Bread!

Ages ago I promised my kind and hilarious friend Maureen that I would send her my basic bread recipe, and then I failed to do that. (Not because I'm too lazy to copy and paste, but because it's not actually written down anywhere.)

But THEN she suggested I post it here this week, and I'm thrilled for an excuse to phone in one of these posts, so here we go.

Oh, but first, a little back story.

My dad makes very good basic white sandwich bread. Excellent bread, really - soft and light, but still a little chewy. I swear, you haven't had toast until you've had toast made with this bread. When my siblings and I were in high school (I promise I am not making this up) our friends used to come over and ask for toast at 11pm or whenever, because toast made with my dad's bread is just that good.

He CLAIMS the recipe is from James Beard's bread cookbook, but I have used that recipe as written and I can attest that it does not result in bread like my father's. I determined there must be some x factors involved, so about a year and a half ago I resolved to figure it out. (Dad is eternally generous and would bring a batch of six loaves of bread for our freezer whenever he came down, but I figured it was time for us to become bread-self-sufficient. Self-bread-sufficient. Self-breadficient?)

I had him tell me exactly how he makes the bread. And then I tried doing it like that, and then I tried a bunch of variations, and eventually I devised a method that does not involve kneading by hand (which my dad does, but which I prefer not to do for a variety of reasons) and which is reasonably foolproof.

The original recipe is flour, water, salt, and yeast, which are the basic ingredients for your chewier breads, but softer breads are generally enriched, and this is one of the things that was bugging me about my dad's bread: how could it be so soft and not be enriched? But I eventually figured out that it IS enriched: he adds an extremely generous glop of oil to the bowl that holds the dough, and ends up kneading most of it in. So I made it easier on myself and just add the oil near the beginning now.

Anyway, here's the recipe. I am a little nervous about sharing it because I've only tested it myself, but I think it should work. I weigh the ingredients when I do the recipe, but I am sharing volume measurements here, because I know that is what most people do. If you want the weights, let me know!

Basic White Bread

makes two loaves

for 4"x8" pans:
2-1/2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
6-8 cups flour
2 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp salt

for 5"x9" pans:
3-1/2 cups warm water
4 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
9-11 cups flour
3 Tbsp oil
5 tsp salt

(I know these are not quite the same proportions. It's okay! All measurements are general anyway. Feel free to wing it.)

1. Dump the water into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add yeast and sugar. Stir together and let sit about 5 minutes, until foamy.

2. Add (the low-end amount of) flour, the oil, and the salt. Using dough hook (on "Stir" speed), knead until dough forms a ball on hook and cleans sides of bowl, adding more flour if necessary. Once the dough balls up, it should not be sticky to the touch; if it is, add a little more flour. Err on the side of adding extra flour.

Once dough is smooth and uniform (this will take at least 5 minutes of kneading), transfer to oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap or clean cloth, and let dough rise until doubled, 60-90 minutes. (It might take longer if it's sitting in a cool place.) You'll know it's ready to be punched down when you can stick a fingertip into it and it doesn't bounce back at all.

Deflate the dough and let it rise until doubled again, which should take a little less time this round. Deflate and let it rest for 5 minutes before forming it into loaves. (Make sure you grease the bread pans really well. I use at least a couple teaspoons butter per pan.)

 

There are several methods for forming loaves, and I've been making bread for years and am still not particularly good at it, so I have no advice. But the Internet is your friend if you want tutorials!

Cover loaves in pans and let rise until the loaf is an inch or so above the edge of the pan. (This takes about 45 minutes, in my experience.)

 

Bake loaves at 350F, ~35 minutes for smaller loaves, ~45 minutes for larger ones, or until the loaf sounds hollow when you remove it from the pan and knock on the bottom. Take the loaves out of their pans, put them on a cooling rack, and brush the outsides with melted butter. (I use about 2 tablespoons per loaf - the crust stays much softer if you're generous with the butter here.) Try to wait as long as you can to cut into them, as they will keep baking for a while after they come out.

 

Oh, and ping me if you have any questions!

 

Notes:

I use all-purpose flour and canola oil. Bread flour would be fine, as would other types of oil, I'm sure. I doubt this recipe would work well with whole wheat flour.

Comments

[HereWeGoAJen]

I shall try it and report back!

[brooke]

I'd love the weights, please!! Can't wait to try it.

[Dr. Maureen]

Well it's about time. I already have a batch rising, but I think the two loaves for the bigger pans is too much for my Kitchen Aid. What size mixer do you have?

[Arwen]

Shoot, yes! Maureen, I should've mentioned that.

I have a 6-quart Kitchenaid, which can handle the bigger batch. If you have a smaller mixer, kneading by hand may be necessary.

[Celeste]

I was waiting in a tiny bakery in Chicago once, and asked the baker what she was doing to some freshly baked loaves. She had a mix of cornstarch and water in a thick slurry, and she was brushing it onto the tops of the hot loaves. She said that as the hot bread cools it dries the cornstarch into a shiny glaze that keeps the crust from drying out. Their breads were really beautiful. I'm certain that butter on top tastes delightful, but I thought I'd mention this tip in case you ever wondered where shiny crust comes from.

[Declan]

Once dough is smooth and uniform (this will take at least 5 minutes of kneading...does this mean kneeding with the kitchenaid/dough hook/stir or by hand?

[Arwen]

At least five minutes with the stand mixer! Probably more like ten minutes by hand.

[Catie H]

So excited to try this! Thanks, Arwen!

<3 Catie

[Christy]

I'm on the second rise right now and I was coming to say you must have a bigger Kitchenaid than me! The dough climbed right up the hook. I kneaded by hand, and man, that's a workout! If this bread tastes like your dad's, though, it will be worth it. Can't wait to taste it.

[april]

If I were to split this work into two days, at what step would you suggest I refrigerate? I don't get home until 5pm and I am unlikely to be baking at midnight but really want to try this.