DIGGER BREAD

Every time we make this bread, it's a big hit around our house. Have a big hit around your house. You will need two coffee cans for two loaves. The same cans are used for measuring and baking. It's a good idea to use the three pound size for measuring and the one pound size for baking, since the small tins bake most thoroughly without burning.

Do up the wet mix first:

1/2 cup lukewarm water (but not over 85 degrees, as the yeast would be killed).
1 cake or 2 packages of yeast (the cake works faster; if the recipe is doubled or tripled this is still enough).
1 tablespoon of flour
1 tablespoon of honey or raw sugar

Mix all of these in the can. If you wish, you may add a couple spoonfuls of honey, molasses, brown sugar, or dextros. A well-cooked potato put through a blender and incorporated into the water at this stage can take the place of the milk below.

Mix the dry ingredients while the wet mix stands:
1 level can of whole wheat flour. Nasty old white flour will never do!
Rye flour must be mixed with other flour or gluten because the loaf it makes is dense and does not rise well. Coarse ground flours, like stone ground and meals, also must be mixed with fine ground flour or gluten. (Note on gluten: this is the substance that holds the dough together and contains the yeast bubbles when the bread rises. It is developed naturally by kneading.)

Add to taste any of the following:
Salt - add a tablespoon or so.
1 /8 can of powdered milk
Handful or two of raisins
Something weird, wheat germ, soya flour, food supplements, nuts, dried dates, etc.

Mix the dry ingredients in a huge bowl or pan. Combine the dry and wet mixes and blend until it is uniform. Toward the end of this process such things as ripe bananas or sliced peaches may be thrown in. Let the dough rise in a warm place until it has risen by half. The top of a stove with the oven on is about right. Sometimes this takes an hour or two. Take this opportunity to grease the cans and light a joint.

Kneading -
Alter the dough has risen, sprinkle some flour on a counter or a table top. Be sure to keep the flour on the kneading surface, dough, and your hands! Turn the dough out on the floured surface. Knead by pushing down the top and folding the edges up onto the top again. Kneading usually takes 10-15 minutes. A well-kneaded dough is rounded and springs like a plump baby's bottom.

"Why does a poor man make good bread?"

"Because he needs it a lot." Be sure all cans are well greased. Divvy the dough, knead the halves into balls and put into the cans. Let rise again until dough has almost doubled in volume (about 45 minutes to an hour). Now you may switch to the baking portion of this here recipe.

Baking -
Put can upright in an oven preheated to 390 degrees, and bake for one hour. The larger cans take longer to bake. After baking, let the cans cool for 5 to 10 minutes. With pot holder in hand, twirl bread in the can. It will glide right on to the counter or whatever. Eat healthy!

-from the HAIGHT-ASHBURY ST. LOVE

CORRECTION: This classic recipe had passed through several hands before I received it, and - somewhere along the way - a portion of the liquid must certainly have been forgotten by someone. Mike Renaud now bakes much of the bread around here and - when he brews up a batch of the Digger article - he substitutes 1-1/2 cups of water and a banana for the one-half cup of water called out in the recipe. The bread, so modified, is delicious. - MOTHER.