Classic White Bread and Mac & Cheese

Making bread has always been my nemesis when it comes to baking. Mine always ended up flat and heavy or raises way too much. After years of trying many many recipes, I finally found one that works. It is not labor intensive and if I am not exact of the time, it still seems to work out just fine.

I use my finger to check how hot the milk is. Don't let the milk boil! The milk should be just hot enough that you can stand to put your finger in it without burning yourself. (Don't worry, I just washed my hands before I did this)

I warm up my mixing bowl so the warm milk doesn't cool again from a cold metal bowl

After 5 minutes, the yeast should be a little puffy and brownish whitish. Mine sat about 12 minutes because there was a bonk on the head I had to kiss better and a child to help feel better. 

And of course, my time can't be spent just on the bread. The kids wanted some lunch!

Add everything except the flour, then mix. I mix my egg in a separate bowl and then add it, you don't want any eggshells. Nothing says delicious homemade bread like crunching on an eggshell! 

Add flour and mix on speed 1 for 5 minutes

While the dough is mixing, its time to help out with the Mac and Cheese.

After about 5 minutes your dough should look like this. Since I was helping mix mac and cheese, I think this is about 7 minutes later.

Finally after 30 minutes I have the dough ready to rise. I know in the directions it says it should only take 10 minutes to get to this point, but with kids and other distractions, 30 minutes is the reality. I turn the oven on warm when the dough is mixing. Before I put the dough and mixing bowl in the oven I make sure the oven is OFF.

The recipe says to raise dough for 45 minutes, but I had some other things that I had to take care of so I got back to the dough after an hour or so.

Punch down the dough and put it into an oil sprayed loaf pan. Spray the top of the dough has as well.

Cover the dough and put it in a warm place. I turn the oven onto 350 degrees and put the pan on the stove next to where the warm air comes out of the over.

Why not take a nap while the bread rises? Seems like a good idea to me. I guess my helper wore herself out.

After 30 minutes of rising. When it comes to the final rise and baking, those you do have to be better about paying attention to the time. If dough rises too much, it will fall or be too soft and fall apart when you cut it. Watch the baking time or the bread will get to hard and crusted.

After 25 minutes, your bread is already. This isn't the prettiest loaf I have made, but it's not a beauty contest. The bread still tastes great!

And after 10 minutes this is what your bread should look like! You won't have much bread left, but instead you will have a very happy family!! (Yes, I know the bread is cut very crooked, I guess that's what happens when you don't cut the bread fast enough and one of your older kids tries to cut their own slice).

Classic White Bread

1 1/4 cups of milk

3 T sugar

2 t Saf-Instant Yeast

1 large egg

1 1/2 t salt

1 1/2 T softened butter

4 cups flour

Warm milk in microwave for 1 minute, stir, warm for 30 seconds, stir. When you touch the milk with your finger you should be able to just stand having your finger in the milk. Put warm milk in your mixing bowl. Add the sugar, mix with whisk. Then mix in the yeast. Let the yeast proof for 5 minutes (just set the bowl down and walk away for 5 minutes, the yeast is just getting soft and "waking up"). After 5 minutes, add the egg, salt, and butter to the milk mixture. Whisk all of those together, making sure the egg is mixed in well. Add the 4 cups of flour. Attach the dough hook. Turn on Kitchen-Aid on speed 1 for 5 minutes. I just set the timer and walk away. The dough should pull off sides of bowl easily. However, once I made it and the dough was slightly sticky and not pull off the sides super easily, and it still worked just fine. Put about 1 T of oil in the bowl and on your hands. Use your hands to move the dough around so the bowl and dough get oiled. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Let raise for 45 minutes in a warm spot. I turn my oven onto warm for 5 minutes then turn it off and then put the bowl in the over, works every time. After 45 minutes the dough will have doubled or more in size. Take out the dough and punch it down. Spray 1 loaf pan. Put dough into pan. Let rise in a warm spot for 30 minutes or  until the dough has risen 1 inch above the pan. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.