A Gift for Others -Twelve Days Before Christmas Bread
I use to begin baking bread twelve days before Christmas and when it is the day before Christmas I would have twenty-four loaves of bread. I would feel fresh as a daisy and couldn't be happier. Each morning right after breakfast, beginning twelve days before Christmas (or sooner depending on the circumstances), I would make two loaves of this bread. The basic recipe was made and there are 5 variations, totaling six different kinds of bread. Each night I would put the newly baked loaves in the freezer until there stands a stack of 22 loaves (we would eat a couple along the way). These were for our neighbours, friends, and for people to whose houses we would go for any holiday festivities and sometimes just for people (like the guy who picked up our packages daily or the hair dresser. What a wlcom and surprising present out of the clear blue sky is a loaf f homemade bread! Forgive me one small gloat and a boast. Each loaf a perfection, light as a feather but with substance. It was utterly heavenly to eat plain, with butter or with or without honey. Toasted for breakfast, it was pure ambrosia. And what's more, while it was baking everyone who came to the front door commented on the fragrance in the house. It always reminded them of something out of their past. The fragrance carried them back many years, perhaps to their mother's kitchen or grandmother's kitchen or even your aunt's. Anyways I thought you may like to see how it is done so I have put a link to the TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS BREAD AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST.
 Each morning before breakfast, you put the rolled oats into a large bowl and pour the boiling water over it. It stands there while you get breakfast ready and eaten. About an hour later when it is still warm, it will have softened up and all the little separate rolled oats will have blender together. And now your are ready to begin.
We use the Bosch Universal Plus machines with the dough hook, and put the liquid in first along with the rolled oats and add half the flour and turn the machine on for 30 sec. and begin adding the remaing flour until the bowl starts to clean. Now let it knead for about 5 to 6 min. depending on what kind of flour you have chosen to use ( a little longer if making it whole grain) . Once the gluten has developed and you have a real stretchy dough, you can add in your special ingredient for the day whether it is the citron or the raisins or one of the herb combos , it will only require about another 30 sec. or so to knead them in. You can now let your dough rise in the bowl, without the splash ring ( I use a clean tea towel) until double and then turn the machine on and knead it down again.
You can now oil your counter and get the dough out of the bowl and begin shaping your two loaves and place them in 2 well greased bread pans. You can let the dough rise slowly on your counted covered for about an hour or for a faster rise in a warm overn for about 1/2 an hour until double. It is then baked in a slow oven for bread at 325 degree F for about 50 min. This baking time is when the fragrance reaches its peak of delight. Ask a friend over for herbal tea, just to sit and smell the bread baking.
There is something so solidly satisfying to me about making bread. Is it perhaps because, after all , yeast is a plant and it is always good to feel any plant grow in your hands. Whereever bread is baking, long years ago or today , there is not only a fine smell but a comfortable feel of something basic. I don't quite know what it is, but I like it!
When you take the bread from the oven, turn it out immediately and set each loaf right side up on a wire cake rack so air circulates beneath. Butter the crust. When the loave are cool, pack each into a separate plastic bag and seal the end with a twist tie and put them in the freezer, except of coarse, the loaves you keep out to eat as you go along. We have to keep sampling right! We want to make sure that the product is good right! Happy baking.
CLICK HERE FOR THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS BREAD RECIPE
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Each morning before breakfast, you put the rolled oats into a large bowl and pour the boiling water over it. It stands there while you get breakfast ready and eaten. About an hour later when it is still warm, it will have softened up and all the little separate rolled oats will have blender together. And now your are ready to begin.
, yeast is a plant and it is always good to feel any plant grow in your hands. Whereever bread is baking, long years ago or today , there is not only a fine smell but a comfortable feel of something basic. I don't quite know what it is, but I like it! 
