from Kris B.

Classic White Sandwich Bread

I don’t know if we have ever stated this in plain English before, but most of the baking and recipes that we share here are things that we are making to feed our families; we aren’t making them just to have something to post.  Neither of us has extra time or money to spend on making things just because.  And, who wants to make and waste food that won’t be eaten?  Because of this, you see our favorite ingredients show up often (oatmeal and peanut butter for me).  And, sometimes the recipes are simple basic staples of life.  This week, it is basic breads…no peanut butter in the recipe, but the bread is delicious toasted and topped with a little PB!

The other thing about baking for real life is that sometimes our timing is off.  I knew that I needed to make bread for this week’s post.  The little detail that I forgot was that I also needed to make bread for our morning toast.  I remembered that late in the day.  By the time the bread was done, it was dark.  Hence, the photo is dark because, well, it had to be photographed before we could eat it the next morning.  So, despite the darkness of this photo, it really is white bread!

This is a basic, easy to make, flexible, all-purpose white bread.  It makes great sandwiches and toasts well.  It’s ingredients are simple:

•  lukewarm water
• honey
•  instant yeast
• salt
• butter
• King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• Baker’s Special Dry Milk or 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk granules

I did not have the Baker’s Special Dry Milk on hand so used regular non-fat dry milk.

The ingredients are all added to the mixer bowl in the order listed.  No need to get more than one bowl dirty.  That’s another reason that this is my kind of recipe! 🙂  The dough is mixed and then can be kneaded, either by hand or using a mixer with a dough hook, until it forms a smooth dough.

The first rise is done by placing the dough in a lightly greased bowl covered with plastic wrap.  The recipe calls for the dough to rise 60-90 minutes – until it is puffy, but it may not be doubled.  Because it was chilly when I made mine, it took the full 90 minutes and then some to rise.

The dough is then gently deflated, shaped into a loaf, and placed in a loaf pan for the second rise.  The rise time is again 60-90 minutes.  You are waiting for it to crown the rim of the pan by 1″ – 1 1’2″.

Bake the bread at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Then tent it with aluminum foil and bake for 15-20 minutes.  The recipe says that the bread is done when it has an internal temperature of 195-200 degrees.  I rarely use a thermometer.  I use the tap test.  If, when turned out of the pan, tapping on the bottom of the loaf produces a hollow sound, the bread is most likely done.  Maybe it is the musician in me that makes me want to cook based on sound.  Or, maybe I’m just too lazy to deal with the thermometer.  The jury is still out on that one!

If you are looking for a loaf of bread to impress, this is probably not the one.  But, if you are looking for a consistent everyday bread that holds up and doesn’t disappoint when it comes to your morning toast and lunchtime sandwich, King Arthur Flour’s Classic White Sandwich Bread is a sure bet!

My one wish is that the recipe made two loaves.  I am going to try doubling and see how that works.

from Tracey G.

Walter Sands’ Basic White Bread from King Arthur Flour

I can’t remember when I started making this recipe – it’s one I make often, as it’s super easy and tasty. Makes fabulous toast as well! And garlic toast! (I was in a bind needing garlic bread, so I sliced a loaf of this in thick slices and topped with my garlic-butter mixture and baked, it was perfect!)

I love making homemade bread. When my mom was alive I was baking about 4 loaves a week or so (not this particular recipe though), because she was on a sodium-restricted diet and commercial bread is one of the biggest offenders is dietary sodium! It’s an enormous amount of your daily sodium allowance, I was never aware of that until I had to be. So, in order for her to pack her sandwich lunch to take to dialysis, I started making bread.

After she passed away, I got out of the habit for awhile, and when Kris and I started investigating King Arthur Flour recipes, it renewed my interest! It was probably a couple years ago when I discovered this particular recipe, and it’s the only one I’ve used since.

The ingredients are simple:

• warm water
• sugar or honey
• active dry yeast; or instant yeast or active dry yeast
• Baker’s Special Dry Milk
• soft butter, or vegetable oil
• King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• salt

I usually have the Baker’s Special Dry Milk around, as I started buying it just for this recipe, I imagine you could use regular powdered milk! I also use regular granulated sugar instead of honey – I may have to try it with the honey one of these days! They also give you the information to turn it into a cinnamon-raisin bread if you so choose!

It’s a very simple dough to make, you start with the warm water and dissolve the sweetener of choice in the water, then add the yeast. Once it’s bubbling, you add in part of the flour, powdered milk and salt and mix for a bit.

Then, add in the rest of the flour, reserving the last 1/2 cup to be kneaded in as needed. Place dough in a greased bowl, turn to coat and let rise 1-2 hours or until doubled. After deflating the dough, divide in half, form into loaves and place in greased 8.5×4.5 loaf pans and let rise, covered with greased plastic wrap, until dough is about 1″ above edge of pan. After the dough’s been rising about 20 min, preheat oven to 350F. When they’ve risen where they need to be, bake about 35-40 min or until they are nicely browned. When they come out of the oven, tip the bread out of their pans and cool completely before slicing on a rack.

I like this recipe because it makes 2 loaves – I can use one right away and wrap the other one for the freezer – it freezes really well!! And it makes great toast! I know we go through it pretty quickly around here, and I think it’s used mostly for toast!

I do know that after the rush of holiday baking, and generally making more complicated recipes for the holidays, it’s nice to make a super simple, down-home kind of thing that you control the ingredients in to feed your family with on a daily basis!!

 

Remember that we are giving away a $50 King Arthur Flour gift card next Friday, January 11.  You may enter one time on each of our posts between now and then by leaving us a comment.  Today let us know what YOUR favorite bread is – it can be anything! Just let us know, it’s always fun to find out what other people love, whether it’s a simple white bread or a fancy brioche! Please note that it may take a little time for your comment to be visible publicly as all comments must be approved before they are posted.  This cuts down on spam…and boy do we get some interesting spam!  Stay tuned for a post where our Tech Guy shares some of our best Spam messages!

Thanks for reading.  Again, Happy 2019!