Katie Hatfield Knight

As you may have noticed I’m fixated with bread baking right now. Often, I cycle through many hobbies but this one is sticking around so I’m enjoying the wave. I had to say goodbye to by sourdough starter after a small miscalculation that led to A LOT of starter and an upcoming trip that would have meant me taking her on a plane or hiring a bread babysitter. It just made the most sense to start again fresh once we got back! I decided to return to an old bread recipe that I had previously found success with to fill in the gaps (or maybe in addition to in the future) of my sourdough obsession.

While you will find lots of easy white bread recipes online – this one truly is EASY. I did a quick read of a few of them and noticed that the times and the ingredients actually didn’t sound to easy, so I went with what I knew and I’m going to share it with you!

This recipe is originally from All Recipes and “Peg”, so Peg if you’re out there somewhere THANK YOU!

• Prep 20 min
• Cook: 30 – 40 minutes
• Additonal – 1 hour and 30 minutes
• Total: 2 hours 45 minutes
• Servings : 24
• Yield: 2 9 x 5 – inch loaves

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dry yeast – I used two of the packets and it worked fine
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 6 cups of bread flour

Directions:

1. Dissolve sugar in the warm water. Add the yeast and stir it in. Let it proof for 5-10 minutes or until it becomes bubbly/frothy. It was closer to 10 for me.
2. Mix in the oil and salt. Add flour one cup at a time. Knead the dough on a lightly floured service. Place in a well-oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with DAMP CLOTH. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes and divide in half. Shape into loaves (I used the heads down shoulders in approach) and place into two well-oiled 9×5 inch loaf pans. Allow t rise until the dough has topped the pans by 1 inch, about 30 minutes
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
5. Bake the risen loaves in the preheated oven until golden brown for 30 minutes. I ended up letting it go a few minutes longer.

And that’s it folks. This is not only delicious but simple. I think I’ll try to make some croutons with this as well and see how it goes! I’ll keep you updated, and as always comment below and let me know what you think!