Jalapeno Cheese Bread

My little sister and I won some hearts over with this one.

8 cups all-purpose flour

4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

¾ cup minced jalapeno peppers

½ cup white sugar

1 ½ tsp salt

2 cups hot water

3 (.25 oz.) pkgs. Active dry yeast

4 Tbsp vegetable oil

In a very large bowl, combine 7 cups of flour, cheese, jalapenos, 7 Tbsp sugar and the salt; mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine the water, yeast and remaining 1 Tbsp sugar. Let sit about 10 minutes; stir until all yeast is dissolved.

Add the oil to the liquid mixture, stirring. Add half of the liquid mixture to the flour mixture. Mix with hands to moisten flour as much as possible. Add remaining liquid mixture to dough and mix until flour is thoroughly incorporated.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand until shooth and elastic to the touch, about 15 minutes, gradually adding only enough additional flour to keep dough from sticking.

Place in a large greased bowl and invert dough so top is greased; cover with a dry towel and let stand in a warm place (90-100°F) until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch down dough.

To Make Bread: Divide dough into 3 equal portions. Form each into a ball, then stretch out dough with both hands and tuck edges under to form a smooth surface. Pop any large air bubbles by pinching them. Form into loaves. (Note: I like to use a rolling pin and roll out dough, which pops all bubbles easily and quickly.) Place in 3 greased 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf pans. Cover with towel again and allow to rise until almost doubled in size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Bake at 325° until dark brown and done, about 1 hour, rotating the pans after 25 minutes for more even browning. Remove from pan as soon as bread will easily lift out, after about 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool about 1 hour before slicing.

Bo Bo's Refrigerator Rolls

This is my great grandma's recipe.

¾ cup warm milk

3 pkgs. Yeast

¾ cup water

2 sticks margarine

3 eggs, slightly beaten

½ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

4 cups flour

Soften yeast in ¾ cup of warm water, set aside. Place ¾ cup milk and margarine in large Dutch oven, heat until margarine is just barely melted (do not get too hot because you’ll be adding eggs to this mixture.). Add eggs and stir well. Add yeast mixture, sugar and salt. Stir that in. Add 2 cups of the flour, mix in. Add remaining 2 cups of flour and beat in.

Cover tightly and refrigerate at least 8 hours. (Can leave overnight) Take out of fridge at least 2 hours before desired baking time. Grease the sides and bottom of a large cake pan with margarine. This is a stick dough so flour your hands and punch down. Pinch off a small piece of dough and roll it into a ball. Place it in your greased cake pan and flatten. (The balls should be touching each other so they will rise up instead of spreading out.)

Note: When Bobo makes this recipe, she moves the dough to one side of her pan after punching it down, then puts some flour in the other side of the pan and dips her pinch of dough into the flour before rolling it into a ball.

Let rolls rise at least an hour, until doubled. Drizzle melted margarine on tops of rolls, using a spoon, and rub lightly. Back on center rack at 425º until lightly browned.