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Excellent White Bread
![Excellent White Bread](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/30/dining/29BIGAPPETITE/29BIGAPPETITE-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 4 hours 15 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2¼teaspoons/7 grams active dry yeast (1 package)
- 1½cups/355 milliliters lukewarm milk
- ⅓cup/67 grams granulated sugar
- 1tablespoon/15 grams kosher salt
- 3tablespoons/43 grams butter, melted, more for greasing bowl and pans and for brushing the tops of the loaves
- 2eggs
- 5 to 6cups/625 grams to 750 grams all-purpose flour
Preparation
- Step 1
In a large electric mixer bowl, dissolve yeast in ¼ cup warm milk. Add the remaining warm milk, the sugar, the salt, the butter and the eggs. Add 5 cups flour and mix with paddle attachment until smooth, about 2 minutes. Switch to hook attachment and knead on low speed, adding more flour if necessary until dough is stiff and slightly tacky, about 10 minutes.
- Step 2
Grease a large bowl with butter and turn dough out into the bowl. Flip over dough so greased side is up, cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and set in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size, about 1½ to 2 hours. Generously butter two 9-x-5 loaf pans.
- Step 3
When dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto floured surface and knead for 3 minutes. Return to greased bowl, cover and let rise again for 30 minutes.
- Step 4
Press down dough with your hand to expel the air. Divide dough in half and place each half into a loaf pan. Brush tops of loaves with remaining melted butter.
- Step 5
Cover and let rise until dough is just above the tops of pans, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Step 6
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake bread for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 20 to 30 minutes, or until loaves sound hollow when tapped, the tops are brown and the internal temperatures are 200 degrees. Remove loaves from pans and let cool on wire racks.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Changes & Tweaks:
- Halve the sugar for sure, tastes weird with anything savory, even a sandwich other than PB&J
- I had leftover flour, don't be afraid to drop below the 5c
- Rise times were very short with fresh yeast, final loaf came close to over-rising
I made this loaf without any appliances and it was a remarkably easy recipe to mix by hand, kneading up quickly and with little mess or adjustment. Will definitely make again!
This is my mother's recipe! I add two tablespoons of vinegar to make sure it does not mold in the 4 days it is being eaten.
The last time I posted a comment for this recipe was 16 days ago. I have made this bread at least 7 times since. I can't recommend this recipe enough and have emailed it to everyone I know who bakes.
I was making ciabattas and Kindred Milk Bread prior to this regularly, but this is my go to now. I have baked it a different temp's, I only have a single oven, comes out perfect every time.
If you have never baked bread, try this recipe, it's indestructible.
For those who care about such things, yeast DOESN'T need added sugar to rise; the yeast's own enzymes will make all the sugar it needs from the flour during the dough's fermentation period. Adding a small amount of sugar will cause a faster rise, but many experienced bakers actually prefer a slower rise because the yeast have time to produce more flavor. You can make bread without adding sugar; just give it a little more time to raise!
Excellent! I made the dough using the exact recipe quantities...I made one loaf of bread using half the dough and managed to squeeze out 12 beautiful cinnamon buns with the other half...Both turned out great! For the cinnamon buns I just rolled out the dough, and spread a mixture of melted butter-brown sugar-cinnamon/spices on top, rolled, and shaped into buns... I let them rise as directed for the bread and baked at 350 for about 25 mins...will make again...
Tip for rising the dough if your house is cold and/or breezy: Turn on the oven to it's lowest temp (for mine that is 200 F). Turn it off, and when you can put your arm in and keep it there, but in the dough (in whatever receptacle the recipe calls for) and close the door. Leave it in for as long as the recipe tells you to. Works perfectly!!
I bake a lot of bread, but never sandwich white bread. I thought I woulf try it because I trust Melisssa Clark. True to her word, it was delicious. I wouldn't change a thing on this recipe.
I cut the recipe in half because there are only two of us, and since dw doesn't like her bread sweet, I cut the sugar to 1 teaspoon. There was still plenty of rise to the dough, and it turned out a gorgeous loaf.
I love this recipe so much, I now make all of our sandwich bread -- at least two loaves, every 10 days. When cool, I keep 1/2 loaf unsliced that we enjoy over the next few days. I slice the rest of the bread, wrapping each 1/2 loaf in foil and sealed plastic bag to freeze. Frozen slices pull apart easily for toasting. I made (10) smaller loaves as holiday gifts and two very large braided loaves for pot-luck holiday parties. Every loaf has turned out perfectly.
5 cups of flour is a lot for a Kitchen Aid to handle!
Made one loaf and formed the rest into buns for burgers. Baked the buns on a sheet pan with silicon mat. Great recipe for a simple white bread.
Use a wooden spoon and bowl to mix the ingredients, then put on a floured surface to kneed the dough.
I really butchered this bread. I used whey instead of milk for the liquid, because I had some left over from making yogurt. And then I accidentally left the dough proofing on my counter for oh, 14 hours or so before I remembered it... it nearly overflowed the bowl and was crusty and dry on top.... I kneaded, shaped into loaf pans, let it rise about half an hour and threw it in the oven. it still baked up gorgeous and so delicious. What a forgiving recipe. I will definitely make again.
Made this twice this week, each time a half recipe, used ancient Panasonic bread maker's dough cycle for mix/knead/first rise. First time out of thoughtless habit I made it with bread flour; it came out very tasty, excellent toasted, but a bit fragile and hard to slice, and too sweet for my taste, though not for my daughter. Second time I used 1/3 (105g) white whole wheat flour with 210g all purpose. I like this much better, though it took longer to rise.
One of the best breads I have ever made. Two beautiful
loaves. Noticed that bread stayed fresh much longer than
most homemade bread. We ate every piece.
I really like this recipe as a base. I put in my sourdough discard and frequently use dry whole milk powder. I also substitute 100 g of rye flour for 100 g of wheat flour. Sometimes I use a little bit of bread flour as I seem to have a lot of it right now. One thing I noticed if you’re using a regular size KitchenAid, I would recommend that you, this recipe in half so you don’t tax the motor And then your Lowe’s are the same size as well motor .
I was looking for a simple bread recipe that had a simple, bread flavor. THIS IS IT! At first I didn't know what I would do with the second loaf and decided to melt some butter, mix it with a T sugar and 2t cinnamon. I rolled out the 2nd loaf, spread the mixture then rolled it up and placed it in the loaf man. They both went into the oven at the same time and 20 mins later (I didn't need to keep it in any longer) I had delicious sandwich bread and cinnamon bread! It was even good the next day.
This dough is forgiving as far as over-proofing is concerned. My final proof coincided with a phone meeting that went much longer than anticipated. By the time I got off the call, the dough had risen to about twice the height of the pan. I thought surely the bake was going to be a disaster. But it wasn’t. The loaf didn’t rise any further in the oven, but it baked up perfectly. The crumb was fine and even. So I wouldn’t be afraid of over-proofing.
The bread comes out just fine if you accidentally leave the salt out. FYI.
Nice, flavorful bread. Very soft, sandwich bread, texture. It’s fine with the sugar as is. Was afraid it wouldn’t rise enough, but puffed up nicely in the oven. Will make again.
My 16 yo who doesn’t often bake made this and it was close to perfection. Our oven was too hot so bread got too dark in first 10 minutes and was done in 20 minutes on the lower temp. So we will adjust temperature next time. Ate half the loaf for dinner.
Melissa Clark’s recipes are usually wonderful. However, this bread recipe was disappointing: dry and ordinary. It wasn’t worth the effort. I’m an experienced bread maker. I’m surprised this gets 5 stars.
I just made this. I did not have all purpose flour or bread flour, so I used Castle Mill Valley bolted wheat flour. I did as some suggested and used only 2 Tbls of sugar. I made one loaf for sandwich bread and one with a cinnamon raisin swirl. Both are delicious, tender and soft. I give the two loaves until Friday before I finish them both off.
Added 10 g salt to the dough. It balanced out the sugar and turned out really beautiful. Great recipe.
Use 700 g flour. Loves were a little short
I make this bread every weekend. I half or sometimes third the sugar content. I experiment each week with one of the loaves. I've folded in dried cranberries during the final rise, I've used half the dough for cinnamon buns, I've added extra spices and herbs to flavor the bread, I've added flaky salt on top for the bake. None have turned out badly.
Can instant yeast be substituted for the active yeast? If so, is the amount of yeast the same?
If I wanted to make this for a 13 x 4 bread pan, do I just cut all ingredients by about 1/8?
My first loaf of bread! I followed the directions and kneaded at level 2 in my KitchenAid. After 12 minutes (and not adding more than a few TBS of flour to the original 5 cups), the dough was so sticky. I almost threw it in the garbage but decided to try and hand knead for the first time. I kneaded for about 5 minutes and the dough came together beautifully, nice and pliable and came into a ball easily. So delicious - a tiny bit of sweetness and a lovely crumb. Will make again!
Great! I followed the advice of others and used only 1 tbsp of sugar and I didn’t proof for this long. I only proofed until doubled (1.5 hr) and then split the dough into 2, folded and turned the oven on. It takes about 15 minutes for my oven to get up to temperature. Cooked according to instructions.
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