You’ll need to mix 2 1/2 cups of water with 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 2 tablespoons of shortening.

Then you will need to dissolve either 2 of the envelopes of yeast (or 2 tablespoons if you bought a jar or bulk) in 1/4 cup of lukewarm water.

After the yeast is dissolved, pour it into the first mixture then stir to mix well.

Now you will want to mix in 7 to 7 1/2 cups of bread flour. Mix it with a spoon at first and then with your hands.

Once you have it mixed pretty well, you will take your bread dough and place it on a floured board and let it rest. I let it rest for about 10 minutes.

After the rest period, you will knead your bread dough. You’ll do this until the dough is elastic feeling and smooth. This usually takes about another 10 min. Let your kids help!

Once that is finished, I take a little shortening and grease the outside of the kneaded bread dough and put it in a large bowl.

I cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and set it in a warmer place to rise until it has doubled in size. This can take 1 1/2- 2 hours. But you’re staying home anyhow so you have all day.

Once your bread has risen, you will need to punch it down. Basically folding it over again and again until you get a firm ball of dough.

Now? Now you place it back in that big bowl and cover and let it rise again until the size has doubled. Another 1 1/2 – 2 hours.

So now you take your bread dough and divide it into two equal pieces. Let it rest on your floured board for about 10 minutes, then shape it into loaves.

Take your sweet little loaves and place them into lightly greased loaf pans. Let it rise in the pans until it is just above the top edge of your pans.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes at 425 degrees. You can tell that the bread is done when it is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

Turn it out of the pans on to a wire rack to cool.

Cut and serve!