Graham Bread (Little House) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 small compressed yeast cakes
4 cups stone ground whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup molasses
1 tablespoon dripping

Preparation

In a small bowl, crumble yeast into 1/4 cup bloodwarm water. Let soak for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile in a large bowl, combine flours and salt, and make a wide, deep well in the center.
To the yeast add molasses and 2 cups of bloodwarm water and stir. Piour this liquid into the well and stir around and around at the center. Gradually the batter will thicken into a stiff dough.
When all the flour is mixed in, dust the dough mass with an extra handful of flour so it no longer sticks to the bowl. Cover with a dish towel and set to rise at room temperature (68 degrees F) for about 2 hours, until doubled in bulk.
With a floured fist, punch the dough down and turn it onto a floured board. Knead a few times, then pull into a rope and cut in half with a knife. Flatten each half into a rectangle and roll up like a jelly roll.
Grease loaf pans with drippings. Turn loaves to grease them as you put them into pans. Cover, and set to rise for another 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the loaves about 40 minutes, then remove bread from pans. Return loaves to the oven rack to bake 10 minutes more. Cool well. Slicing will be easiest next day.