my favorite white bread... for now.

aaahhhh, can i tell you how much i love the smell of bread baking? it's one of the most comforting smells in the world. and today i thought i'd share my love of bread. as my mother always told me... making bread is done by feel more than by a recipe. so this is my attempt to let you know how i make bread. this is one of my favorite ways to make bread because it's simple and i almost always have all the ingredients. and to be honest i add and subtract ingredients all the time. it all depends on what i have on hand, how i want the bread to taste, and how long i want the bread to last. today i did a simple white bread. so here we go...


2 cups of warm water (the hottest your tap water will get usually works great)
1/2 cup sugar (i like mine sweet, but you can go more or less depending on your desires)
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 T yeast (i buy my yeast in the vacuum packed package, if you buy the packets it's 2 packets)
flour (as much as you need, i honestly don't measure)
1 - 2 t salt (once again, depends on what you like)
vegetable oil


so i put the water, sugar, butter and yeast all in a bowl and let it sit until the yeast develops (till it gets all foamy) then add salt and enough flour to make a loose sticky dough. put a handful of flour on your clean counter top, then pour the loose dough out onto the flour and begin kneading. add flour as needed until you get desired consistency (if the dough sticks to the counter, add a little more flour. if it gets stiff and won't fold into itself anymore... you've added too much flour. so it's a happy medium. heavy, but not stiff. sticky, but not so sticky you can't work with it. it truly takes practice to understand the consistency. i'm still working on it.) (btw you can always try using a bread maker... i prefer kneading by hand because you can feel the consistency rather than trying to guess if it's right.) once desired consistency is met, pour a little oil in your original bowl and place dough on top. then flip the dough. make sure dough is coated on all sides. this prevents the dough from drying out while rising. cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel. let dough rise until doubled in size. depending on the room temperature, this could take 30 min to 2 hours. (sometimes i let the dough rise longer, depending on if my kids need to be feed or bathed or chased down... you know the usual chaos that is motherhood.) then the aroma begins to develop in the house... i love this. once the dough has reached the desired size, dump it out on the clean counter top, separate dough into 2 equal pieces. then flatten  each into a large rectangular shape. fold into thirds and then again into thirds in the opposite direction. then place into 2 greased loaf pans. place clean kitchen towel over both pans and let dough rise until double in size. place in 400F oven for about 20 min. remove bread from pans and place on rack in oven for additional 10 min with the oven off. and wha la, your house if filled with the most comforting smell on earth. and the best part is you get to eat it! just try not to eat a whole loaf in one sitting. then again that's why i make two, so my husband doesn't know ;)