Blue Ribbon White Bread

Since I was little, my mom has been in the kitchen. She worked full time my whole life, and was in music clubs, choirs, women's organizations, but still made dinner every night from scratch and spent weekends baking cookies, bread, and canning.

I have a Cuisinart food processor, the biggest size, that I use for making bread. It has a nifty dough blade and a dough setting, which makes kneading bread super easy.

You'll need:
7 c flour
2tsp sea salt
1/2 c (unsalted) butter
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 c honey
water

Take one tbsp yeast and one tbsp sugar and mix in a tall glass with 1/3 cup of warm water, set aside.

Put the flour in the food processor with the salt and butter, and mix until the butter is evenly distributed.

Add the honey.

Add 2 cups of cold water to the growing yeast, stir and add to the flour. Take the insert piece out of the top so the machine can still mix while you're pouring slowly. Mix for a couple minutes.

Once the dough is properly mixed, dump it in a big bowl. If dough is sticky, it needs more flour. If dough is crumbly, it needs more water. Shape the dough and let it rise with a damp tea towel over the top.

It takes about 3-4 hours for bread dough to rise in a house that's about 70*, and it's important that it gets to rise properly.

Once risen, punch it down and shape into three oval loaves, and place in 3 greased bread pans. Cover again with a damp tea towel and let rise until the bread is about 1" above the top of the pans.

Bake at 350* for 15 minutes, or until the top is hard and not quite golden, and rub some butter on the whole top. Put back in the oven for another 5 minutes till the butter is baked in.

Remove and promptly put on a cooling rack, and allow to cool for at least ten minutes before cutting into the deliciousness!

 

Yeah, I have three different sized bread pans, it gives my bread character. 

Enjoy!

-Mel