Basic White Bread

There is something really really awesome about baking your own bread at home and that is why I am too much into baking bread. I wanted to post a bread recipe from the day I have started my blog but somehow I didn’t have a picture of white bread. I always bake whole wheat bread at home. Once I posted my wholewheat bread recipe in one of the Facebook groups and got an awesome response. People tried it and were so happy with the results. I got many requests for a white bread recipe. So finally I am here with my first bread post. And yes, I am baking bread after 6 months. The last bread I baked was in August 2015. So thought of starting with my simple and easy white bread.

This is a basic bread recipe and absolutely a no-fail one. I keep reading a lot about baking and it helps a lot every time I bake bread. I don’t know whose recipe I follow but this recipe is there in my diary for more than 2 years. May be adapted from Martha Stewart’s recipe as I read almost all her recipes when I started baking. A lot of points and tips I used to note down in my diary. The original recipe noted in my diary is for two loaves so I half the recipe. I have made this a lot of times so the ingredients have been altered as per my taste.

Two things to keep in your mind before baking breads.
** LOVE & PATIENCE **

* Love it and it will love u back 💕

* Bread baking takes a lot of time say 3 to 4 hours. But you gotta work just for some 15 or 20 minutes (which is not a big deal) and you will see the magic happening on its own 🙂

Ingredients:

3 Cups All-purpose flour/Maida
1 Tbsp unsalted butter (softened)
3/4 Cup warm milk
1/4 cup warm water
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Sugar

Method:

Mix sugar in 1/4 cup of warm water. Add yeast to it, stir and let it sit for 10 minutes. The mixture will turn frothy and its good to go. If not, discard it and make a new yeast mixture.

In a mixing bowl, sieve maida and salt together. Add butter and yeast mixture. Mix together everything using a spatula. Slowly start adding warm milk to it and make a dough. The dough will not be very sticky. Knead the dough for good 10 minutes with your hands very nicely till you get a soft and pliable dough. Once the dough is ready, cover it with a damp warm wet cloth (I keep the wet cloth in the oven, heat it for 30 seconds and cover) and keep it in a warm place to ferment. Let the bread rise for 1 hour. You will the dough has doubled after an hour.
Now deflate the dough using ur hands and knead very gently again for 2-3 minutes. Once done transfer the dough to a bread baking pan and cover it (This time I cover the pan with a very very big patila as the dough will rise again). Let the dough sit like that for 45 minutes. Once the dough has risen, bake it in a preheated oven for 40 minutes at 180 degrees. Once out of the oven, apply butter or oil all over the bread. Your own homemade white bread is ready.

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Notes:

* Always pray before you start baking a bread 😀

* I use instant dry yeast, which can be directly added to the flour but I generally add it to the warm water and than use it.

* I heat the water in the oven for 15 seconds.

* I use Nature Harvest yeast which has never disappointed me.

* Don’t use oil, instead of butter. I use Amul unsalted butter which is at room temperature. No need to melt the butter, just add it directly to the flour.

* You might need to increase the milk quantity to 1 cup in case the dough is too dry.

* I like to use 1/4 cup of water as the texture turns out very nice. You can use half milk half water or only Milk.

* The 1st rise of the dough is important. Give at least an hour or more if needed for the dough to double but not more than 2 hours. Mine generally doubles in an hour.

* Let the dough rest for just 45 minutes during the 2nd rise. NOT MORE THAN 45 MINUTES.

* Don’t use a wet cloth to cover the dough for 2nd rise as the dough will stick to the cloth and might deflate when you take out the cloth. Use a big patila (used for boiling milk) for 2nd rise.

* All the ovens are different so temperature may vary. Please keep an eye on ur bread when you bake it.

* In case the top starts to turn brown too early, cover with an aluminum foil and then bake.

Please do share a picture if you try this out. You can connect with me on Facebook or Instagram.