Fast Rising Bread/Cinnamon Twist

This bread recipe fell out of an old Betty Crocker cookbook my grandmother gave me more than 40 years ago. The recipe was given to me by an elderly American Woman when I lived in Costa Rica during the early 70's. I remember telling her (I think her name was Louise) about the things I missed from the States, one of which was the Van de Kamp bakery and the "Swedish Twist" coffee cake we frequently enjoyed as kids. She offered to teach me how to bake bread and attempt to re-create the "Swedish Twist". We have used her recipe to make delicious loaves of bread, dinner rolls and cinnamon twists. I have transcribed the recipe below, just as she wrote it out on what is now a torn sheet of paper, yellowed with age, with fading ink.

Enjoy!

(This recipe makes enough dough for 2 loaves of bread.)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup warm water

2 teaspoons sugar

2 packages of yeast (1½ TBS)

2 cups of milk (or 1 cup water & 1 cup milk)

3 tablespoons shortening

1 teaspoon salt

6 to 7 cups of flour

2 or 3 eggs

Directions:

Mix 3/4 cup of warm water, sugar and yeast, set it aside and let it stand for 10 minutes. Heat 2 cups of milk and in a large bowl mix in the shortening and gradually add 2 cups of flour until you have a smooth batter and add in the salt. Add the eggs and yeast mixture gradually adding more flour and beat to a smooth batter. Keep adding flour until you have a soft dough that is well mixed and no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl.

Cover and let it rise to double in size. Punch it down and let it rise again. Form into bread loaves, buns, or roll it out for cinnamon rolls. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. You can baste the tops with butter after they come out of the oven.

If you want to make a cinnamon twist, flatten out part of the dough into a oblong about 15" x 6" x 1/2" to 3/4" thick. Cut into 3 strips lengthwise from one end almost to the other end. Leave about one inch at what will become the top of the braid. Liberally cover with cinnamon sugar and start braiding, adding pecans and raisins into each fold. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. You can baste the twist with butter, or a sugar glaze, when it comes out of the oven.