The last of the wheat berries disappearing into the grinder.


Freshly ground wheat, it smells good already.


My 'sponge'- step one, mix the yeast, hot water, a little honey, oil, wheat gluten, and dough enhancer (it's got vitamin C in it, it acts as a bit of a preservative) with a bit of flour, then let it sit... the yeast starts to do its thing.


Can you tell the difference?  A few minutes later it's gotten a little 'puffy'.


Start adding more flour and 'kneading' until dough begins to pull away from sides.  Enough flour, now just keep kneading.  My arms don't even ache after this...


My kids love watching the mixing and kneading.


Plop it on a well oiled counter, punch it down, do a little hand kneading just to feel like a pioneer... or something like that...


Shaping a couple of loaves is much quicker, but I wanted rolls.  It's tedious, but worth it.  I even let the kids get a little oily handed dough shaping action, so much for uniformity.  Oh well, you should've seen their eyes light up when I said they could help shape the buns!  (I used to be much more upight, the thought of little people with oily fingers in my house would've driven me crazy not too long ago...)


Under cover in warm place to rise... and we wait... salivating like Pavlov's dogs... (Remember the crock pot is sitting near by with the chicken soup!)


Risen and ready to bake. Yay!


Oh yeah!  Brushed with butter... so yummy!


Liberty back for more after the soup... and again for a bedtime snack... they don't last long in a family of 7.  And that was a 2 loaf recipe... I've made rolls with my 6 loaf recipe, but ugh, it takes a long time to hand roll that many rolls!  I guess I'll have to try it with the kids helping!