Do any of you all have those times where you have a bunch of ingredients for dinner but you’re missing something crucial, and rather than run out to the store or compromise and make a meal without it, you just go ahead and make it, while documenting it for your food blog? No? Just me?
A while back we made a huge batch of tacos, and as part of tacos, of course we had lettuce and tomato around. Too much of it for tacos, even, so we decided to follow them up by making BLTs. Unfortunately for our sandwich-rich future, we didn’t have any sandwich bread! Okay, well, that’s a lie, we did, but I wanted to spin a yarn for the sake of the blog, you feel me?
Anyway, this is a recipe for a really simple sandwich bread. It’s just plain white bread flour, so it’s a basic white bread, along the lines of Italian or French, just in loaf form. It has a good crumb and is soft without being so soft it can’t hold its shape in a sandwich. It tastes great, it toasts really well, and it’s super easy to make.
My only real caution is that it’s easy to kill your yeast if you use water too hot for it. I did that with a batch — yes, it happens, even to me — but at least yeast is cheap. Bread is cheap, honestly; water, milk, yeast, flour, salt, sugar, butter; it’s all readily available. Really, the time is the most expensive part.
One note about the process. Unlike some breads, instead of just punching down the dough, for this one you roll it out with a rolling pin, then roll it up almost like a spiral bread, before letting it rise in the loaf pan. This step helps cut down on the large pockets of gas that bake into big holes in the bread. Nobody likes a sandwich with a hole in it!
Easy White Sandwich Bread
Equipment
- 9×5 Loaf Pan
- Stand Mixer With dough hook attachment
- Rolling Pin
- Mixing Bowl
- Cooling Rack
Ingredients
- ¾ Cup Water
- ½ Cup Milk
- 1 Tbsp Yeast
- 3 Cups Bread Flour
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Butter Softened
Instructions
- Bloom the yeast. To do this, combine the water and milk, and heat the mixture to about 104℉. Stir in the yeast, cover it, and let it sit for about 10 minutes. It will bubble and foam up a bit if you did it right; if not, try again, you need the yeast to make the bread.
- Combine your bread flour, salt, and sugar in your stand mixer's bowl.
- Add the yeast mixture, and mix on low using the dough hook. This will come together into a dough ball; when it does, keep mixing/kneading for 2-3 more minutes.
- Add in the butter a tablespoon at a time, letting it fully mix and knead in each time.
- Continue kneading for another minute.
- Transfer the dough ball to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover this and let rise in a warm environment for about 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Grease your loaf pan and set it aside.
- When the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll it out so it's the length of the loaf pan and about an inch thick, and as wide as it needs to be.
- Roll the dough rectangle into a tube shape and place in the loaf pan, seam side down. Cover this with a damp towel and let rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 350℉.
- Bake the bread for 45 minutes, or until the top turns golden brown.
- When baked, turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Slice and enjoy!