“To most people homemade bread means a slightly sweet loaf made with milk and some shortening, quite light and rather fine in texture and much enjoyed when fresh with a generous spreading of butter and preserves.”
-James Beard, Beard on Bread
Today I wanted to bake a nice, basic loaf of bread to make sandwiches with over the upcoming week. I chose Basic Home-Style Bread, which is very similar to Beard’s Basic White Bread. The major differences are that Home-Style Bread calls for milk instead of water, and there is half a stick of melted butter. The recipe can be found on the James Beard’s Foundation website.
Here are the ingredients:
Although it did take a few hours due to two risings, this was a straight-forward recipe to make. I mixed all the ingredients together, kneaded the dough, let it rise for an hour, kneaded it again and shaped it into loaves, and let the loaves rise for 45 minutes. Instead of brushing the loaves with an egg white, I used water.
Finally, I baked the loaves at 400 degrees for 28 minutes.
Mike and I were able to enjoy the bread fresh out of the oven for supper. I thought it was wonderful–the milk and butter made this bread more flavorful and finely textured compared to Basic White Bread. However, Mike liked the Basic White Bread better because it had more salt. Regardless, most of one loaf disappeared tonight, and we are looking forward to some delicious sandwiches this week.
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