Today on The Stay At Home Chef
I'm showing you how to make Perfectly Easy Homemade Bread.
We have tested loaf after loaf after loaf to bring you the perfect homemade bread recipe that's easy to make and tastes amazing.
To start you'll need 2 1/4 cups of milk.
We're using 2% today.
We found that milk gave a much better flavor over water but you can always use water if you need to.
The milk needs to be warm so I'm gonna put it in the microwave for about 1 minute to warm it up.
The milk needs to be warm to the touch like a baby's bath water.
You don't want to scald it or get it too hot, just barely lukewarm.
Then we're gonna pour this into the bowl of a stand mixer.
Of course you don't need to use a stand mixer.
It just makes it easier.
You can always do this by hand.
Then you'll add in 2 tablespoons of white sugar or you can use brown sugar or honey or a sugar replacement.
As well as 2 1/4 teaspoons of instant dry yeast.
I like to use instant dry yeast because then there's no need to let this sit and proof.
However if you want to use active dry yeast you can but you'll need to let this mixture sit for about 10 minutes.
I don't need to so I'm gonna keep going and add in 1 tablespoon of salt.
Next we'll need 3 tablespoons of butter,
but we want to melt this so once again I'm going to turn to a microwave and melt this on high for about 20-25 seconds.
Now in our testing we found that butter gave a much better flavor than using vegetable or canola oil which a lot of recipes call for,
however if you need to use a dairy-free substitute vegetable or canola oil will work just fine in the same quantity.
So go ahead and add in that 3 tablespoons of melted butter.
Last we're gonna start adding in our flour.
You'll need either 5 1/2-6 cups of all-purpose flour or you can use bread flour which has a different protein content.
Start with about 5 cups because you can always add more flour later but you can't take it away.
So we're gonna get this mixing.
You want to mix it until the dough pulls away from the sides and bottom of the bowl like this.
Add more flour if you need to but you're looking for a nice soft dough.
Then we'll spray a bowl with a little bit of nonstick spray.
Toss our dough around in it just a little bit to coat so it doesn't dry out...
then we're gonna cover the bowl with plastic wrap or you can use a tea towel and let it rise until double in size which will take about 90 minutes.
After 90 minutes we can remove the plastic wrap,
and this recipe makes 2 loaves so we're gonna divide this dough in half and we're gonna form each half into a loaf.
So I just press mine down into kind of a rectangular shape.
You want it to be about as wide as your bread pan like so because then we're gonna roll it up nice and tightly.
Then when it gets to the ends I just pinch them shut and then roll it you know like a snake like you're playing with play-doh,
but you don't want to stretch it out.
I like to keep mine the width of that pan.
Then you'll place your shaped loaf into a lightly greased loaf pan,
then I'll repeat this process with the other half of my dough so that I have 2 loaves.
And I'm going to cover this with a towel and let it rise a second time until double in size.
This time it will take about 1 hour.
Take a look at these bad boys.
These are ready to bake!
We're gonna bake both of these at the same time in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes.
Now while those are baking I have 3 loaves that I've already made.
One of the frequently asked questions for homemade bread is can I use wheat flour?
This one is made with all white flour, this one is made with half white flour and half wheat flour,
and this one is made with all wheat flour and instead of sugar I used honey.
I'm going to cut each of these open so we can see inside.
Now you can see the differences between all 3.
The whole wheat bread loaf is much more dense than our white loaf.
Even though the wheat is more dense, all 3 are still super delicious.
Now let's check on our bread in the oven.
Then we'll transfer these to a wire rack and let them cool for about 10 minutes
If you'd like you can brush the tops with a little bit of melted butter, it gives the crust a really nice finish
and softens up that top crust if you like it that way.
After 10 minutes you can just kind of tip it and the loaf will slide right out.
As tempting as it is to slice into it right away,
you'll get the best results by waiting for the loaf to cool completely before slicing.
Thanks for watching!
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