that she used to see how high it should raise. Bake 350 for 30 min.

*I only notice slight variations in these recipes. Obviously the change from shortening to butter is the first change. Also, the original recipe had a higher oven temperature and cooked for a longer time. Variation 2 is a double batch which is almost the same as variation 3.