White Bread

Homemade Bread
5 cups of flour (Better for Bread flour)
4 tsp salt
1 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup sugar
5 cups hot water
3 Tbs yeast or 3 packets
1/2 cup melted butter flavored Crisco
My mom always taught me to proof the yeast before getting started by throwing them into warm water with a bit of sugar.  You want to make sure they're alive and hungry before you waste a day making bread.  Because that's just depressing. 

Mix the above ingredients in a mixer until blended then add about 7-9 more cups of flour. This will just be what ever it takes to pull the dough away from the sides of mixer bowl. Then turn mixer on (bocsh 2) other mixer medium and let it go for 5 minutes. If your doing it by hand knead for 10 minutes. I started out in my KitchenAid, but it couldn't handle all that dough so I ended up hand kneading (which is unpleasant, so be prepared for a little upper arm and chest workout).  

Put it in a big bowl and let it rise for about an hour.  If you want to put it outside, don't forget to cover it with a damp cloth, because you don't want anything (dirt, leaves, bird beaks) in your dough, and it will keep it from drying out too much.  Again, my Mom always taught me to line the bowl and dishes for rising in shortening, plop your dough down in it, and then flip it over so that the top of your dough gets a nice little coat of buttery shortening.  After an hour, it will about double in size.  Punch it down and form 3-4 little dough balls and place in bread pans.  Let rise again for about 45 minutes then bake at 350 for 30 minutes