Flower Pot Egg Bread

*Years ago when I made this bread I used to use 1 Tablespoon yeast. Measure water, add 1 tbsp. sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Sprinkle yeast over and let stand 10 minutes. Put scalded, lukewarm milk into large bowl. Add 3 tbsp. sugar, salt, eggs and shortening and beat together. Add half of flour and beat thoroughly with wooden spoon. Add enough of remaining flour to make a fairly stiff dough that is easy to handle. Mix very well with hands. Turn out on floured board and knead until dough is smooth and small bubbles appear under the surface (about 5 minutes). Round up and put in greased bowl. Grease top of dough, cover with a damp cloth and set in a warm place. Let rise until double in bulk (about 1 1/2 hours). Punch down and let rise again until nearly double (about 45 minutes). Punch down again. Shape dough into balls (just as for dinner rolls), making them just large enough to half-fill your chosen flower pots (I used one 7- pot, one 6-inch pot and one 5-inch pot). Put balls in well-greased pots and set in a warm place. Let dough rise until level with the tops of the pots. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Beat egg yolk and cold water together lightly with a fork. Brush over tops of loaves and sprinkle generously with sesame seeds. Bake about 1 hour or until loaves sound hollow when tapped lightly on top. Cover with aluminum foil if loaves start to brown too much on top. Let stand in pots 5 minutes. Loosen carefully and turn out on racks to finish cooling. Note: Bake dough in three 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pans if desired. Recipe by: Margo Olivers Weekend Magazine CookBook Posted to MC-Recipe Digest V1 #907 by Bob & Carole Walberg <walbergr@mb.sympatico.ca> on Nov 13, 1997