White Bread

I always go back to a basic white bread once in a while. Just unbleached bread flour, yeast and salt:

This simple but slightly rough mass kneaded up well, though it looks a bit lumpy here:

And rose beautifully:

Split into loaves:

And a few magical hours later...

Fresh bread:

Just waiting to be toasted:

Classic Sandwich Bread

I'm a big fan of creatively shaped and differently flavored breads...but sometimes all you need is a classic recipe for white bread:

The only excuse I needed to make such a simple bread was a craving for a good grilled cheese and tomato sandwich:


This bread starts out with flour, yeast, salt, sugar, milk, butter and water:

Once everything is incorporated into a ball...

You knead it about ten minutes, until smooth:

I used a bowl with measurements on the side for the initial rise to gauge how much volume my dough gained. When I left it to rise it was below the one quart mark:

Here is the dough rolled into a log and placed in my loaf pan. You can see the indentations of my fingers well because this dough is very soft:

Partway through the rise...

and after! 
At this point I had to run out for an errand so I used the trick of putting the dough into the fridge so it wouldn't rise too much. I then let it sit on the counter for about an hour to come to room temperature before baking.

Then, once the bread had baked and cooled, I enjoyed a sandwich of cold cuts, lettuce, tomato and homemade spicy guacamole: