Walter Sands' Basic White Bread
Below is the recipe for the bread that Walter made faithfully once a week for years. Walter was the father of Frank E. Sands, King Arthur Flour's current chairman of the board. Because of his arthritic hands, he used a bread bucket with a crank, which kneaded hundred of loaves of this fragrant bread with all its happy associations.
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons sugar or honey
1 scant tablespoon or packet active dry yeast
1/2 cup dry milk (optional)
2 tablespoons butter, softened, or vegetable oil
6 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons salt
Pour the warm water into a mixing bowl. Add and let dissolve the sugar or honey and then the yeast. When the yeast is bubbling, add the dry milk, butter and 3 cups of flour and the salt. Mix together and then stir in a further 2 1/2 cups of flour. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup on the surface you intend to use for kneading.
Knead the dough for 3 to 4 minutes, until it begins to behave as if it belonged together. Let it rest while you clean and grease the bowl. Continue kneading a further 3 to 4 minutes, until the dough feels smooth and springy.
Let the dough rise until doubled (1 to 2 hours). Knock it down, knead out any stray bubbles, cut it in half and form two loaves. Place them in two lightly greased 4 1/2 x 8 1/2-inch bread pans. Let rise until almost doubled (45 minutes to 1 hour).
Preheat the oven for 15 minutes to 350°F. Bake the loaves 35 to 40 minutes, or until nicely browned. Remove bread from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Yield: 2 loaves.
This recipe reprinted from The Baking Sheet Newsletter, Vol. III, No. 6, July-August 1992 issue.
Reviews
05/31/2009
08/15/2009
The best white loaf I have ever made. Mixed in my breadmaker and baked in the oven.
11/28/2009
What a happy couple of little loaves! This was perfect white bread for my husband's favorite snack of PB&J. The dough was surprising easy to work with, kneaded, rose and baked up beautifully.
01/09/2010
02/04/2010
This is the BEST White bread Recipe yet!!! My family loves this bread for sandwiches. It is so moist! Makes excellent toast, and one of my favorites is to spread it with fresh peanut butter and jelly. Just wonderful.......
02/06/2010
Finally, the perfect sandwich bread! I've tried so many recipes, so many times, and ended up with flat and medieval bread that made better bread crumbs than grilled cheese. For this recipe, I followed it almost exactly, omitting the dry milk but using a bit of milk with the lukewarm water. My Kitchen Aid mixer made kneading a breeze. I had no problems achieving great rise, and let the loaf rise till what looked like bursting point before baking. It turned out wonderfully: soft, delicious, big sandwich bread.

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