Sweet Soft "Avanti's" Style Bread!

I was born and raised in the community of Normal, Illinois! It was a GREAT place to grow up, not too big not too small, 2.5 hours to Chicago and home of Avanti's Restaurant!! If you grew up in Central Illinois you for SURE know about Avanti's and their famous bread. :-) I live on the West Coast now but still have a yearning for that sweet soft bread, this recipe is dead on and will fool even the most diehard Avanti's bread fan.  Its a lot of work but very worth it.

This recipe yields 6 loaves, I typically get 9 out of it but as you can see my loaves are a tad smaller.

Ingredients:

2 pkg. Active Dry Yeast

3 cups water

3 Tbsp. oil

3 Eggs

1 tsp. salt

1 1/4 C. sugar (its sweet)

10-11 cups ***gulp*** flour! Thats a lot of flour

Directions:

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water; add remaining ingredients& knead for approximately 10 minutes, or until dough is smooth& elastic.
2. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to bring greased side up.
3. Cover with a cloth& let rise in a warm, draft-free spot until dough has doubled in bulk (1 1/2 to 2 hours).
4. After first rising, punch dough down in bowl& turn over; let rise again until double (30-45 minutes).
5. Cut dough into 5 to 6 portions, each about the size of a grapefruit.
6. Let rise, covered for 10 minutes.
7. Flatten dough, pressing out all the air, and form into long loaves, about 12" long.
8. Place loaves on greased& floured cookie sheets; cover& let rise again (50-60 minutes).
9. Preheat oven to 350F.
10. Bake loaves for 20-25 minutes, until tops are golden brown& loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.