Recipe: Basic soft white bread

This recipe is my personal adaptation of many subtly different recipes I have come across for basic soft white sandwich bread.  It makes one excellent large easy to make 1.5 pound loaf.  Measuring the flour by weight is key, I think, in all baking.  If you don't own a kitchen scale - buy one.  They are not that expensive and will improve all your baking significantly.

Ingredients:
20 oz. unbleached white bread flour
1 Tbs. active dry yeast
1 Tbs. honey
2 Tbs. oil or  2 Tbs. butter, vegetable shortening or lard - melted and cooled a little
1 tsp. salt
1.5 cups milk, scalded and cooled to about 100oF or 1.5 cups warm water and 1/2 cup dry milk.


Tools:
4 quart bowl
2 quart bowl
four sifter
wooden spoon
glass measuring cup for liquids
1 Tbs. measuring spoon
1 tsp. measuring spoon
9x5 bread loaf pan


Method:
Set a large bowl on the kitchen scale and zero the scale.
Add flour to a sifter and sift the four into the bowl until you have 10 oz.
Remove the large bowl and set a smaller bowl on the scale and zero the scale.
Sift 10 oz. of flour into this bowl.

Add all the remaining ingredients except the salt to the larger bowl of flour.
Vigorously beat with a wooden spoon to make a smooth batter (called a "poolish")
Set the bowl aside for 15-30 minutes until the yeast becomes active and starts to expand the batter.
If you get involved in something else - no problem, you can let the poolish ferment for up to 4 hours on the countertop or  24 hours in the refrigerator.

The 2nd 10 oz. of flour, salt and the active "poolish"

Add the salt to the poolish and mix in enough of the flour from the small bowl until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the bowl.  DO NOT ADD ALL THE FLOUR!
You should have about a 1/3 to 1/2 cup of flour remaining in the small bowl.
Sprinkle your clean counter top or other kneading surface with some of the remaining flour.
Dump the rough dough blob onto the flour, scrap the dough off your wooden spoon and sprinkle the top with some more of the remaining flour.  Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you wash your wooden spoon and large mixing bowl.  Rub some flour on your hands and begin kneading the dough - adding very small amounts of flour to the dough and dusting your hands with flour only as needed to keep the dough from sticking a lot.  If the dough seems just too sticky just let it rest for 10 minutes covered with a tea towel - it won't be so sticky after resting.  Knead the dough for about 10 minutes.

Kneading doesn't have to be one long aggressive marathon.  Take short breaks if you don't have lots of arm strength and stamina yet and let the dough and you rest.  There are three things you are trying to accomplish at this stage:
(1) Try not to add all the flour to the dough.  Try to have a few Tbs. of flour left over at the end, but if you don't - no sweat.
(2) knead the dough well for a total of 10 minutes and if that takes a 1/2 hour with rests - that's fine.
(3) ENJOY - this should not be stressful AT ALL.  If it is - you are going at it too frantically. relax.

Kneaded dough and remaining flour

OK - we have all heard that well kneaded bread dough should be springy, elastic, and smooth as a baby's bottom. Yes - but not a dry powdered baby's bottom.  Dough like that has too much flour in it.  It should be more like a baby's bottom with lotion on it - smooth and slightly moist, not bone dry.  While kneading the dough it should be slightly tacky - like a 'sticky note' but not outright sticky.  If with rapid kneading motion the dough pulls off your hand like a 'sticky note' and leaves no residue - that is about right.

Return any remaining flour to its' container, wipe out the bowl and coat the interior with a small amount of oil (about a 1/4 to 1/2 tsp.).  Plop in the dough, swirl it around in the oil, flip the dough over and swirl around again to coat the entire surface with oil.  Set the bowl aside, cover with a towel and let the dough rise until double in size.

dough after the 1st rise

What's double?  Many new bakers over do this step.  Double means double and no more.  To calculate this, plop the kneaded dough into a large 1 quart measuring cup and see how much dough you have.  It will be about a quart for this recipe.  Remove the dough and measure water into a smallish bowl equal to twice the amount of dough.  Find a bowl that is completely filled with that amount of water or make a mental note of how high the water level is in the bowl you want to use.  That full small bowl or noted mark is your guide for "double".  I'll bet the bowl is smaller or the water mark is lower than you had thought "double" was - isn't it?  Also, the time it takes for the dough to double is so variable it is useless as guide and is totally irrelevant. Ingredient temperature, room temperature, humidity, freshness of the yeast, vigorousness of kneading, amount of salt in the dough, - all effect the time it will take for the dough to double.  When recipes say "..... let the dough rise for about xxxx minutes or about an hour....until double in volume",  ignore the time.  

I use a 4 quart stainless steel restaurant utility bowl to mix the dough in and a 2 quart bowl for the 2nd portion of flour and for the 1st rise of the dough.  When the bowl is full my dough is "doubled".  I have a bunch of these stainless steel bowls in a variety of sizes and use them for all my kitchen work.  They are light weight, sanitary, indestructible, and incredibly cheap at restaurant supply stores.

When the dough has doubled in bulk, grease your loaf pan with butter, vegetable shortening, lard or baking spray.  Turn the dough out onto your clean kneading surface, deflate the dough and shape it into a log as long as your loaf pan.

This is another step that concerns a lot of new bread bakers because many, actually most, recipes say to "gently deflate the dough".  Baloney!  The dough must be thoroughly deflated to ensure you don't get large empty bubbles in the loaf.  Squeeze it, mash it, I actually knead it for a few turns - then shape it into a log that fits the pan and put the dough into the pan.  This is not a soufflé that you need to tip-toe around.  You do not have to treat it gently.

Shaped dough in 9x5 greased loaf pan

Cover the pan with a towel and let the dough rise a second time.  When the dough has just reached the top of the pan - preheat your oven to 350oF with the rack in the middle of the oven.  When the oven is heated and the dough has risen to an inch over the top rim of the loaf pan - Bake for 20 minutes and then tent with a piece of foil to prevent over browning and bake an additional 20 minutes.

after 20 minutes - now tent with foil

Remove form the pan immediately and cool the loaf on a wire rack.  You can brush the loaf with softened butter while it is still very warm to get an extra moist soft crust if you like.  The loaf should cool for one hour before slicing.  Stand guard over your creation and be prepared to beat back the voracious barbarians ready to pounce on the warm bread.  Good luck - this never works.

after 40 minutes baking it's done

mmmmmm...........