My favorite white bread will have all you bread lovers smiling in delight! It’s perfectly soft, fresh and absolutely delicious! Serve it with soup on a cold evening for a perfect comforting meal! It makes the best sandwiches too!
I don’t make homemade bread very often, so when I do, it’s a special treat for everyone! My kids beg for slice after slice when it’s straight out of the oven and we don’t typically have any leftovers for sandwiches, at least when I only make two loaves.
Homemade, warm bread makes my carb-loving heart SO happy! I love to smear butter on it and watch it melt before taking that first, delicious bite.
If I have two food weaknesses they are definitely chocolate and bread. In fact, my favorite part about Thanksgiving dinner are the rolls and pie (as long as it is chocolate).
I told my husband I’d be perfectly content filling my plate with just rolls on Thanksgiving and then saving a little room for pie later. A good, homemade roll or slice of bread is like dessert to me!
This bread freezes well and is also incredible toasted with butter and jam or honey. Basically, you can eat it by itself, butter or not, and it’s absolutely divine. It’s GOOD, and there’s no two ways about it.
My mom used to make this recipe, growing up, and we all devoured it in a hurry, not surprisingly. She’d switch off between making this one and whole wheat bread-both were out-of-this-world amazing.
When we walked in the door from playing in the evening to see this bread plus her delectable Print Stop Cheese Soup, we thought we’d died and gone to heaven!
I’ve always believed that homemade bread is a total labor of love. It’s not hard to make, but is certainly time intensive, taking into account the rises. Now that I’m the one making it, I appreciate my mom’s dinner efforts all the more.
My Favorite White Bread
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 c. warm water
- 1/4 c. sugar
- 1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
- 1/4 c. butter melted
- 1 Tbsp. salt yes, that's Tablespoon
- 6-7 cups bread flour I use about 6 1/2
- Butter for tops of loaves optional
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the water, then sprinkle the sugar over the yeast. Let the yeast proof in the water with the sugar until it's frothy, about 10 minutes. Add melted butter, salt, and 3 1/2 c. flour and mix until incorporated. With the mixer running, gradually add 3 to 3 1/2 cups more flour until the dough comes together in a cohesive ball that clears the bottom and sides of the bowl and doesn’t leave a lot of doughy residue on your fingers when touched. It will still be just slightly tacky (you don't want it to be overfloured and dense).
- Knead in the mixer on a medium speed for 6 minutes. Cover bowl and let dough rise in a warm place until the dough has at least doubled in size, about one hour.
- Punch dough down and divide it into two equal pieces.
- Grease two 8 1/2-inch by 4 1/2-inch bread pans.
- Form each piece of dough into a thick rectangle about 8-inches long; roll it up, pressing on the seams, and pinching the final seam together.
- Place the dough loaves into the prepared pans, seam side down.
- Let rise until doubled and the dough has risen about 1-inch above the top rim of the pan, about an hour or so, depending on the temperature of your house.
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes until golden. Remove bread from oven and immediately remove it from the pans. Rub butter over the tops of the hot loaves, if desired. This will soften the crust. Let cool at least until it won't burn your mouth and slice.
- The bread can be stored at room temperature, in an airtight bag, for a couple days, or frozen for up to a month or so.
Notes
I think these loaves would make beautiful holiday neighbor gifts! You could even bake them in mini loaf pans! This is a cherished recipe around our house and I hope you come to love it too!
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