28 April 2012

How to Make Your Own Sandwich Bread


I used to make my bread by hand.  There's something very soothing about folding and pressing bread dough over and over until it's satiny and elastic.  Not to mention the great workout your arms get during the process.  Then, the small support beams under my table began to crack in the middle, and I realized I'd better find a new way to knead my dough.  My counters are too high to do it effectively, so I decided my best bet was a bread machine.

I love my bread machine.  It was a gift from my daughter's godmother, and it is amazing at kneading bread dough.  It doesn't get tired, it doesn't break my table, and best of all, the bread comes out fluffy and soft and amazing.  I dump all the ingredients in the machine's bucket, let it do the mixing and kneading and first rise, and then I shape the bread and do the second rise and baking as I did before.

My recipe for white sandwich bread is delicious, and very, very easy.  In my machine, you have to dump in the liquids first, then the dry ingredients, so that is how I have them listed here.  You should follow the instructions specific to your own machine.


1 cup warm water
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cups bread flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 packet active dry yeast
Melted butter

Place all ingredients in bread machine.  Set to dough setting.  After cycle and first rise are complete, shape bread into tight loaf and place in greased loaf pan.  Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until bread has doubled in size and is starting to rise above the top of the loaf pan.

Preheat oven to 350.  Bake bread for about thirty minutes, or until crust is golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when the bottom is tapped.  Brush crust with melted butter and let cool before slicing.  Store loaf in plastic bag to keep soft.


The best part about this bread is that it's dirt cheap to make.  There are no eggs, no milk, and you can sub in olive oil or butter for the vegetable oil, depending on what you have on hand.  You can also add a tsp of Italian seasoning to the dry ingredients for a loaf of herb bread.

Happy baking!



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4 comments:

Arin O. said...

I'm going to try this! Thank you so much for posting. :-)

Mergath said...

You're welcome! Let me know how your bread turns out. :)

Kathy said...

I prefer wheat bread but my guys are total white bread lovers. This is in the oven right now and looking beautiful. I used a long loaf pan because they also like longer, not so tall bread.

Mergath said...

My hubby prefers white bread too. :) He'll eat wheat bread, but there is much grumbling and complaining.

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