This recipe comes from my big, blue “The Taste of Home Baking Book”.  My Sunday School lesson today had a great story about making bread so last night I decided to make a small loaf of bread for each of the kids in my class (I only have 8).  I found this recipe which didn’t look too hard and had all of the ingredients referred to in my bread story.  I’m not really a bread maker, the yeast always scares me but these came out pretty good although they were a little crumbly.

bread:

1 package (1/4 oz) active dry yeast (I have a bottle of yeast in the fridge and it said that 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast are equivalent to 1 package)

1/2 cup warm water (110 – 115 degrees) (I used my meat thermometer to check the temp)

1 cup warm milk (110 – 115 degrees) (ditto the thermometer)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons salt

3 eggs

5 1/2 – 6 cups flour

honey butter:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup honey

1  In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water.  Add the milk, butter, sugar, salt, eggs and 3 cups of the flour; beat until smooth.  Stir in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough.  Do not knead.  Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

2  Stir the dough down.  Spoon into a greased and floured 10″ tube pan.  (I used about 9 mini loaf pans.)  Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

3  Bake at 400 for 25 – 30 minutes (less for small loaves, 15 – 20) or until golden brown.  Remove from pan to wire rack to cool.

4  Combine the honey butter ingredients until smooth.  Serve with bread.