old fashioned white bread~ easy

Who doesn't love the smell of fresh baked bread. This simple recipe is good to learn how to bake a basic bread. This recipe is a combination of recipes and techniques that I used to eventually come up with this simple and fool proof basic white bread. The recipes gives you a foundation that you can build on later by adding other things like spices or herbs or experiment with mixing different flours. It's great for sandwiches or to use for French Toast.

Your Ingredients:

-2 cups (227 grams) white wheat flour

-1 TBSP. (15 ml)sugar

-1 tsp. (5 ml) salt

-1 TBSP. (15 ml) butter or vegetable shortening, soft at room temperature

-1 egg

-3/4 cups (175 ml) warm water or milk, your choice or use a mixture of half water and half milk

-1 small packet of active yeast

-1 bread pan, or cookie sheet

1. Measure out the water or milk, which ever you decide to use, it needs to be lukewarm. *tip- don't overheat it or you'll kill the yeast and bread won't rise*. In a small bowl put the water/milk then add the yeast and sugar, stir to combine a bit. Put aside to let for about 5 minutes. This is called proofing the yeast and what it means is just that we are testing the yeast to make sure it's still alive and will raise our bread. If the yeast is Ok it will look like the photo below.

2. In a separate large bowl combine the the flour and salt combine, then make a well in the center of the bowl and add the egg and soft butter and slowly add the yeast and water/milk mixture. With your hands start combining all the ingredients, keep kneading the dough until it forms a smooth texture. , *see photo below*

3. Continue kneading for a total of about 10 minutes, you will feel the air starting to build in the dough. Next prepare the dough pan or cookie sheet by either using parchment paper or using a little oil cover the entire inside of the pan, then dust with a little flour to again cover the inside , but just a light dusting. (this prevents the bread from sticking and can be removed easier.) Next you need to shape the bread, either in a circular form or shape into a loaf and place on the sheet or in the pan.

4. Use a clean kitchen towel and cover the dough and let it rest for about 40 minutes. We need to let the dough rise to double its size, and this could take up to 40 minutes or more.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 F /177 C for about 10 minutes. The bread will take about 30 minutes to bake.

The bread will be golden brown all over with the top being a bit darker. After the bread has baked let it cool down before you slice. And that's all fresh home made bread, convenient ,soft, warm and delicious without all the added preservatives.