How To Make Sandwich Bread

Rarely do I buy bread anymore. It's much cheaper and tastier to make it yourself. I splurge and buy "Snappy Sourdough" or "Seeduction Loaf" from Wholefoods every now and then. Simply because any sourdough starter I have tried to make here is scummy and yuk before it ever becomes "mellow and yeasty".

I do make this bread "five minute a day bread" quite often, but it is a rustic type bread. In my Girls' opinions this just won't do for school lunch bread. So following the basic rules I've learned about bread making, I attempted to bake some "sandwich" bread for my girls. The style I decided on was a honey whole wheat bread.

Gather Ingredients.
Heat milk, water, and butter until hot enough that you can barely leave your finger in it. This is my very un-scientific method! Too hot kills the yeast. Too cold doesn't activate it.

Mix it all up, transfer dough to oiled bowl and let rise. Punch down. Put in specially bought long sandwich loaf pan and let rise again.

Bake at 400 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes until done.

Slice it up....

...and watch it get consumed in minutes. Wait....Girls!....this was the bread for you lunches....!

Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

2 cups of white flour

4 to 5 cups of whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tablespoons of fast acting yeast

3/4 tablespoon of salt

1/4 cup of honey

3 tablespoons of butter

1 cup of milk

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons of olive oil

In mixing bowl combine one cup of white flour, one cup of whole wheat, yeast and salt. In saucepan put water, milk, honey and butter. Heat until you can barely leave your finger in. The butter doesn't necessarily have to melt. (I use a kitchen aid mixer, you can do all this by hand) Mix liquid into bowl with flour, yeast and salt. Mix well.

Change to dough hook. (If doing by hand you will stir in flour and then hand knead.) Slowly add 1 cup of white flour and then three cups of whole wheat flour as mixer kneads with the dough hook. Add a little more flour if needed. The dough should be very moist but manageable.

Oil another bowl. Lightly flour dough to make it more manageable and transfer to oiled bowl. Turn dough to coat both sides. Cover dough with cloth and allow to rise until doubled in a warm place.

Punch down dough and transfer to oiled loaf pan. (This will fill one long loaf pan. If you do not have one, this recipe will make two short loaf pans.) Allow to rise until doubled. Before bread is finished rising pre-heat over to 400 degrees. Once bread is doubled bake for 35 to 45 minutes until done.