When do I ever leave well enough alone? If you ask my kids, they would tell you, “Never.” Sometimes messing with something truly destroys it, but, other times, it is so much better!
That’s the case with my homemade white bread. I started with a really great recipe from a friend and tweaked it to my family’s tastes. I posted that recipe with a step by step here. I tweaked it again and did a cost analysis for you (homemade versus store bought bread) and posted it here.
I kept tweaking the recipe and have received many compliments, including one from my sister who said it was the best bread she’s eaten. So, without further ado, here’s my updated white bread recipe.
Easy, Peasy Bread by Laurie Nguyen (2 1-lb loaves)
Adapted from “Pound-It-Bread” by Joan Miller
1 ½ cup lukewarm water
2 T active dry yeast
½ cup granulated sugar
1 cup evaporated milk (can use regular milk, half-n-half, or cream)
1 T white vinegar
2 T (salted) butter, melted
2 t salt
1 ½ T dough enhancer
¼ cup vital wheat gluten (gluten flour)
5 ½ cups bread flour
Add sugar and yeast to water. Stir and let sit until yeast blooms (looks bubbly). Add vinegar to evaporated milk and let sit until yeast is ready. Stir water/yeast mixture again and pour into a mixing bowl along with evaporated milk/vinegar mixture. Add melted butter, and all dry ingredients.
Mix on low until a dough forms, then let your mixer “knead” the dough for a few minutes until it looks smooth. Dump onto a floured counter and divide dough into two equal pieces. Let dough rest/rise for 20+ minutes. After resting, pound each piece of dough for one minute (with a rolling pin), then form into a loaf and put in a greased loaf pan (8×4 to 9×5 size pan). Let rise until the dough is about 1 inch over the pan’s edge.
Place in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Cover with foil and cook for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the bread is done. Remove from oven, then remove bread from pan and let it cook on a rack. You can cut it right away, but the slices will not be even, and your bread will get crushed. If you can wait until it’s completely cool, your slices will look a lot better and be more even.
In my family, the first loaf goes SUPER fast! The second loaf lasts a little longer, but, often, by the time we finish it, it’s a bit stale and not so yummy anymore. When I bought my larger loaf pans (my ode to my lovely new pans here), I decided to adapt my recipe to make one slightly larger loaf rather than two smaller loafs. See the difference between the two pans?
If you have large bread pans, you may want to use this version of the recipe.
Easy, Peasy Bread by Laurie Nguyen (1 larger loaf for a 10×5 pan)
Adapted from “Pound-It-Bread” by Joan Miller
1 cup lukewarm water
1 T active dry yeast
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk (can use regular milk, half-n-half, or cream)
2 t white vinegar
1 1/3 T (salted) butter, melted
1 1/3 t salt
1 T dough enhancer
2 T plus 2 t vital wheat gluten (gluten flour)
3 cups bread flour plus a little more (usually less than ¼ cup)
Same instructions as recipe above, except that this makes one loaf. Don’t divide when you put it on the counter to rest.