Bread is a wonderful thing. I personally love a slice of bread with a little butter to sop up the excess sauce at the bottom of a plate of pasta. Or to soak up the broth of a bowl of soup on a cold winter evening. Or even for a sandwich... you get the idea. This recipe is a very simple bread recipe that can be made at home for a fairly quick loaf of a a basic white bread. You don’t even need a loaf pan, you can just form it on parchment paper on a baking tray and toss it in the oven!
Ingredients
2 ½ cups bread flour
½ tbsp salt
1 cup of warm water
1 packet of yeast
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
¼ to ½ cup melted butter (for baking)
To make the dough:
Add yeast to one cup of warm water and whisk together. Allow the yeast 5 minutes to bloom (you should see bubbles forming on top of the water). Once the yeast has bloomed, add the honey and olive oil to the water and whisk.
In a standing mixture with a dough paddle attachment, add the flour and salt and mix and a low speed to combine. Turn the mixer off and then add the water mixture, and mix again at a low speed until the ingredients fully incorporate and a dough is formed. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything mixes and combines. This should take about a minute it or two. Scrape off any dough stuck to the paddle and switch it out with a dough hook. Turn it back on at a low-medium speed and knead the dough. It may take as much as 8-10 minutes for the dough to fully come together. Mine was ready after about 5-6 minutes. The dough is done when it is smooth, holds its shape, and fills back in when you poke a hole in the dough.
Remove the dough from the mixer, and if it is not yet ready, place it onto a floured cutting board or other surface and knead the dough further by hand if necessary.
Grease a bowl with cooking spray. Form the dough into a ball and place the dough in the bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for about an hour (or until it doubles in size).
At this point, once it has doubled, you can remove it from the bowl. The dough is done.
To bake the bread:
You can split the dough evenly into two smaller portions or you can bake it whole.
To bake it as a whole loaf, form the dough into an oval on a cutting board with your hands. Place it on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. Brush the loaf with melted butter and let it rest for 20 minutes under a towel. In the meantime, preheat an oven to 400 degrees.
After 20 minutes, brush the loaf with butter again and place it in the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the loaf is golden and the internal temperature is 190 °F.
When finished, remove from the oven and let it cook on a rack for 10 minutes. It is then ready to slice and enjoy!