Laura's Recipe for Fast White Bread

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Warm Water
2 T sugar
2 T butter (or stick margarine)
2 t salt
1 package active dry yeast
5 cups all purpose flour

INSTRUCTIONS

I made mine using my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer with the dough hook, but you can do this all by hand if you have a strong arm to beat the batter!

Pour 2 cups of warm water in your mixing bowl add sugar and salt , cut the butter into small pieces and stir into water until the butter is melted and the sugar and salt are dissolved. Add the yeast and mix well.

Stir in 3 cups of all purpose flour until mixture is smooth then add additional 2 cups of flour a bit at a time until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the side of the bowl.

At this point you can dump the dough out on a well floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes OR if you are like me you add flour a few tablespoons at a time and let the dough hook do the work. I dumped it out on the floured surface when the dough was smooth on the surface and no longer sticky to the touch. I kneaded a few more turns by hand - about 2 minutes.

Spray cooking spray in a glass mixing bowl, put the dough in and turn it or just spray some more cooking spray directly on the dough. Cover with saran wrap and a kitchen towel. Put it in your oven (not heated yet) and just turn the light on in the oven. Just that bit of heat coming off the light and the sealed oven will help the dough raise quickly.

After about an hour - or when dough has doubled in size - take the dough back out of the oven and punch it back down, split it in half and put in two loaf pans sprayed well with cooking spray. Cover again with saran wrap and a towel and put back in the oven for approx 45 minutes or until doubled again. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the saran wrap and return uncovered loaf pans to heated oven for 30-35 minutes. Once they are removed from the oven brush with melted butter. After about 5 minutes remove from pan to wire rack to finish cooling.

Attempt to wait until they are cool to cut off the first slice - FAIL miserably at this and eat your still warm slice smothered in real butter.

Enjoy!

For Laura's step by step instructions with photos this link will take you to this post on her blog Love at Home. While you are there be sure to bookmark her site because you will want to go back!