Thirty-Minute White Bread

There's nothing that quite compares to the aroma of freshly baked bread emanating from your own oven!

Today's recipe was "Thirty-Minute White Bread". It's a simple bread, especially if you have a kitchen machine that does all the kneading for you and takes less than 2 hours from start to finish. The “thirty-minute” in the name refers to the time required to prove the bread.

THIRTY-MINUTE WHITE BREAD

Makes 1 loaf

Adapted from "Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads", by Bernhard Clayton

Ingredients

120 ml (½ c) milk/milk substitute

15 g (1 T) unsalted butter, melted

1 t salt

120 ml (½ c) warm water

2 t dry active yeast

15 g (1 T) sugar

450-525 g (3-3 ½ c) plain (all-purpose) flour or bread flour

7 g (½ T) unsalted butter, melted for brushing

Method

1. Lightly grease a 11 ½ x 21 ½ cm (4 ½ x 8 ½ inch) loaf tin (pan) or line with parchment paper.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the milk, melted butter, salt, warm water, yeast and sugar and stir.

3. Add 450 g (3 c) of the flour to the bowl and with the aid of the dough hook, incorporate all of the ingredients until it forms a firm dough.

4. Once the dough is formed, knead for an additional 10 minutes. The dough should be firm, but elastic. You may need to add 1-2 T water to make the dough a little more pliable.

5. Shape the dough by rolling it into an oval, roughly the length of the pan, fold the oval in half and pinch the seam tightly to seal. Place seam down into a parchment lined loaf pan, brush with the melted butter and rest for 5 minutes.

6. Place the pan (tin) into a COLD oven and turn the oven to heat to 200°C/400°F for 1 minute. Switch the oven off and allow the loaf to sit in the oven for 30 minutes. Do not open the oven door.

7. Turn the oven on again at 200°C/400°F and bake for a total of 45 minutes.

8. When done, the loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom crust with the forefinger. If the crust is soft, return it to the oven without the tin (pan) for 10 minutes.

9. Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing. This bread is great for sandwiches and toasts up well. It also freezes well. Enjoy!