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Basic White Bread Recipe - Michigan Swamp Buck - 10-13-2024
Knowing I had all the ingredients available, I wanted to bake some bread from scratch today. My go-to cookbook is the old Better Homes and Gardens one. I couldn't find that cookbook so I thought I'd jog my memory and look up some basic bread recipes.
I looked at a half dozen recipes, averaged the measure of ingredients, and put together the various directions based on what I remembered from the BH&G Cookbook. The following recipe is what I came up with after baking two loaves just now.
Basic White Flour Bread Recipe
Cooking Implements:
2 bread pans
A large mixing bowl and mixing spoon
A measuring cup
A teaspoon and tablespoon
A rolling pin
A cooking thermometer
A clock, watch, or cooking timer.
A clean surface to work on
An oven large enough to bake two loaves of bread.
Ingredients:
5 cups all-purpose white flour
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
2 cups warm water not over 110°F
2 - 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, vegetable oil or butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Mix the yeast, sugar, and water in the mixing bowl and set aside for about 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes stir in 2 tablespoons oil, and one teaspoon salt. Now slowly add flour to the liquid and mix
thoroughly until the dough stiffens and pulls away from the bowl.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, flatten it into a circular shape with a rolling pin,
and knead for about 5 minutes.
Knead It by folding the far edge of the dough back over on itself
and pushing it down with the palms of your hands. Rotate and repeat.
Clean the mixing bowl and grease it with a few drops of oil or nonstick baking spray.
Knead the dough again for another few minutes, form it into a ball, then return it to the bowl,
making sure to grease the top of the dough ball.
Cover with a damp towel and keep warm until the dough doubles in size (about 1 hour in a room at 80F).
Punch down the dough with your fists and briefly knead out any air bubbles.
Cut the dough in half & shape it into two loaves (cylinder-shaped with ends pinched down).
Place the loaves in two greased bread pans, cover them with a damp towel,
and keep them in a warm place to rise. Once the dough rises just above the top of the pan (this may take 45 minutes at 80F room temperature), begin baking.
Bake at 400F for about 20 minutes until the loaves are golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.
Allow bread to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.
Total time from start to finish: Around 3 hours.
RE: Basic White Bread Recipe - EndtheMadnessNow - 10-13-2024
Wut? Spreading racist bread now are we?
Kidding.
Not my forte but I'm going to pass this on to my mom & sister. I do luv fresh home baked bread!
RE: Basic White Bread Recipe - Michigan Swamp Buck - 10-14-2024
I used to brush the top with melted butter before baking. This would give it a hard glossy crust. My girlfriend would do the same but she used raw egg. I don't know if she used just the whites or both whites and yolks.
I didn't do either this time and the crust is hard and brown. After it cools off and I put it in a Zip Lock bag, it should be nice and soft by tomorrow.
ETA: I just sliced off some slices and buttered it. The crust was hard enough to keep its shape when cutting it on its side. The inside was moist yet so it may have needed a little more baking time, but not much as the crust was starting to get dark. Maybe a lower temperature for a longer baking time. It was a little dense and could have been a little sweeter. I may try doubling or tripling the sugar next time to get the yeast more active and the bread sweeter. This time I waited until the dough had risen about an inch over the bread pan top, next time I will wait until the dough rises to almost its full size before baking.
RE: Basic White Bread Recipe - VioletDove - 10-14-2024
The two times I tried making bread in a loaf pan have both been disasters. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I’ve made bread rolls with gluten free flour and they rise perfectly every time but whenever I try bread flour they don’t rise at all.
I bought flour and yeast today to try it one more time and here is this recipe. Maybe it’s meant to be lol.
RE: Basic White Bread Recipe - Michigan Swamp Buck - 10-14-2024
(10-14-2024, 02:03 AM)VioletDove Wrote: The two times I tried making bread in a loaf pan have both been disasters. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I’ve made bread rolls with gluten free flour and they rise perfectly every time but whenever I try bread flour they don’t rise at all.
I bought flour and yeast today to try it one more time and here is this recipe. Maybe it’s meant to be lol.
There were times when the dough wouldn't rise well for me. It might be old yeast or not enough sugar, but temperature is usually the problem. So, as it seems I do my baking in colder weather, I will get the wood stove going and place the baking pans near the wood stove to rise. It gets at least 90F near the wood stove, so I wrote up 80 degrees room temperature in the recipe to get it to rise within an hour. Yeast won't do well after 110F, but at normal room temperature (around 70F) my bread won't rise much either. So I would put it in the oven on warm, but the oven warms a little too hot and I'd have to leave the oven door ajar and waste energy.
That is the experience part, and it's not that I have done much baking. I've baked white bread maybe a half dozen times. I looked up pretzel recipes and that would be far tougher than loaf bread. My interest in baking is knowing how to get by on my preps. In fact, I am going through the cupboards to rotate my stock and am trying to use stuff that has recently expired or is just plain old (like pasta, rice, and oatmeal). Plus I'm making my own survival/camping cookbook to have in my bug-out bag and caches.
ETA: While I'm talking about prepping and survival, I had just smoked some venison jerky and was eating it while I made the bread. A few pieces had me good until a late dinner. I skipped breakfast, and I had no need to do lunch that day.
RE: Basic White Bread Recipe - VioletDove - 10-14-2024
I didn’t think about it being a little cool in my kitchen. My mom usually boils water while making her bread.
I had a neighbor who would let her dough rise in her car. I couldn’t help but laugh the other day when my daughter made some bread for the first time. She sent me pictures of it in her car. It turned out perfect for her.
Good idea to experiment. I’ve tried a few things with alternative ingredients, to see how it works out a few times. I know most ingredients would be hard to find if things go bad.