Best Bread Ever!

This recipe is for just a basic white bread. You can do so many things to it to make it your own! Use whole wheat flour and whole grains for a rich fiberous bread or ad cinnomin and sugar for a coffee/dessert bread! Here is the recipe!

Ingredients:

2 packages active dry yeast (1 yeast package = 2 1/4 tsp loose yeast)

1/2 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)

1 3/4 cups lukewarm water, milk or potato water 

7-7 1/2 cups flour

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

2 tbsp soft shortening

Directions:

  In a bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. add the remaining water,milk or potato water (whichever you choose to use), sugar, salt, shortening and 4 cups flour. beat until smooth and batter no longer sticks to the side of the bowl. Place dough onto a floured surface and knead remaining flour into the dough until smooth and elastic. move to a greased bowl and cover with a wet hot towel. Let rise in a warm place (around 85 degrees) until doubled in size. this takes about 1-2 hours.

Punch down, cover and let rise again until almost double. About 45 minutes. Remove from bowl onto a floured surface. 

For Loaves: Divide the dough into two equal parts. shape the loaves by rolling out into a rectangle. Fold the dough the "Hambuger" way and then the "Hot dog" way. Inother words, fold from the sides and then from the bottom to the top. (or top to bottom... This is your bread so do it how you want! lol )  Pinch the ends to seal the loaves. Place in greased bread pans and let rise in a warm place until the sides reach the top of the pan and the center is well rounded. About an hour. place loaves in the preheated oven on the center rack without the sides touching. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a depp golden color. To test the loaves for doneness, tap the crust and listen for a hollow sound. When you hear the hollow sound, remove the bread from t he oven and take out of the pans immediately. let cool completely on a wire cooling rack or set across the tops of the bread pans. Must cool completely before slicing. 

For French style bread: Shape dough into a long cigar shape by rolling. Place dough onto a greased cookie sheet coated with corn meal. With a sharp knife, score the top of the dough in 3 places along the top of the loaf. Let rise and bake as insrtucted above. You could also divied the dough into 2 equal parts and make baguettes which is great for homemade bruschetta!

For Rolls: Prepare as above but shape dough into rols and place in a muffin tin or in a cake pan. let rise again and bake as above.

*Pictured are my cake pan rolls and a few cloverleaf rolls. (There were more but a lot of them had already been eaten!)