A Homemade White Bread Recipe

 
I love to bake bread because it makes me feel so homestead-y. I used to be intimated by the process, but after buying my KitchenAid Mixer, I find it very easy and enjoyable to make all kinds of bread products. You can easily make this recipe without a mixer if you want to. I'm a modern day homesteader who is not against using modern appliances to bake healthier choices for my family .

I have two recipes that I make - one is white bread and the other is a honey wheat bread recipe. I love the honey wheat, but my boys prefer the white. I take turns making them so we're all happy. I am going to share with you the white bread recipe today and the honey wheat at a future date.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of whole milk
3 tbsp. of butter
3 tbsp. of sugar
1.5 cups of warm water (It needs to be pretty warm but not hot enough that it will kill your yeast)
4.5 tsp. of yeast
5-6 cups of all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur All-Purpose flour)
Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes

Instructions:

 
In a sauce pan on the stove add milk, butter, and sugar. Cook on low until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Move pan off burner and let cool to a lukewarm temperature.


 
 
While the milk/butter mixture is cooling, put 1.5 cups of pretty warm water in your KitchenAid Mixer bowl and add 4.5 tsp of yeast to it.
 


Once your stovetop mixture has cooled to a lukewarm consistency, add it to the yeast and water in your mixer.

 
Turn mixer on low speed and start adding in your flour. I add one cup at a time until I reach 5 cups. I then let it mix thoroughly and add that 6th cup of flour a little at a time until the dough starts to form a ball and it's not sticking to the sides anymore.
 
 
 
While your mixer is mixing the dough, which can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes on low, get out a bowl and grease bottom and sides with butter.


Once your dough is ready, it should look like this. Keep adding flour a little at a time if it seems runny or sticky.

 
When your dough is done mixing (you need to use the KitchenAid kneading attachment by the way), take it out of the mixer bowl and transfer it to the greased bowl. Rub the dough all around the greased dish and then flip it over so the whole dough ball is covered in butter. Cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rise for about an hour. I don't really time my rising on my bread but just keep watching until it looks like it has doubled in size.

 
It should look like this within an hour of putting it in the greased bowl.
 

 
Once the dough has risen to twice its size, punch it down. Grab a handful of flour and spread it out on your countertop. Place dough on floured countertop and press it down to form a square shape and divide it in half. 
 


 
Once it's divided in half, grease your bread pans with butter like you did your bowl.
 

Take the two halves and roll them out into long rectangular pieces like this.
 

 
Now start rolling the dough up and forming it into a loaf shape.
 


Transfer loaves to bread pans, cover, and let rise a second time until double in size.
 


Once double in size transfer to the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.
 


There you go! Two loaves of fresh white bread that taste delicious! They say you should wait until your bread cools to cut into it but I cannot resist the warm end piece slathered with butter after it comes out of the oven.

 
Enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions.
 
 

 

 

 
 

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