My Most Absolute Favorite White Bread Ever

Guys, I'm super thrilled right now for a couple of reasons.

Reason 1: I just got a proof copy of the second book in the Sheer Power series!

For those of you who don't know what a proof copy is, basically it's like a preview copy of a book coming out soon. It's not necessarily the final draft as there may be a few minor things that need to be fixed before the actual publication date (thing grammatical errors that drive you nuts when a publisher, editor, whoever didn't catch the mistake before the book went to the presses). It's a tool used by publishers so they can send these preview copies to bloggers and such who then can start getting the word out about the book (hopefully they have a good word to say!). By the time the actual publication date comes, hopefully a nice group of people have actually heard about your book.

Basically, I'm super excited because I'm feeling all sorts of book blogger official. That and I'm kind of honored that Vye Brante would send me a copy of her book. I feel like there's some trust going on there. No pressure for me :) Thanks, Vye, for the opportunity!

The result of my first time using a bread machine.
 It's sunken in the middle because it rose to much,
but man, it is still divine!

Reason 2: I have homemade white bread sitting on my kitchen counter.

I haven't really taken advantage of the recipes aspect that I wanted to bring to the book club thus far. I have been keeping some notes of foods mentioned in the books I read, but I haven't gotten around to trying them and transferring that experience to the blog. I wanted mainly to focus on foods from the books, but then I realized that tons of book clubs have refreshments of all sorts. I don't need to limit myself! So, I will probably separate those two categories in the recipe section. But enough about that. Let's talk bread!

I love bread. If I could live off that alone, I probably would...that and pizza and pasta which are pretty much the same family. A few years back, I became friends with someone who had taken a bread making class, and this was one of the recipes she shared with me. It is now one of my favorite loaves of bread to make ever. Having received a bread machine for a gift, I finally decided to put the machine to the test this week, and what better recipe to try than my favorite white bread!

Before I go on, here's a little WARNING: If you do use this recipe in a bread maker, decrease the amount of yeast used. When you can watch it, you can make sure it doesn't over rise. Since I put it in the machine, all I could do was watch and go, "Yep, that's too big." The bread still turned out great and tasty. It just also turned out ugly because the top collapsed. In case you didn't know, that's what happens when you let your dough rise too much.

Basic White Bread

The loaf pan version

1 tbsp yeast*

¼ cup sugar

1 ½ cups warm water

¼ cup butter, melted**

2 tsp salt

3-4 cups flour

*Use less yeast if you are using a bread machine or it will over rise.

**The original recipe calls for melted shortening, but I don't believe in shortening. I'm a butter girl all the way! But if you prefer shortening, go for it!

Directions if You're Doing it by Hand

Mix together water, sugar, and yeast in small bowl. Set in warm place. When foamy, transfer to large bowl and add 2 cups of the flour, salt, and butter/shortening. Mix thoroughly. Add flour ½ cup at a time until dough is too stiff to stir with spoon. Turn dough out on floured counter and knead until dough forms a soft round ball. Put dough back into bowl and let rise in warm place until double in bulk. Shape dough into loaf and place in greased loaf pan to rise again*. Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes. Bread should sound hollow when tapped with fingers.

*In my experience with this lovely loaf, you don't want it to rise above the top of your bread pan before you start baking it or you will run the risk of a sadly collapsed loaf of bread.

Directions if You're Using a Bread Machine

Put the warm water and melted better in your machine's loaf pan. Next, heap all the dry ingredients except the yeast on top (don't mix as you're machine with do that for you). Make a little well in the flour with your finger and pour the yeast into the well. You don't want the yeast to come in contact with the wet ingredients. Choose all the appropriate options on your machine and wait for the result!

I love this bread, and I absolutely love that I now have a bread machine. It's kind of nice to not have to think about my bread again for 3 hours. At the same time, there is something fun about doing it all by hand (if you've got the time!). I've also tried this recipe with wheat flour instead of white flour and it was still just as delicious!

Try out this bread. Tell me what you think. It's excellent with some homemade jam! If you were going to a physical book club, what sorts of treats would you bring (or wish that someone else would bring)? 

Tune in next time to talk about A Swiftly Tilting Planet!