Its not very popular these days. White bread has taken a back seat to all the whole grain and gluten free type recipes. But my family still appreciates a good loaf of homemade white bread now and then and I won’t touch a tomato sandwich on any other type of bread. Here is my recipe. You can make some nice rolls with this dough too. 
Preheat your oven to 500* to help raise the dough the first time.
Old Fashioned White Bread
*5-6 cups white bread flour. You can use plain flour, but don’t use self-rising. If you use plain flour and decide that the bread didn’t rise as much as you would like, next time, use about 3 tablespoons of vital gluten to replace the same amount of flour.
*2 1/2 cups milk, heated to about 115*F – I just heat it on the stove in a pan and I heat it til I can stick my finger in it and its very warm but not uncomfortable. Or you could use a thermometer.
*2 teaspoons yeast
*2 tablespoons sugar
*1 rounded tablespoon fat, I use lard, shortening will work
*2 Tablespoons salt. I know, it seems like a lot but if you reduce it, only reduce it by a teaspoon or so
If you anticipate your bread hanging around the house a while before its devoured, you can add 2 tablespoons powdered lecithin. Lecithin is a natural product derived from egg yolk.
Heat the milk, add about 1/2 cup of the milk to a cup and then add the yeast and a pinch of the sugar.
Add the rest of the sugar, salt, fat, rest of the milk and the lecithin if using in a mixing bowl.
Wait for the yeast mixture to get foamy. Once its foams, add it to the mixing bowl ingredients. Start adding the flour, a cup at a time, mixing until you get a soft dough. If you’re using a stand mixer to knead the dough, knead until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and leaves the bowl clean.
If you are kneading by hand, knead for 10 minutes. Don’t add more than 6 cups of flour.
After kneading, grease a large oven-proof bowl. Gather the dough up into a ball and place it into the greased bowl. Pick up the ball and turn it over in the bowl, this greases the top surface of the dough. Cover the bowl and dough with a clean cloth.
Place the bowl into the heated oven, turn off the heat and let the oven door hang open a bit.
If you’re not using the heated oven to raise the dough, just place the dough in a warm area. Allow the dough to rise til double, about 45 minutes to an hour if you’re using the heated oven and about an hour to an hour and a half if you’re not using the oven.
While the dough is rising, prepare two loaf pans by greasing them well. You can use spray oil.
Once the dough is risen and doubled in size, divide it into to equal portions. I shape each portion into a loaf by first pulling the sides of the ball down and tucking them underneath the ball, kind of like a mushroom. Then I hold the ball with the tucked ends near my palm and roll the “mushroom” on the table. This presses out air bubbles.
Place the dough into the prepared pans. Using a fork, pierce the dough all the way to the bottom of the pan 10 or 12 times all over the top of the loaf.
Allow the loaves to rise until they are about 1 inch over the sides of the pans. This can take up to two hours.
Preheat the oven to 325*F. Bake the loaves for 25 minutes. Remove the loaves from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Turn the pans over and remove the bread from the pans.
Brush the tops and sides of the warm loaves with butter, this makes the crust soft once the bread cools.
Allow to cool before storing in plastic bags.
Hello and welcome! I'm Sylvia Britton, and I've been online since 1996 offering encouragement and help in the spirit of Titus 2 and Proverbs 31 at Christian Homekeeper. CHK is the original Homekeeping site on the internet
I can’t seem to get my bread to look as nice as yours 🙁 but the tastiness of it is so good that my family doesn’t complain 🙂
Sylvia,
How long would you bake them if shaped into rolls? I guess that is hard to answer as it depends on the size of the rolls, but approximately the size of the palm of your hand? Like the size used for “sliders” but slightly larger? Would they be baked at the same temp?
Also, I’m wanting to use your recipe to make and freeze hamburger and hotdog buns which we eat often during the summer. Any pointers you could share on time, temp or other tips about that would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Cheryl
If you made a pan of rolls from this recipe it would take about 20 minutes to bake, just watch them and when they get the color of golden brown you like, they’re done. Its a very forgiving recipe.
When you use this recipe for hamburger and hot dog buns, all the rising times and baking times and temp are pretty much the same.
Sylvia,
Thank you! Can’t wait to get started on them today!
This looks awesome. I also enjoy homemade bread. It’s time to make some more soon!
My family thinks homemade white bread says “I love you!” LOL!!
That’s exactly what it says, Trish! 😀
I just LOVE homemade bread, and love trying new recipes. This one is going on the dinner table tonight.
Bernadette Cooper recently posted..Make a Blog Button
I hope you and your family enjoy it, Bernadette!