Cooking Tuesday - White bread

One of our favorite things if fresh homemade bread.  We usually finish off more than a loaf when it's hot from the oven. Spread butter on it and oh, my it's delicious.

I usually use the same recipe all the time.  If you want to make this recipe healthier, just use whole wheat for half of the flour.  I like this recipe because the yeast goes directly in with the flour.

First take 2 1/2 cups of flour and add 2 T of yeast.  I usually make two recipes so thankfully I have two red bowls.  You can double the recipe, but I like how the bread comes out when I do them separately.

 Add 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt to the flour

 Now take 2 cups of milk and add 1 tablespoon of margarine to it.  I put it in the microwave for 2 minutes, but you'll have to see how your microwave works.  The way I test the "water" is to put a clean finger in the milk and if it's too warm for me then it's too warm for the yeast.  But if it's comfortably warm, then it's ready to use.  You can also use a thermometer and it should be between 110 and 125.



Next use a whisk and mix the yeast, sugar, and salt into the flour.

 Now pull the milk out of the microwave.  This is how it will look - the margarine melting but not yet melted.  If it was in your microwave too long, it doesn't matter just give it time to cool down.

Use that whisk and thoroughly mix the milk into the flour mixture. 

 Add 2 1/2 cups of flour and stir it with a wooden spoon till it looks like the pic below.

When it looks like this, your hands need to get involved and start kneading.  If it starts sticking, add more flour to your hands.

Knead it till it looks like this.  Then it's time to let it raise for an hour.  When it's done raising, punch it with your fist. 

Divide the dough in half and then knead each half into a loaf shape, and put it into a greased loaf pan.

Let it raise for a half hour and turn the oven on to 350 degrees.  Put it into the oven and about a half hour later.  Yum!

Making the most of today
Steph