Basic White Bread- A Tutorial

One Dough Many Uses

Basic White Bread

One Dough Many Uses

White bread, it’s a simple thing, found everywhere from convenience stores, gas stations, drug stores and Organic food markets. A staple like milk and eggs, found everywhere there is just a little bit of food to sell.

Growing up, we really didn’t have “Store bought” bread. My mom baked bread,(and cinnamon rolls) often. She made big batches of bread, (there were 6 of us kids) My recipe is an adaptation of her white bread recipe. At one point we did a lot of sour dough on the farm, so she also made a hybrid sour dough, with added yeast white bread. If you want to know what the memory of the farm consists of, it would be this hybrid loaf, with the top being buttered after baking to keep it soft… ( or Beans on Bread or Beans in a Bowl, and maybe Fudge Ribbon Cake for breakfast… but that’s another story)

I really didn’t start baking bread until I was married and had started my own family. Why would I? My Mom and Dad were both expert bread bakers…… But I did know how it was supposed to look and feel, and that, is half the battle. One of the hardest things for the newbie bread baker, is yeast. Trying not to kill it, too hot of water and you are done for. Too cold, and the bread just won’t rise… Also, those tiny packets, They are less than a Tablespoon, and so the expense in making bread goes up if you are trying to use these little packets because you think they will “Keep until you need them”.

Confession, I have utterly failed with these little packets of yeast, they just don’t work for me. I have tried to like their promise of convenience, and less waste, but it doesn’t work for me. If you have a favorite yeast, and it works for you, awesome, let me know what it is in comments. We are all different, and have different techniques, and we can learn from each other.

The yeast I like to use is SAF, instant Yeast, in the Red Label. (they have a Yellow labeled one for true French type breads, less sugar, etc.) I have always used the Red label SAF, even for sour yeasted breads and pizza dough, so I stick with it.

You can buy SAF, at Restaurant supply stores, and on line at places like Amazon. A 1 pound bag costs about ten dollars, so if you are planning on making 5 batches of bread or more, in a year, it is cheaper than those little packages…. I have had these bags of yest stay for a couple of years unopened in a cool dark place. Once opened, they last about a year. I do not freeze or refrigerate them. They are in my cupboard in a glass jar or bag.

There is another reason I like Saf, besides being an excellent yeast, it is smaller in its size as opposed to Red Star, or other varieties. This makes it much easier to use when you use the process I use to make bread. A Sponge, to start. I skip the step of adding the yeast to warm water directly, and instead add the yeast to dry ingredients in the bowl, and then add warm water, and stir. We let this set for 10 minutes, and then proceed with bread making.

This process really helps buffer the yeast from the “too hot, too cold” delema, because we are going to use warm water, (4 cups) to start with, and this insures the yeast has a nice cozy place to perk.

Now let’s talk about white flour. If you make bread a lot, you can buy bread flour, it has more gluten, and helps the bounce and texture of the finished bread. If you only buy one flour type, I recommend an unbleached all-purpose flour, I buy organic these days. They tend to bridge the gap between cookies, biscuits and white bread pretty well. When I owned a bakery, I used an artisanal bread flour for bread.

I used an all-purpose flour for cookies. (yes, it was bleached. PRO Tip-if you are making giant batches of cookie dough, the bleached flour helps the dough not turn in color after setting for a while…. whether in the freezer or fridge.)

Again, I will say, use what you have. If you bought a bag of flour at Costco, it is just fine. We tend to like our white bread soft here in the US. So it makes a nice loaf, or cinnamon rolls, or dinners rolls. If you wanted a true crispy French bread or Farmers loaf, look for a different flour to get this result. A bag of Costco flour is a good place to start, to get a baseline of bread baking.

This recipe contains shortening for the fat portion of this recipe. You can use Organic shortening, or any oil or fat you like here. I just find that shortening, in this instance, makes the best bread, that will keep and stay soft. Other fats tend to produce a drier, crumbly grain of bread if it sits for a day or two. I use butter for cinnamon rolls, (with lots of eggs, sugar and milk) I use oil for other breads.

This makes a large batch of bread, (4 loaves) you can half this recipe to make two loaves.

I tend to make large batches of bread, and store it in the freezer. This way I only bake once or twice a month. This is especially helpful in the summer when it is hot, and I don’t want to further heat up the house.

My basic bake of this dough would be-

2- one pound loaves (19 oz scale)

2 – French Bread loaf (19 oz scale)

6- Hoagies (5 oz scale each) or as many as I have dough for.

(Or if I have enough1 -baguette)

I would bake the loaf bread first, and move on to the rest after.

Basic White Bread

3 cups Bread Flour

1/4 cup Sugar

2 TLB Yeast

Wisk together in bowl, Add:

4 cups Warm Water

Let this set for 10 minutes. (this is called a sponge) Add:

2 ½ tsp Salt

3 TLB shortening

7 to 8 cups bread four

Knead till smooth and a Med firm dough form. (In stand mixer 8 minutes, or by hand, will take longer) Placed in oiled bowl, let rise till double, punch down.

*Let rise again . (This double rise helps build the flavor and complexity of the dough.) Punch down again.

Now it is time to scale the dough.

For 1 LB loaves, scale dough at 19 oz.

(should make 4) form into loaves, place into greased pans, (or on parchment lined pans depending on the type of loaf you would like)

Cover, I prefer food grade bucket bags. Let rise until double. Bake at 375* for Approximately 30 minutes.

Baguettes, Hoagies and Hard Rolls

These are the same dough, just scaled, shaped and baked at different times. Rolls and hoagies will take less time than French loaves and loaf breads.

Baguettes 12 oz

Hoagies 5 oz

Hard Roll 2 ½ oz

French Bread 19 oz

Mix Ins

Fresh Rosemary and Grated Parmesan kneaded into the dough after the first raise make excellent rolls.

Cinnamon Bread-Butter, cinnamon and sugar, for 1 LB loaves, Pat out and roll up Like a cinnamon roll, tucking edges under, before putting in greased pans.

You can find my conversation on pan size and scaling here in Bird Seed Bread.

Well, that was a lot of information for basic white bread… I hope you found it helpful. Peanut Butter sandwiches with Apricot Pineapple Jam are a favorite in my family, along with Bread Pudding, (although Cinnamon Rolls are really good here too) homemade croutons for stuffing, and homemade bread crumbs for Chicken Fried Steak or Chicken Parmesan…

However warm bread, just out of the oven, with some good butter…

is still the favorite around here…

Happy Baking….