Bread Recipes
Here you will find the bread recipes my family and I enjoy.
Note: all purpose flour can be used in place of bread flour, but you may not get as nice of a rise or texture.
White Bread
6-7 cups unbleached bread flour
3 Tablespoons of sugar (or Rapadura)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons of melted butter
4.5 tsp regular yeast
2 1/4 c. very warm water (hot to the touch - about 120-130 degrees)
Extra butter to coat loaves with when they come out of the oven.
Combine water, yeast and sugar and let the yeast proof for a bit. I let mine sit about 5-10 minutes.
Add 3.5 cups of flour, the butter, and salt to the yeast/water/sugar mix. Beat with a hand mixer (or mix by hand) on low for 1 minute then medium for 1 minute. Add flour, about 1 cup at a time, while mixing until dough forms a ball. Knead, by hand or with machine, until a smooth, elastic-y ball forms
Grease a big bowl and roll your dough in it on all sides. Cover with a hand towel or a piece of plastic wrap (loose!) and stick in a warm place to rise until double - about 40-60 minutes. Once double, punch dough down, turn out on a slightly floured surface and shape into loaves. Grease two bread pans and stick each shaped loaf in them. Cover with the same plastic or towel you used before and let rise until double again which is about another 35-50 minutes.
Heat your own to 425 degrees (pull your loaves out of the oven about 10 minutes before you need to heat the oven, if you're using your own to let dough rise). Place pans on the bottom rack of the oven so that the top of the pan is in the middle of the oven. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 5 minutes.
Remove from oven, rub a butter stick over the top of the bread and turn out into wire racks to cool.
White Bread #2
5.5-6.25 c unbleached bread flour
2.25 tsp. yeast
2.25c milk
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp butter (not melted)
2 tsp salt
Combine flour and yeast in a big mixing bowl. In a saucepan, heat milk, sugar butter and salt until just warm - 115-120 degrees), stirring constantly until butter almost melts. Add to dry mixture. Mix until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form dough, knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Grease a bowl, grease all sides of the dough, cover and let rise for double - about 1 hr 15 minutes. Punch down, shape into loaves, place into greased pan, grease loaves and let rise until double again - about 45-60 minutes.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes.
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 c honey
1/4 c melted butter
1 tablespoon salt
4.5 tsp regular yeast
2 1/4 c water (about 120-130 degrees F)
3-4 cups of unbleached bread flour
Butter to brush loaves with once cooked.
Combine water, honey and yeast and let proof. Add about 2 cups of bread flour, salt, butter and mix until smooth. Add whole wheat flour and mix until well blended. Add remaining flour, 1/2c at a time, until dough forms. Knead about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Coat a big bowl with butter, slide the dough ball around in the bowl to coat all sides of the dough, put plastic wrap or a towel over and let it rise 40-60 minutes or until doubled. Punch down and shape into loaves, grease bread pans and place loaves in each pan. Grease all sides of the dough again. Cover and let rise 25-50 minutes or until double.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 40-45 minutes.
Whole Wheat Bread
3-3.25 cups of unbleached bread flour
2.25 tsp. yeast
1.75c warm water
1/3c brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. salt
Combine water, sugar and yeast. Let proof. Mix 2 c bread flour, salt and butter until smooth. Add whole wheat flour, then continue adding the remaining bread flour until dough forms. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place in a greased pan and grease all sides of the dough. Let it rise 1.5 hours or until double. Punch down, form into loaves, place into greased bread pans, cover and let rise another 1.25 hours or until double. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes.