No Need to Knead!

Kneading freaks me out. Don't ask me why, but the thought of having to knead has kept me away from making plenty of bread. It's weird...I know, but it's true. My name is Lauren and I'm a kneadaphobe. There's not really anything particularly scary about kneading, but it just seems like such backbreaking work. So I stay far, far away. I thought I would never get the luxury of homemade bread. So imagine my surprise when I was flipping through my Betty Crocker cookbook that my cousin and her husband gave us as a wedding gift and I happened upon this recipe for a bread that sounded delicious......and you don't have to knead it!!!!! I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Could it be true or was my mind simply playing an evil trick on me? So I decided I simply must try this for myself. And now I'm passing it on to you because it really is that delicious and easy!





Four Grain Batter Bread
recipe courtesy of Betty Crocker

Cornmeal
4 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 packages regular or quick active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp.)
2 cups milk
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. whole weat flour
1/2 c. wheat germ
1/2 c. quick-cooking oats

Grease bottoms and sides of two 8 x 4" loaf pans with shortening or spray with cooking spray (I used Baker's Joy.); sprinkle with cornmeal.

In large bowl, mix 3 1/2 cups of the all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and yeast. In 1-quart saucepan, heat milk and water over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until very warm (120 degrees F to 130 degrees F). Add milk mixture to flour mixture. Beat with electric mixer on low speed until moistened. Beat on medium spead 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

Stir in whole weat flour, wheat germ, oats, and enough remaining all-purpose flour to make a stiff batter. Divide the batter evenly between pans. Round tops of loaves by patting with floured hands. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until batter is about 1 inch below tops of pans.

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Bake about 25 minutes or until tops of loaves are light brown. Remove from pans to wire rack; cool.

Eat. Enjoy.

(Note: I used my Kitchenaid stand mixer to mix this, but you can also use a hand mixer. I used the wire whisk attachment until it got too thick, and then i switched it out for the dough hook to finish mixing.)