Our Daily Bread

We love bread and eat plenty of it. I use my bread machine a few times a week; I only use it to make the dough. I don't like the way the machine bakes the bread, it gets too hard and I don't like the shape it bakes into, too high and doesn't fit in my toaster very well. But I do like the dough cycle. Mostly I make bread dough and pizza crust, on occasion cinnamon sweet rolls. But always I pray the Our Father when I take the dough from the bread pan to knead a couple times before shaping and rising. My favorite line is, "thy will be done". It's a convenient phrase for bread baking because it seems no matter how many times I use the same recipe it turns out slightly different. So I usually just repeat the phrase "thy will be done" while preparing the bread, hoping that the "will" is for it to rise nicely, bake evenly and taste deliciously. But due to humidity, freshness of yeast, temperature of liquids, timeliness of removing from bread pan and what ever else might play into the equation, "thy will" seems to be out of my control. It shouldn't surprise me though. God's will is rarely the same as my will. I can honestly say I never prayed for a child with Down syndrome, a husband to have spine surgery, high risk pregnancies, a 1999 cranberry crash - I never prayed for any of those to happen, but they did and I am better for them. It takes time to reveal that, though. God's will is always a better plan for my life than my will. Sometimes months or years later I realize just how God's will played out in my life and can't imagine it any other way. Thank you God! You Rock!

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

On Earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us,

and lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

Amen.

Recipe for Old Fashioned White Bread

7 oz. warm milk

1 1/4 tsp. salt

1 egg

1 Tbsp. butter

3 cups bread flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. yeast

Place all items in bread machine. Choose dough cycle. When complete, turn onto floured surface, knead 5-6 times. Shape and place in greased bread pan. Let rise until double. Approximately 30 minutes. Rising time will vary depending on kitchen temperature and humidity. Carefully, without jiggling, place in preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for 25 minutes or a little longer. Bread is done when the top crust is nicely browned and can be thumped. Thumping bread involves tipping it from the pan to reveal the long side and thumping with your thumb. If it sounds hollow, it's done. If it sounds muffled, then bake for a few more minutes. Let bread cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove and serve warm with real butter.

*The top can be buttered, after baking, for a softer topcrust. DH likes it crunchy so I usually leave the butter off.