Country White Bread Recipes

Steps:

• 1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar, salt, eggs, oil, and 3 cups of flour, beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour,( I use about 6 1/2 cups) to form a soft dough.
• 2. Turn onto a floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes. Place in a well greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let stand (rise) in a warm place until doubled about 1 hour.
• 3. Punch dough down. (Use fingers to deflate dough, not your fist.) Divide dough in half and shape into 2 loaves. Place into 2 greased 9x5 loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

Steps:

• Make the starter:. Using the starter ingredients listed above, combine water and yeast in medium bowl. Stir to dissolve yeast. Add flour and stir until thoroughly mixed. Cover with a cloth and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before using in the dough. Make the dough:. Using the dough ingredients listed above, combine the water, honey, and yeast in the bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer. Stir to mix thoroughly. Add shortening, flour, salt, and starter. Mix ingredients on low speed, with the mixer, until the dough is smooth and elastic (this usually takes me about 8 - 10 minutes). To test it for elasticity, pinch off a piece of dough, and stretch it between both thumbs and my fingers into a square. If the center stretches and becomes thin (like a windowpane) it's perfect. If the dough breaks easily instead of stretching, it's not ready yet. When ready, remove dough from mixing bowl. Divide the dough into two halves. Form each into a smooth ball. (You can wrap and freeze one of the loaves at this point.) Place the dough on the counter, or in a proofing basket, and cover with a warm, damp cloth. Rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Form the dough into a loaf shape (free form or use a loaf pan), and cover with a warm, damp cloth. Let rest another 30 minutes. Baking the bread:. Score the loaf (loaves) with a sharp knife. Spritz with some water and place in the pre-heated oven (if making a free form loaf, place on a preheated baking stone). Bake for 30 - 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown, and the temperature in the middle of the loaf is about 195ºF. Remove the bread from the oven and from the pan (if using one). Let cool about 30 minutes.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Stir in lard, salt and two cups of the flour. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
• Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
• Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into two lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in water in large bowl. (I usually add a pinch of sugar and wait for the yeast to foam but the original recipe didn't call for this step.).
• Add next 4 ingredients and 3 cups flour; beat until smooth.
• Stir in remaining flour.
• Knead 6-8 minutes.
• Let rise in greased bowl until double.
• Divide into 3 loaves; let raise again.
• Bake at 375°F for 25-30 minutes.

Steps:

• 1. Put ingredients in bread machine pan in the order listed. Set the machine for white bread, crust to your preference. Turn it on! In about 3 hours you have a wonderful HUGE loaf of homemade white bread. Perfect texture to use as sandwich bread, too. I love it warm, either from the machine or stick a slice into the microwave, with butter. YUMMY.
• 2. If you haven't been able to quite get it right before, you will with this recipe. A tip is to watch it while it mixes. The dough should wind up barely sticky, it should go around in the pan sticking occasionally. Add flour slowly if it sticks to sides and doesn't go around in the pan. It shouldn't be so dry that it just goes around in circles though.

Steps:

• Make the starter:.
• Using the starter ingredients listed above, combine water and yeast in medium bowl. Stir to dissolve yeast. Add flour and stir until thoroughly mixed. Cover with a cloth and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before using in the dough.
• Make the dough:.
• Using the dough ingredients listed above, combine the water, honey, and yeast in the bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer. Stir to mix thoroughly. Add shortening, flour, salt, and starter. Mix ingredients on low speed, with the mixer, until the dough is smooth and elastic (this usually takes me about 8 - 10 minutes). To test it for elasticity, I pinch off a piece of dough, and stretch it between both thumbs and my fingers into a square. If the center stretches and becomes thin (like a windowpane) it's perfect. If the dough breaks easily instead of stretching, it's not ready yet. When ready, remove dough from mixing bowl.
• Divide the dough into two halves. Form each into a smooth ball. (You can wrap and freeze one of the loaves at this point.) Place the dough on the counter, or in a proofing basket, and cover with a warm, damp cloth. Rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400ºF. Form the dough into a loaf shape (free form or use a loaf pan), and cover with a warm, damp cloth. Let rest another 30 minutes.
• Baking the bread:.
• Score the loaf (loaves) with a sharp knife. Spritz with some water and place in the pre-heated oven (if making a free form loaf, place on a preheated baking stone). Bake for 30 - 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown, and the temperature in the middle of the loaf is about 195ºF. I use a digital probe thermometer to test the temperature.
• Remove the bread from the oven and from the pan (if using one). Let cool about 30 minutes.

Steps:

• Make the starter: Combine 1,000 grams white-bread flour with 1,000 grams whole-wheat flour. Put 100 grams of warm water (about 80 degrees) in a small jar or container and add 100 grams of the flour mix. Use your fingers to mix until thoroughly combined and the mixture is the consistency of thick batter. Cover with a towel and let sit at room temperature until mixture begins to bubble and puff, 2 to 3 days.
• When starter begins to show signs of activity, begin regular feedings. Keep the starter at room temperature, and at the same time each day discard 80 percent of the starter and feed remaining starter with equal parts warm water and white-wheat flour mix (50 grams of each is fine). When starter begins to rise and fall predictably and takes on a slightly sour smell, it's ready; this should take about 1 week.(Reserve remaining flour mix for leaven.)
• Make the leaven: The night before baking, discard all but 1 tablespoon of the mature starter. Mix the remaining starter with 200 grams of warm water and stir with your hand to disperse. Add 200 grams of the white-wheat flour mix and combine well. Cover with a towel and let rest at room temperature for 12 hours or until aerated and puffed in appearance. To test for readiness, drop a tablespoon of leaven into a bowl of room-temperature water; if it floats it's ready to use. If it doesn't, allow more time to ferment.
• Make the dough: In a large bowl, combine 200 grams of leaven with 700 grams of warm water and stir to disperse. (Reserve remaining leaven for future loaves; see note below.)
• Add 900 grams of white-bread flour and 100 grams of whole-wheat flour to bowl and use your hands to mix until no traces of dry flour remain. The dough will be sticky and ragged. Cover bowl with a towel and let dough rest for 25 to 40 minutes at room temperature.
• Add 20 grams fine sea salt and 50 grams warm water. Use hands to integrate salt and water into dough thoroughly. The dough will begin to pull apart, but continue mixing; it will come back together.
• Cover dough with a towel and transfer to a warm environment, 75 to 80 degrees ideally (like near a window in a sunny room, or inside a turned-off oven). Let dough rise for 30 minutes. Fold dough by dipping hand in water, taking hold of the underside of the dough at one quadrant and stretching it up over the rest of the dough. Repeat this action 3 more times, rotating bowl a quarter turn for each fold. Do this every half-hour for 2 1/2 hours more (3 hours total). The dough should be billowy and increase in volume 20 to 30 percent. If not, continue to let rise and fold for up to an hour more.
• Transfer dough to a work surface and dust top with flour. Use a dough scraper to cut dough into 2 equal pieces and flip them over so floured sides are face down. Fold the cut side of each piece up onto itself so the flour on the surface remains entirely on the outside of the loaf; this will become the crust. Work dough into taut rounds. Place the dough rounds on a work surface, cover with a towel, and let rest 30 minutes.
• Mix 100 grams whole-wheat flour and 100 grams rice flours. Line two 10- to 12-inch bread-proofing baskets or mixing bowls with towels. Use some of the flour mixture to generously flour towels (reserve remaining mixture).
• Dust rounds with whole-wheat flour. Use a dough scraper to flip them over onto a work surface so floured sides are facing down. Take one round, and starting at the side closest to you, pull the bottom 2 corners of the dough down toward you, then fold them up into the middle third of the dough. Repeat this action on the right and left sides, pulling the edges out and folding them in over the center. Finally, lift the top corners up and fold down over previous folds. (Imagine folding a piece of paper in on itself from all 4 sides.) Roll dough over so the folded side becomes the bottom of the loaf. Shape into a smooth, taut ball. Repeat with other round.
• Transfer rounds, seam-side up, to prepared baskets. Cover with a towel and return dough to the 75- to 80-degree environment for 3 to 4 hours. (Or let dough rise for 10 to 12 hours in the refrigerator. Bring back to room temperature before baking.)
• About 30 minutes before baking, place a Dutch oven or lidded cast-iron pot in the oven and heat it to 500 degrees. Dust tops of dough, still in their baskets, with whole-wheat/rice-flour mixture. Very carefully remove heated pot from oven and gently turn 1 loaf into pan seam-side down. Use a lame (a baker's blade) or razor blade to score the top of the bread a few times to allow for expansion, cover and transfer to oven. Reduce temperature to 450 degrees and cook for 20 minutes. Carefully remove lid (steam may release) and cook for 20 more minutes or until crust is a rich, golden brown color.
• Transfer bread to a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing. The bottom of the loaf should sound hollow when tapped. Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees, clean out pot and repeat this process with the second loaf.

Steps:

• In a large electric mixer bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 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.
• 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 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Generously butter two 9-x-5 loaf pans.
• 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.
• 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.
• Cover and let rise until dough is just above the tops of pans, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• 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.