Cheese Bread

Nancy made this bread in an attempt to recapture the wonderful cheese bread that we used to get, in Maine, from the Cushman's Bakery truck. Each week the Cushman's truck came around to all the camps down on Hall's Point delivering bread, rolls, doughnuts and such. This cheese bread makes wonderful toast.

You could use "real" milk instead of reconstituting the powdered kind.

1. Combine the first 4 ingredients (water, sugar, ginger, and yeast) in a large bowl, cover, let stand until its bubbling nicely.
2. Add the sugar, 3 cups of flour, milk powder, and 3 cups of water and stir the mixture, beating well.
3. Cover and let this sponge stand until it is well risen and bubbly.
4. Add the rest of the water and the shortening, and beat well.
5. Stir in the CheezWiz and 8 cups of flour and mix until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
6. Turn it out onto a floured board, and knead in the remaining 2 cups of flour. Depending on where you are and how humid it is, you might need to add some more flour or you might not get it all in. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic.
7. Return the dough to a covered bowl and let it rise 30 to 60 minutes.
8. Turn the dough out onto the floured board and knead it thoroughly, but don't add too much more flour.
9. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts, form into loaves, and put the loaves into buttered loaf pans (we like glass).
10. Cover the pans (buttered waxed paper and a dish towel) and let the loaves rise until they are just above the pan tops.
11. Uncover the loaves and place them in a cold oven.
12. Bake 20 minutes at 350°.
13. Reduce the heat to 325° and bake another 25 minutes, until the loaves are golden brown.