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By Ramona Frances - The Madera Tribune

Glory Warner cuts bread into slices. The 13-year-old makes bread for her family, four loaves at a time, twice a week

Photo by: Wendy Alexander

Glory Warner gets a little help from her dad, John, double checking the water measurement.

Photo by: Wendy Alexander

Loaf of homemade bread.

Photo by: Wendy Alexander

Thirteen year old Glory Warner makes bread for her family, four loaves at a time, twice a week.

Thanks to her dad, John Warner, who was recently profiled in an article, 'An Innovative Family Approach To Growing And Selling.' The article described Warner's methodical step by step approach to growing flowers and vegetables. Warner also applies a step-by-step approach to making bread, a method that his daughter, Glory, has adopted.

"The bread only takes 15 extra minutes from getting the idea to sticking it in the bag," said Glory.

During the mixing, rising and baking you can be doing other work.

"I use two long pans ( 14 inch) and by using a separator in the middle of each pan. (the end of a tin can) She demonstrated her technique while explaining, "I make two loaves in each pan."

Add an hour and 45 minutes of stand-by time.

The flour formula is premixed and stored in a large plastic container, 1/3 whole wheat, 2/3 white flour. Six cups of premixed flour are removed for each batch. 13 oz of water is added. Glory demonstrated by putting a small amount of salt in the palm of her hand and adding it to the mixture.

"The only things we use, says Glory, are flour, yeast, salt and water."

Glory poured ingredients in liner pan, inside bread machine and gave it a shake. "Then press dough setting," she said.

"We only use the first 30 minutes of the dough mixing in the bread machine," said Glory. It is removed after 30 minutes and allowed to finish rising in a warm oven.

"We found the rising temperature in the bread machine is too high, says John Warner. "The result is that bread gets too soft, and then becomes dense on the bottom. We make very uniform bread," he said. "The whole procedure is very quick."

"It takes 1/2 hour to rise in warm weather and it takes 40 minutes to rise in the winter time. Cold water slows it down too" said Glory.

Bread is baked at 400 degrees, set time 1/2 hour.

John Warner has made bread for over thirty years. "I figured out a way to make it easier. The simplest way, the fewest ingredients, the cheapest, and without clean up. Now Glory makes it for the entire household, which is a total of six people.

The way the bread is cooled affects the bread's texture too, since dry crumbly bread is usually undesirable. A method used to keep bread from falling apart is allowing it to cool in a pot that the family refers to as a 'humidor'. The large pot has a liner placed on the bottom. As the bread cools, the humidor keeps the bread from drying out and consequently, from falling apart.

John Warner, whose first wife was of German decent, explained that the sign of a good frau (German word for housewife) was being able to cut bread well. "The fact is, it's easier to cut straight slices from a narrow loaf than a thick one" said Warner. That's why we use pans only 3-1/2 inches wide."

When the bread is completely cool, it's bagged up into individual bags and kept in the refrigerator.

When Glory was asked what inspired her to make bread, she said with a wide-eyed grin,

"Dad made me."



Simple Bread

Ingredients:

-6 cups of pre-mixed four

-1/3 whole wheat, 2/3 white flour

-1/2 heaping tablespoon of yeast

-13 oz of water

-salt

Ramona Frances Ramona Frances is a staff columnist, writer and photographer for the Madera Tribune. You may contact Ramona at 674.8134 ext. 222 or by e-mail ramona (at) maderatribune.net The Madera Tribune online subscription To subscribe or log on, CLICK HERE. For more information first, CLICK HERE.