White Bread with Honey
Bread recipe makes 2 loaves from Bee Culture 2022
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer with dough hook attachment
- 1 set measuring cups
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 set measuring spoons
- 2 9 x 5 bread pans
- 1 dish towel
- 1 plastic wrap
- 1 spatula
Ingredients
- 2 cup warm water (105-110 degrees F)
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast do not use quick rising
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp oil canola or vegetabe
- 4-5 1/2 cup flour can use bread flour
Instructions
Proof the Yeast
- In a stand mixer at room temperature, add the yeast, water and a pinch of honey (¼ teaspoon)
- Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes until foaming and bubbly. (This is called “proofing.” If it doesn’t foam, the yeast is no good, and you need to start over with fresh yeast)
Bread
- Add remaining honey, salt, oil and 3 cups of flour
- With stand mixer, dough hook, mix to combine, stopping to scrape sides of bowl
- Add another cup of flour
- Mix to combine
- With the mixer running, continue to add more flour, ½ cup at a time, until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl
- The dough should be smooth and elastic, and slightly stick to a clean finger, but not be overly sticky. You can add more flour as needed until dough is ready
- Run the mixer with dough hook for 4-5 minutes on medium speed
- First Rise
- Grease the large mixing bowl with cooking spray or shortening
- Put dough into greased bowl and turn once to ensure dough has slight covering of oil/spray
- Spray plastic wrap and cover down sides of bowl and over dough making it loose so it can move with dough as it rises
- Cover plastic wrap covered dough with kitchen towel
- Place covered mixing bowl in a warm, draft free place (I use the top of my refrigerator) until doubled in size, approximately 1 1/2 hours
Prep Baking Pan
- Spray or use light covering of shortening and grease sides, corners and bottom of two 9x8 inch baking pans
- Dust with small amount of flour or use line bottom with parchment paper
Second Rise
- After dough has double, uncover and punch down, knead down to remove large air bubbles
- Divide dough into two equal portions
- Shape portions into long log and put into greased/floured/parchment lined baking pans
- Spray plastic wrap and loosely cover each baking pan of dough
- For second rise, allow dough to rise until 1" above baking pan rim, approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Gently remove plastic wrap and put both loaves center of preheated oven 350 degrees, pans should not touch each other.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until top is golden brown. When you tap bread it should sound hollow
- Take baked bread out of baking pan and brush with melted butter or melted honey/butter
- Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing. You can freeze this bread after it cools.