Susan: Basic White Bread

This bread, which I call Farmhouse White, is a staple in our house and we pretty much always have it around. I've been tweaking the recipe for 7 years and this is the result. It's great for just about any kind of sandwich, and brings peanut butter and jelly (another staple in our house) to a whole new level, especially if you treat yourself to some nice organic peanut butter and jam. It is wonderful toasted, smells heavenly while toasting, and makes the quintessential BLT.

This is the kind of old-fashioned, homey bread that a few people were lucky enough to grow up eating--and everyone else wishes they had. It is wholesome and filling and about as far from Wonder Bread as a basic white sandwich bread can get. I've watched people who claim they never eat white bread gobble this stuff up.

A lot of white sandwich bread recipes call for dry milk powder. Besides never having any around, I don't see the point of it. If you want more flavor, simply replace some or all of the water in the recipe with milk. For years I made this bread with water, and it was perfectly fine. Part of the reason I focused on a water-based recipe was because we'll be selling Farmhouse White when our wholesale bread bakery is up and running, and the cost of using organic milk (which is the only kind I would consider) would be cost prohibitive. But since I recently found a local source for reasonably priced raw, whole milk that should be able to supply enough for our bakery, I've started making all my Farmhouse White with milk.

According to Joe Ortiz in The Village Baker (a wonderful book packed with interesting tips and techniques for bakers of all levels), making your bread with milk will not only give a richer flavor, but also "a deeper color to the crust and a softer body to the crumb." And when used as an additive to French bread, "milk also helps to provide some of the flavor of a lactic fermentation that happens naturally in a sourdough process." In The Breakfast Book, author Marion Cunningham states that milk, along with sugar and butter (or other fat) "give the loaves keeping qualities which help preserve flavor and moistness." Baking bread is a perfect way to use up milk that has gone sour.

This recipe makes three loaves of bread because in my opinion, if you have freezer space or friends, there's no reason to bake only one loaf of bread at a time. Bread freezes beautifully--and you won't believe how much your friends will love you if you present them with a freshly baked loaf.

There are all sorts of things you can do with this dough once you've mastered the basic formula. I'll be posting a separate article offering various tips and ideas in the next day or two.

Susan's Farmhouse White Sandwich Bread
Makes 3 loaves, approximately 1-1/2 pounds each

Ingredient US volume | Metric Volume | US weight | Metric
all-purpose flour 4 cups | 940 ml | 1 lb, 4 ounces | 566 grams
instant yeast 2 Tablespoons | 30 ml | 22 grams
granulated sugar 2 Tablespoons | 30 ml | 28 grams
canola oil 2 Tablespoons | 30 ml | 30 grams
milk or water 4 cups | 940 ml | 2 lbs | 908 grams
bread flour (approximately) 6 cups | 1,410 ml | 1 lb, 13-1/8 ounces | 825 grams
salt 1-1/2 Tablespoons | 22 ml | 3/4 ounce | 22 grams

Mixing and fermentation

Autolyse
Autolyse (pronounced AUTO-lees and used as both a noun and a verb) is a French word that refers to a rest period given to dough during the kneading process. When making your dough, mix together only the water, yeast, flour, and grains until it forms a shaggy mass. Knead it for several minutes, and then cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. (I simply leave the dough on the floured counter and put my wooden bowl over it.) During this time, the gluten will relax and the dough will absorb more water, smoothing itself out so that it is moist and easier to shape. After the autolyse, knead the dough for several more minutes, mixing in any other ingredients such as herbs or nuts or dried fruit.

In a very large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, yeast, and sugar (I use a wooden spoon). Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the canola oil and then the milk. Mix well, then continue to stir vigorously, slowly adding 1 cup of the bread flour at a time, until you've added about 5 cups, or until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough; this should take several minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 6 or 7 minutes, adding more flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface.

Place the mixing bowl over the dough, and let it rest for 20 minutes. This rest period is called the autolyse.

Remove the bowl, flatten out the dough with your hands, and sprinkle about half of the salt over it. Begin kneading the salt into the dough. After a few turns, sprinkle on the rest of the salt and continue to knead for 5 to 7 minutes, until the salt is completely incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth.

Sprinkle flour in the dough bowl, place the dough in it, liberally dust it with flour, and cover it with a damp tea towel (not terry cloth, as it will shed lint on your dough). Set it somewhere that is preferably between 70F and 78F for 60 to 90 minutes. Ideally, the dough should also be between 70F and 78F. It's easy to check the temperature of your dough and ingredients with an inexpensive instant read thermometer.

When the dough is ready to be shaped, you should be able to push a floured finger deep into it and leave an indentation that doesn't spring back.Unless your dough is rising in a straight-sided container, it can be difficult to judge whether it has "doubled in size" which is the guideline most recipes use. I find the finger poking method to be more reliable.

Shaping and final rise (proof)
Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, flattening gently with your hands to break up any large air bubbles. Divide the dough into three equal pieces.

Shape the dough into loaves and dust the tops with flour. There are dozens of ways to do this; more info on shaping loaves will be added soon either in a sidebar or separate post. Place loaves seam side down in greased loaf pans. I like my sandwich breads to be tall, so I use smaller loaf pans. I can't say enough good things about these commercial loaf pans from Chicago Metallic. They measure 8-1/2 inches x 4-1/2 inches and just under 3 inches high. For the price of a few loaves of bread, they're definitely worth the investment. They also make this larger size pan for those of you who prefer a wider, shorter loaf.

Cover the loaves with a damp tea towel and let them rise for 45 to 60 minutes. When you lightly poke the dough with a floured finger it should spring back just a little.

If you let the loaves rise too long, they may not have enough energy left to rise once they're in the oven--and they may even collapse. I was always so afraid this would happen that for years I unknowingly under-proofed my loaves of Farmhouse White. While the bread was

still delicious, you can see that the dough had so much 'oven spring' that it basically blew apart the side of the loaf. I finally started letting the loaves rise a little longer and was rewarded with the more evenly shaped and visually appealing bread that you see in the top two photos.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown and the bottoms sound hollow if tapped. Remove immediately from pans and let cool on a wire rack. Try to wait at least 40 minutes before cutting into a loaf. Store at room temperature or freeze in zipper freezer bags. Make sure loaves are completely cooled before sealing in bags.

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