Rich White Bread Revisited

It's been about a year since I made my post about Rich White Bread. Since then, I've made this particular recipe of bread a couple of dozen times and have gotten progressively better. Working with the recipe and learning the behavior of the dough, my oven and bake times, and working with other recipes throughout the year has made me an altogether better pizza crust and bread maker.

Here's my dough after complete mixing and kneading.

The first proof went very quickly. This about tripled in bulk in a little less than 45 minutes.

After about another hour the dough didn't quite have the steam as the first rising.

After shaping and placing in the pan, these proofed again for yet another hour. One time I was able to get them much taller and shaped more like store-bought bread, but it looks like this is all I'm going to get out of these.

Please forgive the top of my carrot and back of mayo jar sneaking into the photo.

And the final product. The top is nice and crispy and the sides and bottom hold up well. We made nice roast beef sandwiches for dinner tonight and I think this is the first time I didn't have a million crust crumbs on my plate (or on the cutting board from slicing). I baked it just about 4 minutes longer than the recipe said because I think my oven runs a little low on temp.

The crumb is moist and delicious and held up well to bites in the sandwich. I did some things different today like kneaded for the full 10 minutes by hand rather than half-assing it by mixer for like 5. I used some regular bread pans as opposed to the dark coated bread pans that I normally use. I'm finding that dark coated pans require even longer cook times and certain baked goods just don't do well in them. I also noticed that these loaves don't have an onion taste like my bread usually does. I always thought it was my cutting board, but perhaps it was those dark coated bread pans.


I can't wait to have toast with butter and strawberry preserves as a snack tonight!

Rich White Bread Recipe

Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

1 1/2 C hot water (120-130)
1/2 C nonfat dry milk
2 T sugar
2 tsp salt
2 pkg dry yeast
5 1/2 - 6 C bread or AP flour
2 T lard or butter, room temp
2 eggs, room temp

2 large 9x5 loaf pans

Mixing
In a mixing bowl combine hot water, milk, sugar, salt, yeast.
Slowly add 3 cups of flour.
Add butter (or lard) and eggs, blend until smooth
Mix in the remaining flour slowly - the dough will be rough and shaggy and should clean the sides of the mixing bowl.
If the dough is too wet, add small quantities of flour slowly until it is the right consistency.

Kneading
Knead dough with dough hook attachment or by hand for about 8 minutes.
Sprinkle more flour if the dough sticks to the bowl or to your hands. Dough will become smooth and elastic.

Rising
Place dough in bowl and pat with buttered fingers to prevent surface from crusting. Cover bowl with plastic wrap.
Leave at room temp until the dough has doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

Open plastic wrap and punch down dough with fingers. Fold dough toward the center and flip. Cover with plastic and let rise until it's about 1 1/2 times its current size, about 30 minutes.

Shaping
Knead dough a few times to work out large bubbles. Divide dough in half, shape into balls, and let rest for a few minutes.
Press dough ball into ovals the length of the baking pan and place in the pan.

Rising
Cover loaves with wax or parchment paper and leave until the center of the loaf has risen about 1" about the rim of the pan, about 50 minutes.

Baking
Preheat oven 400 for about 20 minutes
Bake loaves about 35 minutes until crusts are golden brown.
Midway through baking move pans around in the oven to insure uniform heating