My Mom's 5 Day Bread Dough...Updated Bosch Tutorial!

Homemade matters to us.  For my entire life, this recipe has been the standard of excellence in bread making. This is a bread dough recipe that my mother, Geneve, developed for her college Food Science final. I grew up with this bread and the smell of wheat grinding fresh in our family home.  I remember mom always testing the fresh milled flour to be sure the wheat had not gone rancid in storage.  Today...we milled wheat that I had put away when my first born son was born. Yup. 14 years ago.  I turned into my mom today. I got really giddy to find it was still perfect wheat, ready for bread.

  There was also only one bread mixer that she would ever openly praise.  It was our family Bosch mixer from the Bosch Kitchen Store.  It really was the only machine strong enough to handle this dough, because she made 5-6 loaves at a time. Repeat that several times a week. The machine lasted without a hick-up or need for a tune-up for most of my life. The last time I visited my mother, she was still using the same machine. She got the machine when I was about 2 years old...and I turn...(gulp) forty this year.  Yup. Bosch mixer are that good.

Gathering around Mom’s mixer and watching the dough form into supple perfection was the highlight of my week and the very testing-ground for what became a baking passion for me. We had to watch as it "spun gold out of wheat" and I was able to see first-hand what proper protein development should look like in the bread making process. Baking bread with mom made me what I am today. Some of life’s richest lessons were taught around that bread-board. 

 She'd always dissect the fresh loaves and make sure they were up to her standard.  I still do the same when I make mine. 

• Is the crust thin, crisp, and uniformly colored? 
• Is the crust tight to the loaf or did it separate?
• Is the loaf rounded, uniform in width size, and well domed? 
• Is the taste mild and sweet with the flavor of the wheat?
• Are there any strong flavors?
•  Is it overly yeasty, sour or salty?   
• Is the texture silky and tender?
•  Is the crumb fine? 
• Are there any flour lumps or knots in the dough?
• Are the air holes uniform?
• Can you cut reasonable slices without the bread falling apart?

Life has taken me far from my mother’s home. If I think about it too much, I get misty-eyed.  Now as a pastry chef and mother myself, her recipe for this remarkable bread remains a classic.  I was reminded of this once again this week as we gathered around our mixer. Mine is the newest model, thanks to my friends at Bosch. The recipe...is still mom's. 

It is called 5-day bread, but the dough can be made up to 7 days ahead of time. I still use it every single week! The dough is stored in a large bucket or covered bowl in the fridge.  Sometimes I divide it between 4 gallon sized zipper bags.  I love this dough made into rolls, pretzels, pizzas and yes, decorative ornate braided bread loaves.  You’ll find this to be excellent dough to keep on hand for all your bread making needs. Don’t be dismayed by the number of ingredients in this bread, each one works with the other to make it perfect.

Chef Tess' Mom's 5-Day Bread
2 T active-dry yeast OR 1T SAF Instant premium yeast
4 c milk, scalded and cooled OR water (no hotter than 115 degrees)
3/4 c honey
1T salt
4 large eggs
3/4 c oil (olive or melted coconut oil)
1 1/2 c mashed potatoes, cooled to body temperature
1T baking powder
14-15 cups fresh milled whole wheat bread flour ( tutorial on making-whole-grain-flour-at-home )

Directions: Dissolve yeast in milk (or water) in a Bosch Universal Mixer.  Yeast does matter. I use this one because I know it works.

Stir in honey. Allow yeast to get foamy. Add egg, oil, mashed potato, baking powder, salt and 14 cups of fresh milled flour. Turn to speed 1 and combine about 30 seconds.

 Increase speed to 3 and mix 4 ½ minutes until dough is soft and well developed but not dry.

 It will look almost like spun golden yarn. That's what good protein development should look like in your bowl. 

Allow dough to rest 10 minutes in the bowl (this gives the wheat time to absorb moisture). Don't skip this 10 minute resting step. You'll end up using way more flour than you need to in your bread and your bread will be dry.  After 10 minutes, you should be able to pull a piece out and have it string 6-7 inches above the bowl without the dough breaking. 

Add enough of the flour remaining to make soft dough that is easy to handle but not dry. More often than not, I don't have to add any more flour at all. Turn dough onto a  very lightly floured surface.  Form into a ball. It should hold it's shape without melting into a blob on your counter-top. 

 Place dough  in an ungreased 2-gallon bowl or food-grade bucket, covered tightly. If you don't have a large enough bowl...use two smaller bowls. Or...just half the recipe if you are worried about the dough growing all over your fridge outside of the container.

Put in the fridge, tightly covered.
 Punch down after 2 hours (this may be faster if you use warm ingredients or flour). If the dough is over 85 degrees when you put it in the fridge, be sure to punch down sooner. 
Form into a ball again. Cover tightly and chill at least 8 hours.  This chilling step is what will give you the best taste in your bread.  Long, slow, low fermentations of dough  are unparalleled for flavor development and gluten elasticity. This fermentation process cannot be produced by adding artificial flavors or mixing longer mechanically.  Some people try to mimic this process by adding extra chemical dough conditioners or added gluten powders.  They are not necessary if you do this step correctly.  They happen naturally by slowly raising in your fridge. This is the single most important step in making this bread remarkable and clean from added chemicals. 

Be sure to punch down daily if keeping it more than a day or two (this not only expels gas, but also ensures even temperature in the dough). This will yield 4 standard sized loaves of bread. Yes. You can also use it for anything remarkable at this point. I have such a hard time not making it into at least a dozen cinnamon rolls...or apple pie rolls...

To bake a standard sized loaf: Divide dough in 4 equal portions, about 2 lbs of dough for standard loaves. Form each loaf using the loaf molding technique ( Loaf Molding Tutorial).  Lightly coat the top of the loaf with melted butter and then lightly tent the loaves with plastic or plastic bags OR place in a moist place to rise. Allow to rise (1 -1 ½ hrs) until dough is about 1-2 inches above the edge of the pan. Lightly slit the top with a very sharp knife. 

Bake in preheated 425° oven for 20 minutes then drop the temperature to 350 for the final 15-20 minutes of cooking.

Remove from pans and allow cooling completely before cutting.
I cut this loaf right from the oven. 

Awww. See how it looks fuzzy instead of a clean texture?

Wait 30 minutes...and it slices a lot cleaner and nicer. 

So now I have my dough, ready for the week. It is just part of what I do to make things run smoothly here and save money.  Homemade matters to us. I know what is going into our sandwiches and lunch boxes.  We're using fresh milled grain that keeps the nutrition right in my kitchen instead of a factory somewhere. Plus, saving money and eating whole food is just how we roll.  

Yes. Mom was right. The best things in life cannot come from a store. They come from the heart. As I watched my kiddos rip into this gorgeous bread (while praising my name) I thought to myself, "This is it. This is why I do what I do."   Make a memory. Share some love.  Get the goodness into them!  And by all means, move onward and upward!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

How to Never Buy Yeast Again. The Everlasting Yeast No Knead Bread Tutorial.

This tutorial is for the Birds. Literally. The Birds are my darling students who brought me their first loaf of homemade bread the day after they came to one of my bread classes. Hence forth I'm calling them the Love Birds. Seriously. I love them. They've stayed in touch ever since. Mrs. Love Bird is an adorable woman who I've come to just cherish. Her husband reminds me very much of my dad. To make a long story short, when she showed up at a show with a loaf of her first Kamut bread she thought it was a little dry and we talked over e-mail.   Saturday, she was on loaf number four (or so) and brought it to me at my meal in a jar class. I was thrilled to see her progress! This is a woman who never once made bread until she met me.  Thrilled! Look at her no knead bread that she baked in her Solar Oven!

 Mrs. Love Bird. You're the best!

True confession. I've been toasting this bread for 3 days and I'm loving this. Thank you so much my darling!
You've made me smile!


At any rate, at the original bread class that the Love Birds attended, I mentioned the method I use for never having to buy yeast again and basically perpetuating an everlasting yeast. It is strengthened  by the length of it's existence and a remarkable skill to have for not only saving money but for any emergency situation or camping. The bread made with it is not a sour dough, but can be a sourdough if you let the yeast go too long between uses. I'm amazingly fond of this method for the fact that I'm a cheap-skate and I really don't like spending money on something that should be free. For thousands of years people made yeast-raised bread without commercial yeast. Somewhere along the way we've become totally dependant on the powdered active-dry and instant yeast in our bread making. This doesn't have to be the case. In fact, in my house it is usually the exception. The bread made with everlasting yeast has remarkable depth of flavor and beautiful results. I make bread often enough that I haven't had a problem with my lump of dough ever getting too sour or molding. It has been a dear friend for quite some time. I dare say...about 5 years. So, to the Love Birds and anyone like them who wants to see the finer details of this yeast method, here you go.


First, retain a small amount of dough from the next loaf of No knead 4 Ingredient Bread Anyone Can Make. I usually save about a half a cup of dough and keep it moist with 1/2 cup of cool water. Covered in a bucket 24 hours or less from the time I made my bread. It can be up to a week in the fridge, but in the summer here at room temperature I haven't gone longer than a day or two.

 I'm going with the old-school method here and just showing you what I do. I'm not going to weight the dough. You're just going to have to trust me. This is your yeast-dough-ball. It's is what I got from my last loaf of bread and is basically now the yeast you will use forever. Make friends because this can be around for many years to come.

 Dissolve the yeast-dough ball in 3 1/2 cups of cool water in a food-grade gallon size bucket with a lid or you can also use a large plastic bowl. I don't use metal because if the dough does sour, I don't want to deal with a mess. It hasn't so far, but ya know...there's always a first time.

Smoosh and swirl it around until it is a liquid mixture.

 To the bucket or bowl add 7 cups Hard White Wheat Bread Flour ( or you can use 8 1/2 cups California's Best Bread Flour ) and 2 tsp salt.

 Mix and combine the dough by hand about 2 minutes. You don't need to knead it. Just combine it.

 If it appears a little dry, add 1/4-1/2 cup more water.

 It should be moist enough to stick to your hands, but not moist enough to fall in pools of pathetic sadness on the bottom of your bucket. It will hold it's structure.

 Now that the dough is combined, cover it with a lid and let it sit at room temperature 12-14 hours. It can go up to 24 hours but not much longer. In cooler weather, it will take the full 24 hours to raise.

 This is what it will look like when you take off the cover.

 The dough will have some pretty nice gluten development.

 It should look almost stringy.

 Lightly flour your counter-top and transfer to dough to be made into 2 loaves of bread.


Retain one small handful of dough.

 Add 1/2 cup of cool water to the handful of dough and put it back in your bucket. Cover. Use within 24 hours for more bread or put the lump and water in your fridge after 24 hours for up to 1 week. It will become sourdough after that time and will need to be discarded or it can be used for a sourdough bread starter in any of the many recipes I've done here on the blog for sourdough .

 With the dough you have on your counter, follow the directions of the Sandwich loaf molding tutorial, but allow the loaves to raise about 3 hours (it may take up to 4 hours the first few times you use the yeast), covered at room temperature. The longer and more often you use your everlasting yeast-dough-ball the stronger it will be and that time will shorten dramatically.

Bake your bread in a hot oven or you can do like the Love Birds are doing and use this:  Baking Bread in a Solar Oven Tutorial. All I know is that the bread ends up being moist, delicious and well...amazing. You're going to love this method. It will save a lot of yeast money for other things...like grain to feed your family. There you go. Make some everlasting yeast. For more frugal ideas visit my friends over at Frugal Days Sustainable Ways and vote for my frugal tip. It's a great blog hop with great ideas for being frugal...and sustainable. Xoxo!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess