Lagea's Thanksgiving Bread

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is a turkey sandwich. Our family friend Wendy taught us how to make the perfect one. Here's the list of sandwich fixings: bread (duh), turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing & bread. I decided to make a bread that taste like the classic Sage Stuffing. 

This recipe took me two years to perfect. At first I was going to keep this Top Secret then I thought "What's the fun in that?"

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ cup warm water
•  ¼ cup butter softened
• 5 Tbs Celery Flakes 
• 5 Tbs Onions minced  
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 Tbs sage ground
• 1 ½ tsp thyme ground
• 1 ½ tsp rosemary ground 
• 2 tsp marjoram 
• ½ tsp dough conditioner or enhancer   
• 2 Tbs vital wheat gluten
• 2 ½ Tbs chicken bouillon granules (best is Augason Farms)
• 4 cups bread flour
• 1 Tbs yeast

 I use my bread machine to combine all the ingredients on the dough cycle. Place the items in the bread machine pan in the order listed above. Once the cycle is complete, turn the dough onto an oiled counter. Knead the dough just a little and form into a oval, cover with plastic wrap or a cotton towel, and let rest for 10 minutes.

After resting, turn dough bottom side up and press to flatten. Then fold dough into shape you want. Place on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan dusted with cornmeal or I just put it into a bread pan. Cover and place in a warm spot to rise, approximately 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  After rising, slash the bread with a very sharp knife. Brush or spray the top of the bread with cold water (this keeps the dough wet so that it won't form a crust from the heat of the oven, thus allowing the bread to get a good "oven spring: during the first 5 minutes of baking) and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

***WARNING*** 

Your house will smell so yummy you will want to eat the bread immediately! Just wait! You've waited this long, an hour or more won't kill you ;o)

FYI: I get all of my spices from this wonderful local store: Crystal and Spice Shoppe