Judge Joseph R Goodwin's "Granny Bread"

Story time!

My wife Kay’s parents had a housekeeper named Mary who was orphaned at a young age and later was given a home by Kay’s parents and became a member of the family. She made a heavenly bread at least once a week. There was no recipe as she couldn’t read or write, and I recall watching her dump handfuls at a time from a large flour sack without measuring. I loved the bread and was determined to measure and make it. At first, I used a water glass: 12 glasses of flour, a quart of milk- heated (“luck” warm as she called it), three heaping cooking spoons of Crisco, three heaping cooking spoons of sugar and a heaping tablespoon of salt. I don’t remember the yeast portion as she did it. 

I actually made it that way for many years and then modified it to eliminate the water glasses of flour and substituted 5 pounds of flour, which I place in an enormous bowl after spilling about a cup on the counter for kneading purposes.  I still use the large cooking spoon measures for the Crisco and sugar and a palm full of salt from my hand. I use five packets of rapid rise yeast and dissolve the yeast in a cup of warm water and add it along with the warm quart of milk and knead it until I get tired. After a fulsome rise, I cut it into loaves for bread pans, and wait for another big rise. Then I put them in a 400° oven for 10 minutes and then turn it down to 350 for another 35.

The clerk of court here in Charleston, West Virginia is an accomplished baker who teaches baking and he calls my bread recipe Granny Bread. I hope your Cooking By Heart listeners don’t have a horrible experience trying to make it, but if you love bread the result is worth giving it a try!

5 lbs of flour

Crisco

Quart of Milk

Sugar

Salt

5 packets of rapid rise yeast