Have you ever made homemade white bread? If you are like many people you probably feel that it is no hard to make great tasting bread at home or figure it isn’t worth the time to make Homemade White Bread.  However, it really is one of the easiest things you can make and it tastes better than bread from the store.  Plus because you are making it yourself you can control the ingredients and you know that it isn’t full of preservatives and ingredients that you can’t pronounce.   I love to bake bread because it is super yummy, healthy for my family and super easy!

I started baking bread a few years ago using a bread machine but I find that it is just as easy to use my oven and mix the ingredients in my Kitchenaid Mixer. In addition, because you are using the mixer you don’t need to bother to hand knead, you can just let the mixer do it for you.

 

Now I will admit, even when making homemade white bread there are still ways you can make it even healthier,  such as using whole wheat flour.  In my opinion, though I feel that any home made bread is healthier than store bought so I’m comfortable with serving this bread to my family.

Here is the White Bread Recipe that I use!

White Bread

6 to 7 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour*

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons shortening

2 packages regular or quick active dry yeast (4 1/2 teaspoons)

2 1/4 cups very warm water (120° to 130°F)

2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted, if desired

In large bowl, stir 3 1/2 cups of the flour, the sugar, salt, shortening and yeast until well mixed. Add warm water. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, to make dough easy to handle.  Continue to mix dough using dough hook on mixer until dough becomes springy and doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl.

Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and a kitchen hand towel and let rise in warm place 40 to 60 minutes or until dough has doubled in size. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched. Gently push fist into dough to deflate. Divide dough in half and stretch a few times to shape into a ball with the smooth side up.  Place each half in a lightly greased bread pan and brush with olive oil on top.  Cover with plastic wrap and kitchen towel and let rise in warm place 35 to 50 minutes or until dough has doubled in size.

While waiting for dough to rise, preheat oven to 425°F.  When dough has risen and oven is hot, place both loaves in the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes until loaves are golden brown.  Remove from oven, brush tops with melted butter, and allow to cool slightly.

Slice while warm and enjoy!

*Note: I store my loaves in large ziploc bags to keep them fresh but trust me, we eat them pretty quickly!