Delicious fresh homemade bread in one to two hours! A very versatile white bread, great for sandwiches.
I am kind of new to baking bread, and I have been searching for that perfect, easy recipe to make basic white bread. Bread for toast, with or without jam. Bread for sandwiches, toasted, grilled or otherwise. Bread for french toast. Bread for just eating bread. I think you get the idea. 😉
I have tries several different recipes. Most are great, when they turn out. The taste is always good, but I struggle getting bread to rise properly, so I am always trying tricks to get it to rise.
I use my stand mixer with the dough hook to mix everything and to shorten the amount of hand kneading, but you could mix it all by hand, and knead it longer. I will only knead it 50 times, just a couple of minutes.
What makes the recipe so ideal for me is that it only rises once. You mix everything, knead it briefly, shape your loaves and let it rise in the pans. Then bake! That easy. Quick too. I can make fresh bread in under two hours, maybe a hour in summer weather, we shall see. 🙂
For all the other recipes I have tried, I guess my kitchen is too cool, so I always have trouble doing the rise. The first rise goes ok, maybe 20 minutes longer than the recipe will call for, but that’s no biggie. Then when I punch it down, knead it, shape it, etc… it won’t rise. I mean it will eventually, but takes hours… like three hours. That is way to long for me, that’ll mean 4-5 hours to make bread, ridiculous!
So this recipe is great for me, it does take longer to rise for me, but only 20-30 minutes more so it is still quick and easy!
Also, just a tip, once you remove the loaves from the oven, try to remove them from the pans as soon as possible. Use an oven mitt if needed, and place the loaves on a cooling rack till cool. This prevents the bread from sweating in the pans. Yuck! You don’t want that.
So if you don’t like the constant kneading, and waiting for multiple rises, check this recipe out.
Let me know how it works for you, and happy baking!
*Don’t forget to click the Yum button! 😀
This is a very easy and quick homemade white bread recipe. Give it a try, I think you'll have a new favorite bread recipe!
Ingredients
- 5 1/4 cups white bread flour
- 4 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. instant yeast (two 1/4 ounce packages)
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. oil
- 2 cups warm water (somewhere between 100 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit, straight from the tap)
Instructions
- Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Mix for 1 minute and then check the consistency of the dough. The dough should be very sticky. It'll look too wet, compared to other bread recipes. If it is too dry, add more water, one tablespoon at a time.
- Mix for 5 minutes.
- Lightly oil kneading surface with cooking spray and turn dough out onto surface. Do not use flour, so you avoid adding any more flour to the dough. Knead dough briefly until it has a smooth even consistency (this will only take several turns of the dough to accomplish).
- Divide dough into 2 pieces and shape loaves and place in greased pans ( 9x5 pans ). Cover with a large dish towel and let rise for 25 minutes, or until dough is one inch above the pan.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bake loaves for 25 minutes, or until they are golden brown.
- Let loaves cool just long enough so you can remove them from the pans, use a oven mitt if needed. Let loaves finish cooling on a cooling rack.
Notes
In a warm kitchen, this will rise quickly. If your area is cooler like mine, just let it rise longer. You want the dough about one inch above the pan. Shouldn't take more than a hour to accomplish this.
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