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This 1904 Gold Medal bread recipe was discovered in the Our Lady of Mt Carmel Dedication Cookbook.
The recipe in it’s current format in my cookbook is VERY difficult to follow and read, so I decided to create an adaptation of it with the ingredients and directions much more clearly laid out. This should hopefully make it much easier to follow!
I have not made this bread recipe before but it is definitely on my list to try. There’s really nothing like homemade freshly baked bread! Some people like to use it for sandwiches, but my favorite way to enjoy homemade baked bread is with butter and jelly.
Of course, making bread this way is a pretty slow process. The bread has to rise not once, not twice, but THREE times.
In some ways, it very much reminds me of my grandmother’s Easter Bread {Polish Sweet Bread}. We always made the sweet bread on Good Friday because it had to rise three times and Jesus rose after the third day.
The Easter bread is an all-day-long process, and I would imagine this recipe would also be a whole day-long process as well.
Covering the bread and waiting for it to rise can sometimes be a challenge if you live in a house with young kids or pets. I’ll never forget the one time our poor dog as a kid actually got into the Easter bread and ate the raw dough. Poor doggy was definitely sick after that, so make sure you keep the dough in a safe place away from pets and kids while it rises.
If 4 loaves of bread is a bit too much for you, you can probably easily halve this recipe to make 2 loaves. This is probably what I will do when I make it, as I only have 2 loaf pans and we don’t regularly bake or eat nearly enough bread to justify getting more.
1904 Gold Medal Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups Lukewarm Water
- 2 cups Lukewarm Milk
- 4 packets of dry yeast {1/4 ounce each} OR 1 ounce yeast cake
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons of sugar
- 12 cups of flour
- 2 tablespoons lard {optional}
- Melted Butter
Instructions
- Combine milk and water. Add in yeast and stir until completely dissolved.
- Add in salt and sugar and stir until dissolved.
- Sift flour and stir into yeast mixture with a wooden spoon to begin making the dough.
- Knead the dough, adding more flour if necessary, until the dough is no longer sticky.
- Place the dough in a large bowl and add melted butter to the top if desired.
- Cover the bowl with a towel or blanket and place in a warm place to rise. Allow the dough to rise for approximately 2 hours.
- After the dough has risen, knead well again, and again set it in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
- Once the dough has risen again, form into 4 loaves and place into greased bread loaf pans.
- Brush the loaves with melted butter and let stand covered for 1.5 hours.
- Bake loaves at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. Bread will be done when knocking on it gives it a hollow sound.
Nutrition
If any of you happen to have a copy of the 1904 Gold Medal Cookbook, please do let me know if this recipe is indeed accurate, and of course if you make this bread recipe I would love to hear how it turns out – comments are always welcome below!