Homemade White Bread
I have been looking for a good recipe for white bread for a long time. Well, I have finally found it!
Follow the instruction in this post and you will have a lovely loaf of bread within 3 hours! What’s even better is that this bread keeps well for 3 days, and if you have leftovers you can use it for bread pudding or french toast!
Here is the recipe!
Ingredients (makes 1 loaf):
- 1-1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup lukewarm water
- 1-1/2 tsp sugar
- 1-3/4 + 1-3/4 bread flour
- 1-1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp butter (plus a bit extra), room temperature
In a small bowl combine yeast, sugar and 1/4 cup of lukewarm water. Let is stand on your kitchen counter for 5 min or until it becomes foamy.
In a bowl of your electric mixer place 1-3/4 cup of flour, salt and 1 cup of water. Mix at medium speed and add the yeast mixture.
Now add the remaining 1-3/4 cup of flour and mix for about 5 min, or until you get a smooth and soft dough. Add the butter, one tbsp at a time until it is completely incorporated.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead it by hand for about 5 min, or until smooth and elestic. The kneading process – folding and pushing – generates glueten in your dough, which will give you a soft and fluffy bread. To know if you have kneaded you dough enough, do the “window test”. Take a small piece of dough and using your hands, gently push it. The dough should stretch but not break, making sort of see-through windows.
Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl,
cover with plastic wrap and let is rest in a warm place for 45 min or until doubled in size.
Now roll the dough onto a floured surface, then fold it in 3 and tuck the sides inside.
Please the load into a loafpan, cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 45-60 min, or until doubled in size again.
Pre-heat oven to 250 C and bake your bread for 15 min, then bring the temperature down to 180 C and keep baking for 40-45 more minutes.
Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool down on a wire rack. While still hot, brash the top with some butter, this will give it that shiny color.
Once cooled down completely, you can store it into a paper bag. This bread keeps good up to 3 days.
Enjoy!
Love
-LittleDani
