A Bread Affair

I come from a large family and hence I have been making bread since I was "knee high to a grasshopper". When I married my significant other, he always raved about his mothers bread. so I called my Mother-in-law to get the recipe for this amazing bread. Come to find out, she didn't even know how to make bread. She just always bought the frozen bread dough and made that. Talk about a blow, hubby like store bread better than my home made! I let it go but I stopped making bread so often. Then last week, a neighbor gave us a small loaf of bread her mom had made. Again hubby ranted and raved about it. This was the piece of straw that broke the camels back and I set out determined to master my bread making skills. So I did my homework and found tips for making great bread and put together my own recipe. Its the first time in my life I have made up my own recipe! It turned out pretty stinkin great! And yes, hubby even gave his stamp of approval!

The New and Improved-White Bread

1 T. Instant Yeast
1 T. Sugar
1 t. Salt
1 Egg, beaten
1 C Milk
2 1/2 C Flour

Start by placing milk in a small sauce pan and setting on burned set to med/high heat to scald. Stir constantly so you don't get a thin film. Milk is done when small bubbles form around the edge of the milk. Remove the milk from burner and allow to cool to warm to the touch-it will cool faster if you pour it into a different dish.

Put your dry ingredients in a medium size bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg. Once milk is cooled add it and the egg to the dry ingredients. Stir well with spoon. Add flour a half a cup at a time until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl but is still very sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 20 min.

Take plastic wrap off bowl and knead bread for 5 min. Form dough into two loafs and allow to rise for 45min. to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook bread for 20-25 min. When done, remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack. Butter top of bread immediately.