hello this is chef john from food wishes comma with white bread that's right i'm
very excited to show you what i think is a pretty close approximation to the
white bread most of us grew up eating at least if you're my age that is okay for
lots of our younger viewers they may have only seen white bread in reruns of
old television shows but anyway well I usually do eat the nice healthy whole
grain stuff like 95 percent of the time a few times a year I do like to make a
loaf of this just to remind myself what I'm missing so with that let's go ahead
and get started and we'll begin by pouring some warm milk into a mixing
bowl and then on top of that we will sprinkle one package of dry active yeast
and then we'll just let that sit for like ten or fifteen minutes to get a
little bit of a head start and you're really not going to notice that much
happening although you might see a few small bubbles forming and then what
we'll do after about ten or fifteen it's continued on by adding one large beaten
egg as well as a little touch of white sugar a little bit of white vinegar and
a little bit of baking soda now baking powder baking soda we will also need a
little bit of salt as well as a couple shakes of cayenne which we don't need
but we want and then we will finish up with some all-purpose flour and a few
tablespoons are very soft room-temperature butter that we've cut
into a few smaller pieces and that's it we'll go ahead and grab a dough hook and
head to the mixer where we're gonna start kneading this dough on low speed
and I say knead the dough this is really gonna be more of a batters you'll see
all right one of the secrets to this loaf of white bread is a very very wet
dough so we'll go ahead and start this on the lowest speed and as soon as
everything kind of comes together and looks like this we'll turn it up one
notch at which point we're going to give it about three or four minutes or until
we have a very smooth very elastic and as you can see extremely wet and soft
dough and then because this dough is so wet and sticky we're not going to be
able to knead this on the table like we usually do so all that we're gonna do is
sort of clean up the sides with a spatula
at which point we're gonna cover it and let it rise for about an hour and a half
to two hours or until it doubles in size now sometimes that only takes like an
hour but when you don't includes things like butter and eggs sometimes the
rising takes a little longer but anyway this is what mine look like about two
hours later and fair warning it's gonna be really sticky so don't do this okay
usually we deflate it with our hand but not this time
here we're actually gonna use a buttered spatula to scrape this right into our
loaf pan which by the ways you might be able to see has also been generously
buttered and we will go ahead and transfer all that dough in and no this
is not slow motion this dough is in no hurry to go anywhere but eventually
after what seems like a really really long time we'll get all that transferred
into our pan at which point we'll use our spatula to sort of spread that out
and distribute it as evenly as possible and then what we'll do once that's been
accomplished is go ahead and sprinkle some flour over the top which is done
simply by holding a couple tablespoons in your hand which you then shake which
lets the flour gently escape between your fingers so we'll go ahead and dust
the top at which point we'll give that a little gentle pressing just to sort of
flatten and smooth that top surface the best we can okay usually when we need in
shape a loaf we sort of roll it over so it has a nice smooth even skin on top
but we can't really do that here so we'll have to settle with a little
pressing which as you'll see works out just fine and then once that set what
we're gonna do for the next thirty minutes
is absolutely nothing we are just gonna let that rise in the loaf pan and as you
can see roughly thirty minutes later my need risen all the way to the top and
then what we're gonna want to do besides making sure our oven is preheated let's
go ahead and take a sharp knife or razor an attempt to slice the middle of this
loaf which is not going to be easy since this is so soft and sticky so I'm
actually going to slice this a few times in both directions just to sort of
somehow open up the center of this loaf and even though that is certainly not a
clean cut we've still created a weak point so as our bread Rises in the oven
it's going to stretch and pull apart from the center out whereas if we didn't
do those cuts they might stretch and rupture in a place that's not as
aesthetically pleasing and then speaking of appearances
before this goes in the oven we're gonna brush the entire surface with melted
butter and a good amount of it whoops I just popped a little bubble that's okay
don't worry like almost everything involving dough once it bakes it always
looks amazing and by the way some bakers like to use
an egg wash here or some even use milk so if you prefer those instead go ahead
I mean you are after all the vanilla ice I'm making sure the top looks nice but
as far as taste and appearance goes I do like the butter and that's it once the
tops been brushed that is ready to transfer into the center of a 350 degree
oven for about 30 minutes or so or until it's baked to a beautiful golden-brown
and hopefully looking something like this and then very important as soon as
this comes out while it's still piping hot we want to brush it once more with
melted butter which is not only of course going to taste good but it's also
gonna give that top crust the soft supple texture we expect with a classic
white bread and then what we'll do once that's been brushed is let it cool in
this pan for exactly 10 minutes before carefully removing it to Iraq where we
will let it cool completely not almost cool all the way down to room temp okay
if you want warm bread just toast it but if you slice this open piping hot a lot
of moisture is gonna escape and your bread can dry out so I went ahead and
let mine cool for at least an hour before I went ahead and sliced in and as
usual I was extremely happy with what I saw all right while these bubbles might
be slightly larger then we might remember from that white bread of our
childhood the taste and more importantly texture are gonna be remarkably similar
all right we're talking very light airy and tender and again the secret was that
very very wet almost horrible dough oh and if you're wondering which specific
childhood bread I'm referring to well I can't give brand names so you'll just
have to wonder but anyway I went ahead and cut a couple more nicer looking
pieces and I spread on some butter so I could go in for the official taste and
all of a sudden just like that I was seven years old again and it's not like
I have anything against whole-wheat bread but sometimes I just don't want
the vitamins and nutrients and fiber to get in the way
for a change enjoy a piece of bread that's barely
there and as good as that plain buttered piece was this next piece that I toasted
and then buttered before spooning on some jam was even more incredible
all right there's butter toast and jam and then there's homemade white bread
butter toast and jam which is like an entirely different thing altogether and
because the flavor is so neutral and the texture borderline non-existent that's
what makes it so great for things like sandwiches in particular for example
this California club which is why even though I live in the land of the
whole-grain artisan loaf I do like to take the occasional flight back to white
and I'm thinking you might just want to take a trip as well which is why I
really do hope you give this a try soon so head over to food wishes calm for all
the ingredient amounts of Morpho as usual and as always enjoy
you