join me for #makeandtake week to honor my granny and her amazing story. 

you will want to try this perfect white bread recipe too. the best bread base for lots of great recipes!

The story behind the perfect white bread

Meet Norma Arnett. This is my Granny. My mother’s mother. Her birthday is on Friday, August 29th, and I hope you’ll indulge me and my family a minute while we celebrate her.

A quick history on Granny:

She had 10 kids. 10. And she was a quiet woman, but not without spunk and opinion and a long list of talents that would make your head spin. She was most of all, humble, and determined to leave the world better than she found it.

While searching for more about her, I found her entire life story on familysearch.org, written in her words. this paragraph brought me to tears:

I have had a happy life so far. The only thing that has caused me such terrible sadness and been almost impossible to do is give up my dear husband Fred. He was killed with his brother Marvin in a plane crash the 17 Sept. 1964. Little Sam was just two weeks old. We’re hoping we can help him know his dad by the things we say and the plans he had for us. I have a very dear family and everyone is healthy and happy. We have singers, dancers, musicians, comedians, seamstresses, athletes, weight lifters, paperboys, yard men, insurance men, actors, actresses, oh just all kinds of talents.

So many of those talents came directly from her. And yes, she then raised her kids alone for 36 years before she died.

This is my granny with Sam, my uncle and her famous white bread….

{featured in the local newspaper}

If you go to Mesa, AZ her bread recipe is used at the successful whole grain bread store

{working there was the first job i ever held in high school. side note: i made $6 an hour then, and i read in my granny’s history about the year she got married, and g-pa was gifted a raise of $5 a month. they then made $70 a month! nuts, right?}

The reason this bread is so famous though, is not only because it is one of the yummiest, but mostly because this sweet lady baked about 12 loaves a week.

She kept 2 for her large family, and the rest were taken, while still hot, in brown paper bags to neighbors and friends who she thought needed a lift.

Her baked goods were just the foot in the door. She was that quiet, charitable woman, who i’m sure most thought, “There’s a lady who has reason to be hard on herself and down on life, and look what she does with her time and talents!”

I often think about how much she meant to so many people. And I can’t talk about her without crying like a baby. She was one of the greats.

At her funeral, the owner of the bread store donated hundreds of mini bread loaves to give away to those who came.

Attached was this poem:

want to print this? download here

In the last week of August, we celebrate her in our extended family with #makeandtake and #sharegoodness this week, in honor of Granny. Make these into rolls and take dinner, give it as dough and let them bake themselves, make mini loaves and take them to teachers, drop them secretly on doorsteps.  I often use this little printable to take it to friends and family, especially when I know they could use a pick me up.

want to print this too? download here

Boss and I whipped up this bread last week and I was unprepared for what would happen when the smell hit me.

Tears were streaming as I saw my sweet granny in her kitchen, clear as day, red apron on, waving her hand at me and passing over a jar of homemade freezer jam.

I could see her wall of grandkids in polaroid photos, all in read sweatshirts with white felt numbers on the chest, my toothless grin at number 40, and the hand-drawn fabric calendar of birthdays hanging next to it.

I will almost have to make her bread weekly now, just to have the nostalgic memories that bring me back to her. To her sense of priorities.

I know she’s proud of me. I know she’d wave and say, “Oh you’ll be fine.” Cause she was so easy.

And I’m just glad that I didn’t completely botch her bread. It’s not as perfect looking as hers, but then really, was that ever her point?

{it sure tastes just like it!}

Perfect White Bread

Norma Arnett

The perfect yeast-rising white bread recipe we use as the base for many other recipes.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

  

• 6 cups warm water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered milk
• 3 Tbs yeast
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 rounded Tbs salt
• 5 lbs bread flour

Instructions

 

• Pour 6 cups warm water into Bosch. Add sugar and yeast. When the bubbling begins add remaining ingredients and mix for 5 minutes. Let rise to double. (About an hour) Punch down and form 6 loaves. (or 4 large). Place in sprayed pans. Let rise to 1/2 in above the pan and bake at 400 degrees for 25 mins. Remove from pans, rub top crust with butter, and allow to cool completely. Enjoy!

Wheat Bread variation:

• Use 10 cups Whole Wheat Flour and 4 cups bread flour
• Use Honey instead of sugar if desired.

Notes

If not using a Bosch, 1/2 the recipe and you may use a Kitchen Aid. 

Keyword bread