Angel Honey Bread

This bread is a tribute to one of my mom's best friends, who I will call Angel.  She passed away last year after battling cancer.

My first memory of this bread was had sitting on a pew at church.  Angel used to bake it to be used for our sacrament services.  As a teenager, it was special because it tasted good.  As a young adult, I realized she wanted to do more to serve God by providing the bread so many others of our congregation depended on.  It was because of her example that in college I started baking the bread for our church congregation in Utah.

I even called my mom for the specific Honey Bread recipe, and used it once or twice.  Shortly thereafter, I found out that someone in our congregation had a lot of allergies, honey and butter (both in the original recipe) being two of them.  So I called mom again for a more basic white bread, and stuck to it. 

You might even say this bread contributed to my potential husband-to-be learning to appreciate my baking skills, since he got to sample them at least weekly.  That might be a bit of a stretch, though!

Today I got a hankering for a deliciously soft, scrumptious bread.  I knew the texture and the flavor, and I knew it was Angel's Honey Bread.  But since we're on a tight budget and I'm a mom trying to sneak in whole grains where I can, I decided to be brave and play with the recipe.  I didn't intend to post it here, so there aren't any pictures of the steps.  But it's really pretty simple.  Angel used to throw all her ingredients in a bread machine, but since I have lots of hungry hippos at my table I tripled the recipe and did it in a stand mixer.  If you cut it back down and just make 1/3, though, you can throw it all in your bread machine. Just pick the light crust setting.

My mom and I were talking about this friend just a week or two ago and missing her a little.  But this is just one more way she keeps living on in our hearts. 

Angel Honey Bread

3 3/4 cup warm (100 degrees F) water

1 T active dry yeast

3/4 cup oil

3/4 cup honey

2 tsp salt

3/4 cup dry milk powder

5 cups white bread flour

4 to 6 cups whole wheat flour (I use hard white)

Proof yeast in warm water.  Add remaining ingredients, leaving out 3 to 4 cups of the flour.  Mix well, pouring in additional flour to achieve a soft dough. (Sticks to the bottom but not the sides of the bowl.) Knead 10 to 15 minutes, 8 to 12 in stand mixer.  Grease large bowl, let rise covered until double, about 1 hour.  Punch down and divide dough into four equal loaves.  Put shaped loaves into 4 greased bread pans (9x5 works, but 8x4 would be better), cover and let rise until just cresting the edge of the pan, about 30 minutes.  Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.  Turn out onto cooling rack.  Eat one of the loaves warm.  Allow the rest to cool completely before slicing.