My grandmother gave me a copy of Marjorie Standish’s Cooking Down East cookbook for Christmas. It’s full of simple New England style recipes including one of my absolute favorites, Shredded Wheat Bread. Whenever I’m home and my mother makes this I eat it like it’s going out of style and without fail she gets annoyed with me because I always toast freshly baked bread. Everyone has their “bad habits,” right?

I woke up early on Saturday morning determined that Shredded Wheat Bread was going to be the first item I mixed with my new Pink KitchenAid and after a quick conference with “Mummy Dearest” on the phone I began measuring ingredients. I’d only baked bread once before this attempt and it didn’t come out at all so I was very anxious to have this particular cooking experiment be a success. The KitchenAid mixer is officially amazing. I seriously stood in awe with my mouth wide open as 5 plus cups of flour were mixed into a gorgeous mass of dough. My arm would have literally fallen off before I ever stirred all of that in.

Making bread is time consuming. It rose for two hours, then had to be punched down, and given time to rise again. After that I shaped the dough into loaves and sat them on the counter until they doubled in size. I finally had my first slice of freshly baked bread around 2:00 pm in the afternoon, but it was so worth it and almost as good as my mom’s.

Secret Ingredients	Yeasty Beasties Activate
Whirl, Whirl, Whirl, Whirl	Allow to Rise (You Can Take a Nap)
Eureka!	Whack it Down and Divide in Half
Shape Into Loaves	Wait Until They Double in Size

Butter

Slice & Toast (If You Dare)