Bread Baking

  Determined to embrace the remaining three weeks of my summer break and taking advantage of the unseasonably cool temperatures I decided on Tuesday to fire up the oven and do some bread baking. We had only a few slices of store bought bread in the house and with 'austerity August' (copyright: Carol of CT on a Budget) staring me in the face I am going to be baking our bread for the next month.
I pulled out my favorite white bread recipe, one I used to bake each and every day when my children were all at home and I was a single SAHM: Ken's Light White Bread. This recipe comes from More Bread Machine Magic by Lois Conway and Linda Rehberg. I originally used my bread machine to mix the dough then baked it off in a two pound sized bread pan in the oven. When my bread machine died I then turned to my KA stand mixer to mix and knead the bread. The following recipe is for a 1 1/2 pound loaf that bakes in a standard bread pan (my favorite pan is a stoneware bread pan from Pampered Chef). I finish the loaf of with a light brushing of milk over to top to make the soft crust which we prefer.

Ken's Light White Bread:
3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbl. sugar
2 tbl. unsweetened applesauce
 1 tbl. dry milk powder
1 cup warm water

Place 1/2 cup warm water, 1/2 tablespoon of sugar in a bowl and stir to dissolve sugar, sprinkle dry yeast over the top, stir, cover and let proof for 5 minutes until foamy.

In the bowl of a stand mixer place bread flour, salt, dry milk powder, and remaining sugar and mix well.

Add applesauce, remaining warm water and proofed yeast and mix to blend. Switch paddle to dough hook and knead on low speed for 7-10 minutes.

I like to give the dough a minute or two of hand kneading as well. Place dough in a well greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap; place in a warm spot and let rise until doubled, about 1-1 1/2 hours. Punch down doubled dough and give it about a minute of hand kneading, shape and place in a greased bread pan, cover with plastic wrap and let rise about 45 minutes.

Remove plastic wrap and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes until top is golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped (you can also use an instant read thermometer to check doneness, temp should be 190 degrees).