White Bread

A little while ago it was my little sister's last night home before she went back to college at the end of her winter break,  so I decided I would make the trek out to my parents' house to say goodbye to her. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised with the news that my parents were getting a new Bosch mixer and I was going to be the inheritor of their old one. Immediately all these wonderful thoughts starting running through my head, mainly no more kneading bread dough by hand. I was so excited, I could hardly wait to get home and start baking. 

A few weeks went by and I still hadn't gotten around to making any bread. It's a good 3 hour process, so not exactly an after work activity. I had used the mixer for other things, such as pie crusts and poppy seed muffins, but just hadn't had the time for bread. Day after day there was my new-to-me mixer and yet not a loaf of bread in sight. Finally though I found some time so finally we have bread, well, half a loaf anyway. It's hard to control yourself with bread fresh out of the oven.

White Bread

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups luke warm water

1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

2 1/2 tablespoons yeast

approximately 7 cups of bread flour (self rising flour)

Directions:

Combine the water, oil, sugar, salt, and yeast until well mixed.

Add the bread flour 1 cup at a time until the dough is still sticky, but it is coming off the edges of the bowl. Make sure to knead the dough well in between each cup of flour. 

Once the dough is the right consistency, transfer to a greased bowl and cover with a clean, damp dishtowel or paper towels. 

After about 30 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size, punch down to release any air bubbles. Form the dough into loaves and place in greased bread pans. Cover the pans with dishtowels and let the dough rise for another 30 minutes.

While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350˚F.

Bake the bread loaves in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes 3 loaves.