Ingredients
- 3-1/2 cups unbleached white flour
- 1 tablespoon softened butter
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2-1/4 teaspoon dried yeast
- 1-1/4 cups milk at warm temperature
- 1 egg, beaten and thinned with water, for brushing (optional)
- Note: If rehydrating yeast with water, subtract the amount of water you added to the yeast from the 1-1/4 cups of milk.
Supplies
- 1 bread tin, buttered
Directions
- Put flour in a mixing bowl along with the softened butter. Use your fingers to work the butter into the flour until no large pieces remain.
- Next, add the beaten egg, salt and yeast.
- Holding the bowl with one hand, stir in enough warm milk to form a dough. At this point, the dough should be raggedy and rough.
- Turn onto a lightly floured board, wash your hands of dough, and with wet hands knead a few times to be sure the dough is well-mixed, then place in a clean, lightly buttered bowl and let the dough rise, covered, in a warm place.
- After it has doubled in bulk (about 1-1/2 hours), turn onto a lightly floured board. Gently press out the gas and form dough into a rectangle to fit into a buttered bread tin. Cover, set in as warm a place as you have, and let rise until nearly doubled.
- In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- When the dough is ready, brush the top of the loaf with a beaten egg thinned with a little water (this step is optional).
- Bake until crust is golden, about 1 hour.
- Remove from the oven, turn out of the tin, and let cool on its side for at least 3 hours before cutting.
Our homemade sandwich bread recipe gives you what you’d want from this type of bread: a loaf that doesn’t call attention to itself and capably performs a supporting role.
When the meal isn’t the bread but what’s between the slices, you’ll want something light and with a fine crumb. A good homemade sandwich bread recipe produces a loaf that has character but is soft and cake-like and plays the role of supporting actor to the fillings. Historically, American sandwich bread has been lightly enriched with a little fat in the form of milk and oil. The recipe here is based on an early 18th-century English bread called “French bread.” The only change I’ve made is cutting back on the eggs from three to one (the original is more like a challah recipe). This recipe calls for more yeast than I use in another recipe for Crusty White Bread so the bread dough will rise faster and yield a softer crumb. It also calls for less liquid so the crumb will be finer in texture.
Originally published in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS.
