Incredible soft white bread that you can almost do anything with. Either you want to make a toasty, a club sandwich or a fancy Croque monsieur the base will always require a good soft white loaf.
I had to make this recipe when we hit the pandemic in 2020, so if you are reading this post after the 2020 pandemic, then you would surely remember, that there was a food shortage in all stores. and a few of the things that ran out were pasta, fresh milk and bread. Then people started panic buying yeast to make bread at home, and there was a bread-making saga going on in Australia, it was during this bloom of activity that I made this recipe as a few people requested it.
Can white bread be frozen
Yes absolutely, this bread can be frozen. what I do is, I make a loaf of bread and cut into 2 parts and freeze one part, because honestly, I don’t eat a lot of bread. and if I want some bread then I would thaw it the night before.
How long does the bread need to rise
So many people ask how long does it take to rise, the simple answer is, it depends from country to country, place to place, season to Season.
warmer the country, place, season quicker the rise. Melbourne is quite cold most of the time so it takes me someday 3-4 hours for the first rise (When it is raining and very cold)
How to get the dough to rise quickly
I use a small trick and add warm water as this will speed up the rising process.
Activating the yeast is very important in dough recipes, activating the yeast means the yeast will froth when mixed with sugar and water. This is a trick used to see if your yeast is good. If it is an old yeast your water will not froth. then there is no point making bread with that yeast.
Activating the yeast also helps to raise the dough quicker. Yeast and sugar are best friends, it needs sugar to activate. If the yeast is mixed with salt, it kills the yeast, hence why it is important to activate the yeast and let the yeast feed on the sugar before mixing it all together.
I never recommend adding the yeast directly to a dough. So always activate the yeast for better results.
This recipe will be tad bit sweet and soft, a lot of bread out there in the market has preservatives added to it, for longer shelf life, so I never buy store-bought bread.
And I can assure you, you will never go back to store bought bread after making this recipe.
You can also check my other bread recipes
Watch my video on how to make soft white bread loaf
Step by Step recipe how to make Soft white bread loaf
Equipment
- Oven
- Stand mixer with hook
Ingredients
- 360 g All-purpose flour
- 25 g Sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- 50 g Butter
- 2 tsp Instant yeast
- 113 g Milk
- 113 g Hot water
Instructions
- Add the yeast, sugar, water in a small bowl and mix well and leave aside for 10 mins until it's activated and becomes foamy
- Place flour, salt, milk , butter and mix well using a rubber spatula or spoon
- Once the yeast has froth, then add the yeast mixture into the flour and mix it with a rubber spatula until fully incorporated
- Add oil to the work surface and transfer the dough on to the surface and knead for about 10-15 minutes ( If you have a stand mixer with the dough hook, then use the dough hook which will help to knead the dough easily)
- Brush a bowl with oil and place the kneaded dough inside, cover with a cling wrap and let it rest and double in size in a warm area. ( Note: the resting time will depend on the humidity and room temperature)
- Once doubled in size knock the air out by punching the dough and dust flour to the work surface and shape it to a square shape and roll it into log shape (See video)
- Prepare the bread loaf pan. Butter 1 – 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and set aside,
- Once the dough is rolled up, pinch the seams to seal both sides and bottom . Make sure all the seams are on the bottom
- Place the bread into the prepared loaf pan container and Loosely cover the loaf pan with plastic wrap and let it proof again in a warm place, for about 45 minutes – 1 hour.
- The top of the dough should rise about 1 inch above the rim of your bread loaf pan
- Preheat oven to 180C, place the bread in the middle of the oven, and bake for 30-35 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven, let it cool down in the pan for 10 minutes remove the bread from the pan and keep it on a wire rack to cool down completely.