Simple Sandwich Bread
Stop buying bread at the store! Use this easy 5 ingredient recipe for the ultimate loaf, perfect for pb&j, french toast, grilled cheese, and all your other everyday uses
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup warm water
- 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast one packet
- 5 ½ cup organic all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup organic cane sugar
- 2 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 tbsp salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with dough hook, add 1 tbsp of sugar (this will help feed the yeast)
- Add warm water and sprinkle the yeast on top and gently mix
- Wait 5-10 minutes for yeast to activate- it will be foamy on top
- Add remaining sugar, salt, oil, flour
- Mix on speed 2 until dough pulls away from the sides and is nice and smooth (mine needed a few more tablespoons of flour to come together) about 5 minutes
- To check if it's kneaded enough, press the dough with your finger- if it springs back it's ready, if not give it another minute or two
- Cover and let sit for 1-2 hours until doubled in size (the time will depend on the temperature of your house, you could set it in the oven with the light on to speed things up )
- Spray two glass loaf pans (I use coconut oil spray but butter works too, just make sure they're well-coated to prevent sticking)
- Punch down dough to remove excess air and divide in half
- Press and stretch into a rectangle, it doesn't need to be perfect
- Fold into thirds (like a letter) and roll up into a loaf (this gives the loaf it's structure)
- To tighten up the loaf, gently pull the loaf towards you with your hand behind it to create tension, then gently tuck the sides in. Repeat a few times
- Preheat oven to 375℉
- Set into prepared pans and cover for about an hour- or until the loaves have risen to about 1 inch above the rim of the pans
- Bake for 30 minutes
- Cool for a few minutes in pans before turning out to finish cooling on rack
Notes
- variations: experiment using a cup or two of whole wheat flour (anything more than that will make the dough too dry)
- you can absolutely knead this by hand- that's what I did for years and I feel like it actually gave a better idea of how the dough should feel like
- these loaves freeze very well, just leave out for a few hours on the counter to come to room temperature
- I store this bread in bread bags, it would also do well in a cake stand