Bread & Wine: White Bread

It's a stormy day today, so I decided I would bake some bread. I love baking during stormy weather. :) It's comforting. I figured that I didn't need to bake cookies or cakes since I'm the only one home, and my hips seriously don't need the calories... Bread seemed sorta safe... Emphasis on the "sorta". ;)

This is the first time I've attempted homemade bread without the use of a bread machine in quite a few years. It just never works out for me. I've always used my grandmother's recipe, but I just can't get it to turn out. It is the same recipe that my mom and dad have used for years, and they make it perfectly. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. lol...

This is a recipe that I found on allrecipes.com. It was titled Amish White Bread. The recipe is supposed to make 2 loaves, but I halved it to only make one.

What you'll need (for two loaves):

2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2/3 cup white sugar (That seemed like alot, so I halved it)
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour

Like I said, I halved the above recipe.

In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast.

This is where I realized I picked the most unappetizing color of bowl that I had in my kitchen. Sorry about that.

Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam. See it puffing up, or "blooming"? You want that.

Mix salt and oil into the yeast.

This is where my mom would panic a little. She always told me to be careful with salt, because too much salt can ruin the yeast reaction.

I thought for a minute, held my breath and threw it in anyway. ;)

Mix in flour one cup at a time.

Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. I kneaded for about 5 or so minutes. It probably could have used more, but I'm not that patient.

Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. (Yeah... I used "Pam".)

Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

After the salt scare I was a little nervous when it was time to check.

It worked!!

Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans.

I used shortening and flour in my pan. Butter would have tasted better, but I didn't have any softened.

Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.

I checked after 30 minutes, and it was NOT 1 inch above the pan. So, I gave it 15 more minutes.

It still didn't raise that high, but as I said I'm impatient, so I popped it in the oven anyway.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

While it baked, I made some butter to go with it.