The Easiest White Bread You'll EVER Make! (Grandma's Country White Bread)

                                   Just looking at this makes me want to make some more now!

For couple of years, I have been experimenting and searching for an easy recipe for white bread.  As you know my motto, I've been going back to basics and am looking for good old fashioned recipes.  One day, I came across this bread recipe by accident.  I was actually doing a research on something else.  When I read it, I knew I struck gold.  Off running to the kitchen, I go!

Here is the recipe.  It is not mine, but I will post it.

INGREDIENTS     

Makes two loaves

3 cups luke-warm water(the best way is to test it against your inner wrist)

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp. yeast

1/3 cup oil

1 Tbsp. salt

6 - 7 cups all-purposed flour ( I ended up using more than 7 cups.  It depends on the day! Don't ask me why! Just add more flour when it's not too sticky and it pulls away from the bowl and easy to knead is the best advice I can give you.)

DIRECTIONS

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and sugar. Let sit 10 minutes. Add the oil. Add the dry ingredients starting with 6 cups of flour. Mix all together. Knead the dough thoroughly until all ingredients are incorporated, and dough is smooth, elastic, very slightly sticky, and pulls away from the bowl (6-10 minutes). As you knead the dough, you may add more flour as needed, and repeat the process until dough reaches the desired consistency. 

Cover the bowl of dough with a dish towel or plastic wrap and let rise until doubled (an hour or more depending on how warm your kitchen is.) You may speed up this process by placing the covered bowl inside the oven with the oven light on, and another bowl of warm water sitting on the lower rack.

Punch the dough down, divide and and form into 2 loaves. Place the dough in 2 greased bread pans. (I use 9" pans.) Cover and let rise till the top of the dough is an inch or two above the bread pans.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove the baked loaves from their pans immediately, and place on a cooling rack. Slice, and serve warm with butter and honey.

Store in an air-tight bag. Baked loaves AND bread dough freeze well. 

This is after I added the oil after letting the yeast, sugar and lukewarm water rest for 10 min.

                                                  adding flour mixture to wet mixture

Needs more flour

Add more

More flour.  See how it sticks to the bowl. Keep adding til it doesn't stick that much to the bowl.

It should look like this when you're about to knead for a bit.

Knead til silky, smooth, and slightly sticky.

transfer to a bowl, cover and let rise double the amount.  It stated an hour.  It took me more than an hr because my kitchen wasn't warm.  But I found out another cool trick which I will be trying on my next batch.  The trick is turn on your oven to 400 F for a min. then turn it off.  Stick the bowl of dough in the oven.  Make sure the oven is off! It will help the dough to rise.

My favorite part!  Punch a hole! Only one punch is needed, unfortunately.

Divide the dough into 2 equal loaves.  Place them in loaf pans and let them rise until they rise just above the pans.

Bake them at 375 F for 25 min.  They should look like this.  They taste soo good hot with melted butter slathered on them!  After they cool down, you can store them in bags.  Since I live out here in South Carolina, there's a lot of humidity.  I have to store my bread in the fridge so they won't mold quickly. If you have a family, a loaf will be gone quickly.  This bread is perfect for making sandwiches with.  Enjoy!