Homemade White Bread

This is a tough and uncertain time we are living in, our country and the world are battling a pandemic - the corona-virus.  Most of us are quarantined trying to help decrease the spread to spare our most vulnerable and enable our health care workers to care for those that need it.  We are all finding new ways to cope, to work, to interact with each other, to be at home and to survive.  It has become scary to go food shopping, we must do this sparingly and try to get what we need on these infrequent trips.  The first few times I went out shopping, I found bare shelves of paper products - namely toilet paper and paper towels; the entire fresh meat aisle; and the baking sections- mainly flour and yeast.  So this did perplex me, but I understood that people were really scared and did not know how long we would need to quarantine and how much supplies we would need during this period.  So back to the flour and yeast products.  Were they all planning to make their own bread during this time?  How many of you have been doing this?  I have a bread cookbook - "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" which basically provides recipes that cut down the labor and wait time in bread making.  There's no need for kneading, the initial dough takes about 5 minutes to put together, then you let it rest for 2 hours to rise, then refrigerate overnight.  You can then use parts of it any time during the week to bake up a fresh loaf of bread.  I have tried the recipe for Challah bread and it came out very well.  With more time on my hands I decided to try another recipe for their "Soft American-Style White Bread."  What follows is the adapted recipe that I halved, it yields 2 loaves.  I hope that you are all well and safe and can savor some of this extra time with your families and in your kitchen creating love and memories.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

3/4 Tablespoon active dry yeast - 1 packet

3/4 Tablespoon kosher salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup unsalted butter - 1/2 stick, melted,  plus additional for brushing the top crust

3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Instructions:

In a heavy duty mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, mix the yeast, salt, sugar, melted butter and water.  Then mix in the flour with the dough hook on low adding about a cup at a time, gradually increase the speed to medium and mix until all flour is absorbed, and a dough is formed, dough will be sticky.  Remove dough hook attachment and let dough rest in same bowl covered - but not airtight-  for approximately 2 hours, dough will have risen to about double the size and may have collapsed - or flattened on top.  Then transfer the dough in the same covered bowl into the refrigerator overnight.  This amount of dough makes 2 loaves, you can use this within the next 7 days.  When you are ready to bake a loaf, remove from refrigerator and cut dough in half.  Sprinkle dough with flour and roll into a ball, then stretch out and roll again to elongate into an oval.  Grease a 9 x 4 x 3 loaf pan and drop the dough into the pan.  Let the dough rest for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Dust the top of the loaf with flour and then slash across the top with a sharp knife.  With a pastry brush, brush on the top the additional melted butter.  Bake the bread for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.  Allow to cool before slicing.

Enjoy all the little things!
Thank you to all our health care workers and all of our essential workers during this time !