Homemade Bread. Can use Bread machine -- Best Recipes

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Date Posted: 09/27/00 11:46:12am
Author: CB
Subject: Homemade Bread. Can use Bread machine

This is a newspaper story that tells the history of this bread recipe:

Don't be scared off by the amout of time this recipe seems
to take. The actual hands on time is very small. The more you bake bread the easier it
becomes. Also the more times you bake bread the more yeast spores are actually in
the kitchen enviroment making the process better and better.

Since she was first a bride in Pine Bluff in 1932,
Elizabeth Young Huckaby estimates she has baked at
least 18,250 loaves of her famous white bread. That
would be one a day for a half-century, and she's well into
the second half, still baking. And out of a batch of eight
loaves, six or seven go to friends as gifts.
"I don't eat a lot of bread," says Elizabeth's new
husband, Lee Huckaby.
Probably a good thing, too, for his waistline, for
Elizabeth Young Huckaby's bread is enriched with sugar
and bacon fat and is utterly delicious, especially when
used for toast or made into sandwiches -- particularly
cucumber sandwiches.
Hundreds, probably thousands, have been the
beneficiaries of Elizabeth Huckaby's culinary energy and
largesse. She bakes two or three times a week -- could
do it in her sleep, in fact -- and almost always has a spare
loaf or two on hand or in the freezer.
The recipe for Elizabeth Young's Homemade Bread
(the recent marriage, after a lengthy widowhood, should
make it "Elizabeth Young Huckaby's Homemade Bread,"
but while Lee Huckaby is a genial and likable fellow, the
name just doesn't fit the bread) has been published in at
least five cookbooks -- The Southern Junior League
Cookbook, Little Rock Cooks, Southern Accents (from
Pine Bluff), The Pine Bluff YWCA Cookbook and a
church cookbook.
None of these includes a certain maneuver that may or
may not account for at least part of the texture of
Elizabeth Young's bread -- not because she is one of
those traitorous types who hold back something in a
recipe to ensure that others' product isn't equal to their
own, but simply because it's difficult to describe in print.
(Having witnessed it, we shall attempt to describe it here,
nevertheless.)
Mrs. Huckaby's bread-making goes way back. She
learned it literally at her mother's knee when Elizabeth
was 5 or 6. She did her baking on a miniature but working
model of her mother's stove. "It actually worked, baked
right there in the kitchen," she said.

FAMILY TRADITION
This homemade bread tradition in her family was
reinforced when Elizabeth married into the family of the
late federal Judge Gordon E. Young, whose mother, Mrs.
J. Elmo Young -- then of Malvern -- had been given the
word by her mother, Mrs. Catherine Love Blount Murry,
who decreed, "We do not want any store-bought bread in
this house."
So that's what the Youngs and all the Murrys were
raised on -- homemade bread," Elizabeth said, her hands
at the very moment flour- encrusted as she kneaded a
four-loaf batch, turning it one quarter-round with each
punch. It was the Murry-Young recipe that Elizabeth
started with. Mrs. Young, the mother-in-law, made up a
batter containing the yeast that she allowed to rise
overnight, using it for the next day's bread-making.
"But I combined a Fleischmann's yeast recipe with hers
and made my own -- Elizabeth Young's Homemade
Bread, which is the present recipe."
From Fleischmann's she learned, for example, to bake
the loaves at a higher temperature -- 375 degrees -- for
15 minutes, then to cut back the temperature to 275
degrees for the remaining 15 minutes or so.
The ingredients are unchanged for a half-century,
although Mrs. Huckaby has introduced "a few variations"
in the technique through the years.
"My recipe is basically a batter mixture first, with flour
and other ingredients kneaded for at least 10 to 15
minutes," she began to explain. "Then I place the dough
in a greased bowl to rise, to double in bulk -- that takes
an hour to an hour and a half. Then I form it into loaves,
and the less it's handled at this time, the better the bread.
It's not kneaded, just formed into loaves and put in
greased pans and allowed to double in bulk again,
another hour or hour and a half. This is one of the secrets
of the bread -- just to form into loaves, without kneading."

SECRET MANEUVER
And now comes the secret maneuver that doesn't show
up in the cookbooks. It's something her mother-in-law
always did, and so does Elizabeth Huckaby. After placing
the loaf-shaped dough, smooth side down, in a bread pan
and turning it over (thus greasing the top), she grasps the
loaf from both sides and gently pinches the dough
between thumb and forefingers, the entire length of the
loaf, leaving a center bump. It would seem to destroy any
chance of the dough rising smoothly, but something
magic happens; the final product comes up with a perfect
rounded top.
"It must get the extra bubbles out some way or the
other," she said. "You think you're ruining it. But it adds to
the texture. I don't know what it is."
She lets the bread rise the second time until it reaches
the top of the loaf pan and is rounded over it. Before
popping the pans in the oven, she makes sure to heat the
oven at least seven to 10 minutes. "The minute you put
the bread in, if the oven falls in temperature, your bread's
going to fall, too." After the half-hour's bake, at the two
temperatures, she takes out a loaf and turns it out of the
pan to check the bottom for brownness. If it's brown and
doesn't feel heavy, it's done; if not, she gives the bread
another five or 10 minutes in the oven.
Then she rubs the loaf tops with margarine to keep
them soft and removes the bread from the pans to racks,
uncovered, to cool without sweating.
Hundreds of amateur bakers have told Mrs. Huckaby
that if they follow her instructions explicitly, the bread
turns out fine. But some simply can't seem to get the hang
of it. One cook told her she simply could not make a loaf
of bread. "So I made up a batch and took her a loaf," Mrs.
Huckaby said. "She decided it was the condition of her
flour, or that it could be the yeast. So if a would-be baker
wants to try it and has a bad batch, be sure and check to
see if the flour's good." Still others invite themselves to
come by the Huckaby household and watch the process.
Mrs. Huckaby uses only Gold Medal flour -- always
has, always will. Once, in fact, she wrote the miller to tell
of having produced 135 loaves of Gold Medal-flour bread
for a church bake sale. The miller responded with a nice
note and a copy of Betty Crocker's cookbook, which Mrs.
Huckaby still has (and uses).
For years, Mrs. Huckaby had packaged the bread she
gives away in paper sacks printed with her name. She
started the practice when she lived in Malvern and Pine
Bluff, and continued it when she moved to Little Rock 17
years ago. Her bag purchases now have run into the
thousands.

GIFTS FOR FRIENDS
The bread is Elizabeth Young Huckaby's version of gift
flowers. She bestows it on the event of deaths in the
families of friends, to newcomers she meets, on special
occasions. Neighbors always get a Christmas loaf. "The
Bumperses always got bread, and John McClellan. And
regularly [federal judge] Elsijane Trimble Roy gets a loaf."
The federal judge -- the only daughter of a federal judge
in the country who sits on the bench of her late father --
also takes a loaf regularly to her mother, Mrs. Thomas
Trimble, who at 93 still teaches a Sunday School class at
her Baptist church in Lonoke. Other close friends are
regular recipients, and Mrs. Huckaby has been known to
supply all of the bread for Tabriz or church parties and
functions. Once a year for three years, she baked bread
for postmen during a "Be Kind to Your Postman"
observance fostered by then-Postmaster Roy Sharpe.
Mrs. Huckaby, who is so expert at making it, also has
some advice on how to slice bread. Don't use a knife with
a serrated edge, she says, lest the bread be ragged and
torn, but be sure the slicing knife is very sharp. She
prefers thin slices and can get 20 from a 9 1/4-inch loaf.

EXPENSIVE VENTURE
Mrs. Huckaby likes whole-wheat bread occasionally
and can make it equally well, but she eschews her
mother-in-law's dictum and usually buys it at the grocery
store. Her two daughters, naturally expert bread makers
themselves, also make bread with whole-wheat flour, but
Mrs. Huckaby knows a good thing when she sees it and
doesn't want to tamper, ever, with the original white bread
recipe.
All of this baking requires massive purchases of yeast
(dry granules, one pack for every loaf), and Gold Medal
flour, of course, and while Mrs. Huckaby said she
probably should buy the flour wholesale, she watches for
sales in the groceries and feels lucky when she can get it
for 99 cents for a 5-pound bag. Friends help supply her
with bacon grease.
So here, once again, is the famous recipe, taken from
Little Rock Cooks.

Elizabeth Young's Homemade Bread
2 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package dry yeast (2 may be used on a cold day,
or to speed up the process)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons melted bacon fat or other
drippings
6 cups unsifted flour ( I use bread flour.)
Butter OR margarine
Stir into 2 1/2 cups lukewarm water ( the water has to be room temp or it will kill the yeast) , the 2 tablespoons
sugar and the yeast. Let mixture sit 5 -15 minutes. ( I let it sit for up to 30 minutes or longer, the longer it sits the
yeastier the bread tastes Also you can tell if the yeast is good if a foam develops on the mixure. If a foam does not
develope then your water was too hot or the yeast was bad).
Add the 1/2 cup sugar, salt and bacon fat. Stir in flour, ( don't use old flour, the bread will taste blah)
cup by cup, until too thick to stir, then work in by hand. ( at this point I put the dough in my bread machine, set on
dough cycle, as the machine in kneading the dough, I add more flour, a little at a time to keep the ball of dough going
around smoothly and faster. After the machine has kneaded the dough, I take it out and put it in a large buttered bowl.
Use the biggest container you have for this rising if you plan on being away from it for a few hours.
Next step if not using machine:
Turn onto floured board or counter top, add more flour
if necessary and knead at least 10 minutes.
Next step for machine and non machine methods:
Place in a large greased bowl and brush top with
melted butter or margarine (or bacon drippings). Cover
and let rise in warm place (78 to 85 degrees) ( I use a clear plastic shower cap to cover my bowl) to twice its
bulk (about 1 1/2 hours). Divide into 2 equal portions
gently (do not knead). Mold into 2 loaves. ( I usually make two round balls of dough and place in pie plates for this
rising. When baked in pie plate the bread comes out round and makes nice oval slices. I make two pie plates and
one loaf pan of bread from this recipe) Hint: for perfect loaves divide the dough for the loaf pan into three
seperate balls. Place the three balls in the loaf pan). Place each into
a greased loaf pan (9 1/4-by-5 1/4-by-2 3/4-inches). Be
sure sides and bottom of pans are well greased. Brush
entire top surface of each loaf with melted margarine.
Cover pans with a light cloth and let rise, rounding to top
of each pan (about 1 1/2 hours).
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place pans on center rack
of oven, allowing air space between each pan. Bake at
375 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower temperature to
275 degrees and bake 15 to 20 minutes. ( if you are using the pie plate method the baking time will
be less. Brown to your preference) . Test a loaf for
doneness by trying to slip out of pan easily. If it doesn't,
return it to oven for 5 to 10 minutes.
Remove from oven. Brush each loaf on top with
margarine or butter while still in pan. Lift loaves gently out
of pans. Let cool on wire racks. For a softer crust, brush
sides of loaves with butter or margarine while hot. Leave
loaves uncovered while cooling.
Note: See instructions for pinching loaves -- the
"secret" maneuver -- in article above.
All of this takes Mrs. Huckaby 4 1/2 to 4 3/4 hours -- 5
to 15 minutes to proof the yeast, 10 to 15 minutes to mix
the batter and knead, 90 minutes for the first rise, 5
minutes to shape into loaves, 90 minutes for the second
rise, 30 to 40 minutes for baking and 30 minutes for
cooling on the racks.

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