Joy Of Cooking’s Fast White Bread

Breads, Food, Recipes

by A.J. Coltrane

I wanted to make a white sandwich bread, so I thought to myself: “Where would I find a totally universal white bread recipe?”

In the Joy Of Cooking of course!

Ingredient Volume
Bread Flour 3 cups
Water 1 cup, warm (115-125F)
Salt 1.5 tsp
Yeast 2.25 tsp
Sugar 1 TBP
Butter 2 TBP, softened

The recipe calls for mixing most of the flour with the other ingredients, then the remaining flour. I skipped that. Otherwise, this is the basic recipe:

1. Knead all ingredients on low speed for 10 minutes.

2. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and let rise 20-45 minutes until doubled in size.

3. Shape, grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan, place the dough into it and let rise another 20-45 minutes, until doubled again.

4. Bake at 450F for 10 minutes, then turn down the oven to 350F and bake about 30 minutes more.

5. Remove the loaf to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Notes:

1. I think 10 minutes is a loooong time to knead anything. I’d cut it back to about 6 minutes next time and see how that works out.

2. It came out maybe a little too salty. I think I’ll weigh the salt in the future and shoot for 2% of the flour weight (about 8 grams).

3. Substituting olive oil for the butter would make a pretty generic pizza dough recipe. (It’s a ~60% hydration dough.)

4. All in all, a very easy loaf that’s better than store bought. Cheaper too.

Published

4 thoughts on “Joy Of Cooking’s Fast White Bread”

  2. The crust was the best part I think. It tasted sort of buttery and toasty, with just a little bite to get through it. The “little bite” was desirable, since it was a sandwich bread and you don’t want to have to rend/tear pieces off of it. Other tasters remarked positively on the crust.

    It was just white bread, but I think it was a good example of the species.

    Like

    Reply

  4. Lisa,

    I think AP would work fine. The bread might come out a little bit denser. You could try cutting back on the butter just a touch to help with the density. It might also help to handle the dough gently when moving it around.

    The dough might also absorb a little less water because lower protein flours (AP) don’t absorb as much water as higher protein flours (Bread Flour). So you may want to take out a tablespoon or two of water and see how it looks.

    All in all though the recipe should be pretty forgiving when substituting AP Flour for Bread Flour.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment