The Great Bread Experiment: White Bread #1

For those of you who read my main blog, Time to be Mom, you might have seen the post about my son's severe tree nut allergy and how dangerous we are realizing that it is; particularly when it comes to baked goods. There are even brands of sandwich bread that we can't use because it is processed on equipment that has been used for products containing tree nuts.

Hence "The Great Bread Experiment".

Like so many moms out there, I am trying to balance health, time and four Very different sets of taste buds. My plan is simple, although it is going to take awhile to fully meet out. I am going to go cookbook by cookbook and Pinterest pin by Pinterest pin to find the bread recipes we like the best. I would like to find a good French/Italian bread, a sub/hoagie roll, a good Cuban loaf and a basic sandwich bread (we like wheat). Between these, I can make pretty much any dish. Right now, my primary goal is the sandwich bread so I can use it for J's lunches.

Since I am new to bread making, I figured I would start with the most basic just to see if I could make a loaf without noticeably blowing it. We did a similar experiment with Banana Bread last year and the one we liked the best was a recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Given that success, I decided to start there this time. It was also helpful that there are pictures and tips on how to do things like kneading that I had not done before. I have the eleventh edition of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.

The Bread:

Better Homes and Gardens White Bread
Prep: 30 minutes  Rise: 1 1/2 hours  Bake: 40 minutes  Oven: 375  Makes: 2 loaves
Ingredients:
5 3/4 to 6 1/4 cups all purpose four
1 package dry active yeast
2 1/4 cups milk or buttermilk (I used whole milk)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon butter, margarine or shortening (I used butter)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups of the flour and yeast; set aside. In a medium saucepan heat and stir milk, sugar, butter and salt until just warm and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture to dry mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes.Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.
2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6-8 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of the dough. Cover; let rise in a warm place till double in size (45-60 minutes).
3. Punch dough down. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease two 8x4x2in loaf pans (the only ones I could find were 9x5x2.5 so my loaves were wider and flatter).
4. Shape each portion of dough into a loaf bt patting or rolling. To shape dough by patting, gently pat and pinch each portion into a loaf shape, tucking edges beneath. To shape dough by rolling, on a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a 12x8in rectangle. Roll dough up, jelly-roll style, starting from a short side. Seal with fingertips as you roll.
5. Place shaped dough in the prepared loaf pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place till nearly double in size (30-40 minutes).
6. Bake in a 375 oven about 40 minutes or till bread sounds hollow when you tap the top with your fingers (if necessary, cover loosely with foil the last 10 minutes of baking to prevent over browning). Immediately remove bread from pans. Cool on wire racks.

The Result:

The prep itself was easy enough. Even the kneading wasn't difficult, although I didn't get anywhere close to the whole amount of flour into the dough. However, during baking, I opened the oven door with 10 minutes left to cover the loaves with foil to discover that the loaves were fully done (and a bit over browned) at 30 minutes! It's a good thing I had planned to do the foil! Not sure if this was because of my oven or that I used glass loaf pans but now I know...

The Review:

The flavor was approved by everyone (even J) except for my daughter who simply refused to try it but then, she's not quite 2 and she does that. We liked it best toasted or warmed with butter & honey or jelly and for ham and cheese sandwiches. We did not like it as much for PB&J. I thought it would do well for garlic toast and perhaps grilled cheese sandwiches, but we didn't get around to trying that.

It was much denser than supermarket sandwich breads and almost had a sourdough taste to it. It did taste a bit floury to me, so I might try it again with a little less flour and a little bit of sugar.

One note:
Without the preservatives used by companies, this bread will spoil faster than supermarket bread! We made it through the first loaf with time to spare, but I would highly advise wrapping and freezing the second loaf until you are ready to use it.

If you would like to try this recipe as well, please do and tell us what you think.
Happy Baking!
Robin