This bread was so popular that when Nana baked it for a bake sale or a charity lunch, it never made it to the table because the person in charge of the event loved the bread so much he or she kept it for themselves!

2  1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c white flour (optional), to make 3 loafs of bread
2 c milk
4-6 Tbsp butter
handful brown sugar
little bit molasses if desired, to taste
4-5 tsp salt
2 c water
2 pkgs yeast to dissolve in water (follow the directions)
add 1 tsp sugar
handful of any of these: grape nuts, granola, wheat germ, bran, oatmeal, bulgar
1 or 2 eggs (depending on the dryness of the climate)
raisins if desired

Heat the milk, add the butter, brown sugar, salt, water. When lukewarm add the yeast
mixture, the eggs, and beat. Add the whole wheat flour and the handful of whatever
grain (or grains) you want to include, and the raisins.

Now follow the procedure for raising the dough in Nana’s Pizza recipe.

Pizza dough directions

Follow the directions for the yeast. Sprinkle wheat germ on the table and put the dough on it. Knead rapidly while dough is still warm until the dough is smooth, about 10 minutes. Pat olive oil all around the dough ball and put it back in the bowl, in a warm place such as in the oven or in a sink that contains warm water. Leave it for 20 minutes or until the dough is double inn size. Then punch down the dough, turn it over and let rise until you get a springiness from the dough when you press lightly with your finger. The other indicator is that the dough has doubled in size again. This should be about 45 minutes.

For bread loaves, cut this dough into three equal parts and put into greased bread loaf pans. The the bread rises one more time in the pan.

Bake 45 min to an hour.  The dough should have shrunk a bit as it baked.  At 45 minutes, take from the oven and out of the pan, put on a tray, so air can go through, flick with a finger.  You should get a hollow sound, if not, but the bread back into pan and the oven for 10 min.

1 3/4 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 salt
1/3 c shortening
2/3 c sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 c ripe bananas

Cream sugar and shortening, add eggs and beat. Add sifted dry ingredients,
alternating with bananas. Bake in greased loaf pan 350 degrees about 70 min.
Sometimes I add crushed pineapple, orange juice (not much).

Background story: When the first “natural food” store came to town many years ago in South Miami, Nana found it and was delighted to have wheat flour to bake with. She loved the taste of this bread, so she served it at one of the regular friendly poker club meetings that she and Nunu attended. One of the friends there was a head bakery and cafeteria forman, whose job was to travel around various areas inspecting the cafeterias, and who had done a lot of baking himself. Everybody loved Nana’s bread and this man tried to duplicate it but couldn’t, so he (and everybody else) was very delighted whenever Nana would bring this bread to the poker meetings.

2 1/2 c buttermilk
1/2 honey
1 c chopped nuts
3 1/2 c unbleached flour
1/2 c butter
1 1/2 c rolled oats
2 pkg active dry yeast (follow package directions)
1 Tbsp salt
2 eggs
2 Tbsb butter
2  1/2 to 3 c whole wheat flour

Grease two 9″ x 5″ loaf pans. Heat butter, honey, buttermilk in saucepan. Lightly spoon flour into a measuring cup, level off. In large bowl, blend unbleached flour, oats, yeast, salt, eggs, liquid mixture. Beat 3 min, medium speed. By hand, stir in whole wheat flour and nuts. Brush top of dough with butter. Cover, let rise in warm place until double in size, should take 30 to 35 minutes to raise. If it takes longer than that to raise to double size, it’s in too cool a place and the yeast won’t rise properly. You may need to put the pot in a warm place like in warm water. Then take out the dough and beat down dough to original size (turn over and beat down on all sides) and let rise to double size again, between 30 to 35 minutes.

If it doesn’t raise properly it won’t bake up properly because the yeast has quit working. Once you have the second raising then cut into 4 sections for regular sized loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. Can possibly tell when it’s done by the nice browned top. Also can thump the bread with finger and listen for a certain sound when it is done.
Tip: Depending on the amount of moisture in the air, or lack thereof, you may need to add more flour or water to get the right consistency. If it’s wet outside, add more flour, but make sure it isn’t sticky. Flour has to be kneeded thorougly into proper consistency.