King Arthur White Bread خبز ابيض

I have made alot of white bread in the past but this one tastes the most like store bought bread, there is a small crust and a slight butter taste, its soft and perfect for sandwiches. So i by no means think i am a chef or anything, i just like cooking and trying recipes. My reason for this blog is to mainly share my recipes, share recipes i found to be good and to share little tid bits about what went wrong and how i would change things (if there is anything) Here are the step by step directions for the best homemade white bread:

First things first, add the yeast to a cup

then add water and honey

We need to make sure that they yeast is active and that our bread will rise so when foam forms on the yeast mixture we know that we are good to go.

Add powdered milk (i used Nido) to the flour. The recipe calls for All Purpose (AP) flour but i used bread flour because i had it. If you too chose to use bread flour you may need to add a little more water later.

Add the salt

and finally add the butter (it should be room temperature but mine wasn't, i just cute it up and then it softened when i added the warm yeast mixture)

Add the yeast mixture

When the dough is incorporated it is all lumpy, knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth. The dough should be soft and moist but not sticking to your hands. Spray the bowl and leave it in a warm place for about an hour. I usually turn my microwave on for 1 minute and THEN put my dough in there, its like the perfect place to let dough rise and its out of the way.

After the dough has risen for about an hour to an hour and a half it should have doubled in size. If you want to double check that it is ready just poke the dough, it shouldn't bounce back.

Form the dough and place it in a loaf pan to rise a second time

the dough should rise above the pan or else when the dough comes out from the over it will have stretch marks, perfect looking bread doesn't have stretch marks!! (and neither should humans but thats for another day). Before placing the bread in the oven spray it with water OR place an over proof dish in the bottom of the over filled with water, this helps form a crust.

Ok so apparently my pan was a tad small for the amount of dough, that was the only mistake. If you want a hard crust then leave the dough the way it is but if you dont then just take butter and go over the top of the bread quickly.

Written Recipe

1 ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons luke warm water


1 heaping tablespoon honey


2 1/4 teaspoon yeast

1 3/4 teaspoons salt


2 tablespoons soft butter


4 cups AP flour or Bread flour

1/3 cup Nido powdered milk

DIRECTIONS:

Mix the water, yeast and honey in a cup and set aside. Next mix the remaining ingredients and when the yeast is activated add the water. Knead for 10 minutes and place in a greased bowl for about 90 minutes. When the dough has doubled in size punch it down and roll it out into a loaf. Place in the loaf pan and let it rise a second time. Before placing the dough in the over spay it with some water to form a good crunchy crust. Bake in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and spread butter over the top.