About this bread
#4 The Best and Easiest White Bread is a the easiest loaf of white bread you’ll ever bake. This loaf is perfect for sandwiches, toast, or to serve with dinner. It’s a simple loaf that Paul Hollywood calls the “ubiquitous loaf the Brits have brought to the table.” I think it’s better than loaf #1 even though the only difference in ingredients is the use of butter instead of olive oil. My recipe is adapted from 100 Great Breads cookbook, and it’s almost impossible to mess up. I accidentally turned on the oven while my loaf was proving and not fully risen. Somehow this loaf forgave me, and still turned out wonderful.
For years I used a simple recipe (not yet included on my website) for bread that tasted nice, but you certainly would’ve made a sandwich with it. #4 The Best and Easiest White Bread is a terrific all-purpose loaf that costs pennies to make, and can replace store-bought white bread. It can be mixed quickly if you have a KitchenAid mixer with a bread hook. If you don’t, kneading the dough provides a terrific arm workout. You will love this loaf.
When mixing the dough, remember these tips:
- You want your dough to be just a tiny bit sticky. This means the dough isn’t sticking to your fingers like chewing gum, but it isn’t so dry that you end up with a brick. Dry dough = dense bread.
- Take a phone photo before proving if you are new to the bread baking game. That way you can tell if your dough has doubled in size.
#4 The Best and Easiest White Pan Bread
Ingredients
- 4 cups white bread flour
- 2¼ teaspoons instant yeast
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1/4 cup butter, softened (or not)
- 1⅓ cups warm water (110-120°F.)
Instructions
- Combine the flour, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Drop the butter into the flour and mix in with your fingers--like you would pie crust--until it's all blended in and your flour looks more like bread crumbs. It takes 3 minutes and gives you a chance to show your bread some love.
- Slowly pour in the water. I use my KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook for this, but you can do it by hand. (It's a great upper body workout.) Mix the dough until the water is incorporated and you have a soft dough. Knead (or let your mixer do it) until the dough can be stretched between your fingers without breaking easily.
- Put dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rest for an hour.
- Pat the rested dough into something of a rectangle, then roll into a loaf and place into a oiled (I used butter) loaf pan. Let it rise for an hour.
- Make slashes in the bread just before putting it in a 425°F. oven, middle rack, for about 35 minutes.
