"Holly, do you bake bread!?" "I bake bread!"

When I was 10 years old

my mom came up with the brilliant idea for my sister and I to start our own bread baking business.

We called our business "Bread N Butter".

We made white, whole wheat, and banana nut breads.

We spent every Thursday in the kitchen (those were the home-schooling days)

baking dozens of loaves of bread

and, in retrospect, selling them for far too little.

But, hey, we thought we were making a killing at the time,

 people loved our bread,

and I learned the art of baking at a young age.

I am, by no means, a gourmet baker.

I just do simple, "country" baking: a few varieties of breads, rolls, and cinnamon rolls.

However, simple baking has come in very handy in my life.

For example: 

thanks to bread-baking, my college roommates and I never seemed to lack for friendships with the opposite gender and we usually had plenty of dates. 

(I'd like to think that my bread-baking is partially what convinced my husband to marry me....)

Now that I have my own family, 

baking whole wheat bread has been a healthy and CHEAP staple in our hosehold.

I admit that sometimes I get lazy

and buy a loaf of bread.

Then when I find myself hashing out the logistics of how we can cut back on our grocery budget

a little voice inside my head politely suggests, "Maybe you should start baking more bread?" 

So I do, and

Ta da!

Instant money-saver!

I'm not claiming to have the best bread recipe in the world. 

That would sound very conceited.

However, my recipe IS an Oberg recipe.

I'm just sayin'....

WHOLE-lotta-yummy Wheat Bread

4 c. warm water

2 Tbsp yeast

2/3 c. sugar

1/3 c. canola oil

4 tsp salt

1/2 c. gluten flour (makes bread light and fluffy and keeps it from getting crumbly)

6-8 c. whole wheat flour (this will all depend on altitude and humidity, so use as much as you need to make a firm but soft dough)

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl and let sit 5-10 minutes or until yeast foams.

2. Mix in salt, gluten flour, and slowly add wheat flour.  Mix for 5 minutes, adding enough flour until dough is no longer falling and sticking to sides of bowl.  (FYI: Although I use a super-old, super-awesome Kitchen Aid, you don't have to have a mixer to make bread! In college I didn't have a mixer so I used a little hand mixer to add half of the wheat flour, and then I added the rest of the flour in and hand-kneaded the dough.  The bread still came out awesome.)

3. Grease sides of large bowl with dough inside, cover, and let rise for one hour.

4. Knead dough for a few minutes on a floured surface and divide and form into loaves (Makes about 3 medium-sized loaves.)

5. Place loaves in greased bread pans, cover, and let rise for 40 minutes.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until tops and sides of loaves are golden brown.

7. Devour bread with a slab of butter and jam.