Well I’ve made a half-dozen different types of bread lately but I’ve yet to make just a plain white loaf of bread. That changed yesterday. I tried Gisslen’s white pan bread recipe. I was hoping for two loaves, but apparently the only pans I have are 9×5, which appears to be relatively large. So I only got one (albeit large) loaf. The result was absolutely delicious. It had a great texture, was nice and soft, and very tasty. We had to have a hot slice with butter and honey, but the rest we cut up and turned into French toast for dinner—with real maple syrup, of course. Num! Here’s the recipe:
- Water: 300 g (60%)
- Yeast, fresh: 18 g (3.75%) [I use 10–20% more because of our elevation.]
- Bread flour: 500 g (100%)
- Salt: 12 g (2.5%)
- Sugar: 18 g (3.75%)
- Nonfat milk solids [powdered skim milk, I think]: 25 g (5%)
- Shortening: 18 g (3.75%)
Basically, just throw everything in your mixer and mix for 10 minutes at the second speed. I take the water and divide it into two bowls. One bowl I heat up and add the yeast and sugar. In the other bowl I dissolve the salt. After the dough is mixed, let ferment for about an hour and a half. Put in a greased loaf pan, proof, then bake at 400F until done. Gisslen recommends baking it with steam for the first 10 minutes, but I have a baking stone, so that’s not an option. One of these days I’ll remember to remove the stone before turning the oven on and I’ll try it with steam. Enjoy!
