Mamaw’s Homemade Bread
This bread recipe is simple to make and also thrifty. It requires no milk or eggs but makes the softest, most delicious sandwich bread.
Ingredients
- 3 cups lukewarm water
- 2 tbsp sugar or honey
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil or olive oil
- 6-8 cups bread flour as needed to make a smooth dough
Instructions
- In a large bowl put the water, sugar, and salt. Sprinkle the yeast on top. Add the oil and stir in flour. Continue adding flour and kneading until a smooth elastic dough is formed. Knead for about 6-8 minutes.
- Cover and let rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.
- Oil hands and bowl and punch down dough. Cover and let rise again until double, about an hour.
- Divide dough evenly between two bread pans. Punch down dough to get rid of any air bubbles, form loaves, and place in oiled bread pans. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until lightly browned on top.
- Butter tops of loaves if desired.
Notes
I recommend using bread flour or any high protein flour to get the best results. All purpose can be used if that’s what you have but there is a difference in the quality.
Add 6 cups flour and mix and then keep slowly adding flour and kneading until dough is smooth and elastic and not sticky. Pinch off a small ball of dough and roll it in your hand. If it’s sticky and gets stuck on your fingers, add more flour. If it’s not sticky and just rolls around nicely, then you’ve added enough flour.
This recipe is easy to scale to the amount of loaves you want to bake. However many loaves you want, use one more measurement of water and oil and then use the same measurement of the rest of ingredients. For example, for six loaves of bread use 7 cups water and 7 tbsp oil and then 6 tbsp sugar, 6 tsp salt, 6 tsp yeast, and flour as needed.