I have been working on the perfect sandwich bread. I've had quite a few failed attempts at it, but I think I have finally landed on the perfect sandwich bread. If you have ever had the pleasure of Grandma Sycamore's Bread then you will know that it is hard to find any bread in a store that compares. They don't sell it anywhere near San Diego so in leui of having my relatives import it in for me, I have been in search of a homemade replacement.
I'm sharing the base recipe. It is easy to make variations based on the base. For instance, you can make a delicious buttermilk version by simply replacing the 1 cup of milk with 1 cup of buttermilk. You can make a wheat version by substituting half of the flour with wheat flour. You could do 100% wheat, but it ends up more dense which is just the nature of wheat.
Ingredients
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
1 tsp salt
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
1. In a microwave safe bowl or cup, warm the milk until it is warm to the touch.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the milk, brown sugar, yeast, salt, melted butter, and flour. Knead on a low setting for 1 minute, and then turn it onto a medium to medium-high setting and knead until the dough forms a nice ball.
3. Put the dough ball into a greased bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise for 90 minutes.
4. After 90 minutes, transfer the dough to a greased bread loaf pan. Cover with aluminum foil and let rise for 60 minutes more.
5. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.
6. Bake the bread in the preheated oven, with the aluminum foil still on, for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes
7. Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool in the pan, on a wire rack for 20 minutes before removing the loaf from the pan and letting it cool completely.
