I'm such a cheater and I know it: (CORNELL BREAD FOR THE BREAD MACHINE)

This recipe was found in a bread machine cookbook that I've had FOR YEARS. I bought it at Sam's Club, when I used to shop at Sam's Club. I don't shop there any more because I was tired of having a gallon jar of olives for the rest of my life. Plus, I spent waaaay too mucho peso for "lunch supplies". I'm getting off track here.

Since my son Kevin wants to turn into He-Man (he's all of 15 and plays football) he wants to eat more protein and drink those shitty nasty "energy drinks". I won't buy the drinks but I'll help with the protein part. I saw this recipe for high protein bread and thought I would give it a try to have with his sandwiches at lunch. I've made it before and since we're out of bread (and poor) I thought I would make it again. I like making the dough in the bread machine and then forming it for final shaping and baking outside of the machine in the oven (hence the "cheating" statement). I know this sounds weird but I "proof " my bread in the dryer. I have a dryer rack and I place the molded bread on it after I "pre-heat" the dryer on high cycle for a few minutes prior. Sounds crazy but it works. Makes the bread rise and that's all that matters to me. When I become more sophisticated and own a proper proofer and oven I'll change.

After an hour and a half beating around in the bread machine I removed the soft-as-silk, lucious dough, formed it into a log, and squeezed it into a loaf pan.

After proofing the dough in the pan in the dryer I placed it in a 375 degree oven and baked it 40 minutes. Good grief I love it when the house smells of baking bread. The bread was a little lopsided but like anything else with a slight defect, I love it even more.

I sliced it up this morning for Kevin's sandwich and YUM! Like a dork I tasted a wee bit of the soy flour while making the dough, and yick. But, when mixed with the other ingredients there's no yick. The bread is quite dense but amazingly had a great rise before baking. There was no additional rise when in the oven so I'm glad I got out of it what I did. I am NO expert in making bread (and I'm sure there's few out there who would cringe at my technique, or lack of one) so I'm glad when I have a success!

Cornell Bread (for the bread machine):

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water
2 tbs. vegetable oil
2 tbs. honey
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup soy flour
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
1 tbs. vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 tsp. yeast

Directions:

1. Place all the ingredients in the bread machine pan, layering, starting with the first (water) through the last (yeast).

2. Press the machine's dough cycle and watch for any extreme dryness or wetness of the dough and adjusting the dough to either one (the weather is a factor) by adding a slight amount of bread flour or water.

3. After the dough cycle is finished, without too much manhandling of the dough, form into a log and place into a greased loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with oil, but not too firm to allow expansion.

4. Place pan in a draft free, warm, moist area to allow to rise. Like I said before, my dryer is the BOMB for making bread rise. I preheat the dryer for a few minutes and place the pan on the dryer rack.

5. After about 90 minutes place pan into a preheated 375 degree oven for 40 minutes. I use a glass loaf pan so I can see the browning on the sides of the bread.

6. When the bread is an almond-brown color and sounds hollow when thunked on the top it's done.

7. Cool completely on a wire rack and resist slicing for a couple of hours or overnight.

This makes a "large" loaf which I estimate slices about 12 nice sized pieces of bread. We've already consumed 7 pieces already this morning.