White Bread

Unless you’re making it in large quantities with bulk ingredients in a bread maker, baking your own bread doesn’t save you much in the way of time or money. But it does smell really good, taste wonderful and make great toast. My friend Katy has a blog about her adventures living in Australia, ihatetoast.blogspot.com, but I have to disagree with her on the toast front. Toast may the highest calling for bread (running neck in neck with chocolate bread pudding).

I baked Deborah Madison’s Classic White Sandwich Bread. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is wonderful for its vegetable recipes, but I’m more on the fence with Madison’s baking recipes. The bread turned out pretty well, but the dough was much too wet with the 7 cups of flour she calls for, which meant lots of mess trying to knead in more flour, and I’m not sure the bread is as light as it should be because of the extra flour.

Update: Caroline at the Bake Shop has a tip for adding dough enhancer to bread to increase its lightness. Something to try for next time.

Classic Sandwich Bread

from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Ingredients

1 envelope active dry yeast

1/2 t. sugar

1 c. warm milk

1 T. honey

1/4 c. vegetable oil

2 1/2 t. salt

2 c. all-purpose flour

3 to 4 c. bread flour (I ended up using at least another 1 1/2 c. of flour)

Egg glaze (1 egg beaten with 1 T. milk)

 

Method

In a small bowl, stir 1/2 c. warm water and the yeast together, add the sugar and set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes. In a larger bowl, combine the milk, 1 c. warm water, the honey, oil, and salt, then stir in the proofed yeast. Using a wooden spoon or the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, work in the flour a cup at a time until you have a shaggy, heavy dough that leaves the sides of the bowl. Turn it out onto a lightly floured counter and gradually knead in the remaining flour until the dough is smooth and resilient, about 5 minutes (I used much more flour and a longer kneading time). Put it in a deep oiled bowl, turning it so that the top is oiled too. Cover with a damp towel and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, an hour or longer (if your house is cold, turn the oven on to “warm” (200° F) for 10 minutes, turn it off, then stick the bread in the oven so it has a warm place to rise).

Deflate the dough by pressing down on it, then divide it into two equal pieces, shape into balls, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, oil two bread pans. Flatten the dough into two rectangles the length of the pan. Roll it up tightly, pinch the seams together to seal the ends, and place in the pans, seam side down. Cover again and let rise until the dough is just above the edge of the pa, 35 minutes. Preheat the over to 375° F. Brush the top of the dough with egg glaze and bake until browned and pulling away from the sides, 40 to 45 minutes. If the tops get too dark, cover loosely with foil. Turn the bread out, tap the bottom to make sure it has a hollow sound, not a thud, then set on a rack to cool.

Makes two loaves.

Note: you can replace the all-purpose flour with a specialty flour (soy, quinoa, spelt or other high-protein or high-fiber flour). These flours lack gluten, which interacts with the yeast to make the bread rise, so the bread won’t be as high.