White Bread

Baking bread has always kind of scared me. Yeasty anything has kind of scared me. I got this great little recipe from my friend Trudy. I have been making it quite a bit lately. It is easy and so yummy. It took quite a bit of the scariness out of bread-making.

Yummy White Bread

2 c. hot water
1/2 c. sugar or water
2/3 c. milk
1/4 c. butter- melted
3 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. dry yeast
7-8 c. flour

Combine hot water, sugar/honey, butter, milk, and salt in a large bowl. I use my Kitchen Aid for this recipe. Sprinkle in yeast, stir until wet and then let rise, about 20 mintues. It will look like a puffy sponge when is raises.


Put in 4 cups of flour and mix thoroughly- it will be wet. Add the rest of the flour one cup at a time until the dough reaches a nice elastic consistency. Knead or machine mix(with a dough hook) for about 10 minutes. Place in a large greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let raise until double, about 45 min. I have had a terrible time getting things to raise, but I finally figured out a great trick. Turn on your oven light when you start preparing the dough. It makes the oven a perfect temperature for raising dough.


After dough has doubled in size, punch it down (I think this is so fun), knead lightly and let raise again until double. (45 minutes). Punch down then dump onto a floured surface and knead. Divide into 4 equal portions and form into loaves. Place in greased loaf pans. Place back in oven and cover with a towel. Let raise until double in size (45 minutes). When dough has doubled, take bread out of the oven (very important!) and heat oven to 350 degrees. When oven in preheated bake bread for 20-30 minutes until brown. When bread is done, remove from pan and let cool on a rack. Be sure to eat some of it hot with butter. So, so yummy!