I don't make white bread very often. I mostly stick to whole wheat. Sometimes I'll play around with other grains or legumes or various things. But plain white bread doesn't show up very often. But this was the last bread recipe in Edmonds that I hadn't made yet. And we'd been out of bread for a while and I wanted something that would come together relatively quickly. So this fit the bill.

It was fine as bread goes. Not great. A bit bland. And I think it would've worked better in 20cm loaf tins rather than the 25cm ones the recipe called for. But it is fast (as home-made bread goes) and it's fine if you just need something to put a bit of jam on. I definitely prefer something with a bit more interest, but this works as a basic recipe.

White Bread

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 625g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• 20g instant yeast
• 5g (~1 tsp.) sugar
• 10g (~1/2 Tbsp.) coarse sea salt
• 400mL water
• 30mL oil

Directions

1. If using an electric mixer: Put all the ingredients in the bowl of the mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix on slow until dough forms.
   If mixing by hand: Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt and mix well. Then pour in the water and mix until dough forms.
2. Mix or knead by hand until dough becomes smooth and elastic (5-8 minutes with an electric mixer or 15-20 minutes by hand). If kneading by hand, work the oil in during kneading.
3. Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place in a covered bowl to rise for ~30 minutes.
4. Grease two 20cm (8") loaf pans.
5. Knock the dough back, divide into four equal portions, and round each one.
6. Place two dough balls into each loaf pan, cover, and set aside to rise (30-45 minutes).
7. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
8. Bake loaves at 200°C (400°F) until crust is golden-brown and crumb is cooked through (25-30 minutes).
9. Cool in tins for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.
10. Brush crust with a little butter while the loaves are still hot if desired. (This will give the crust a nice shine.)