Basic White Bread

Several years ago, I took a cooking class at BYU. It was a great experience and added to my foundation for cooking. This bread recipe was one of my favorite discoveries from that class. Over the years, I've changed a few things to make the recipe my own and Annette has taken the recipe and reworked it to suit her culinary genius. . . we've worked out the kinks--now you can enjoy!

There is nothing like freshly baked bread straight from the oven. Mmmmm.

6 T sugar 2 T salt
6 T shortening 5 C scalded milk

Combine these first four ingredients and then add 6 cups flour. Mix thoroughly with electric mixer. Stir in 1 ½ T yeast, dissolved in ½ C warm water and beat an additional 2-4 minutes. Add 5-7 C flour to make a soft dough. Knead well. Let rise until double (2-3 hours). Shape into 4 loaves and let rise until double (1-1 ½ hours). Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Annette's Notes: In both of these recipes I use water only. Milk has a tendency to dry the bread faster. I also add ¼ cup potato flakes to the warm water (this is my secret to good dough). If you use rapid rise yeast you will not have to let the second recipe raise for so long. I mix both recipes in my Kitchen Aid mixer. So on the second recipe I cut it in half and just mix it twice. If you want either sweeter I do heaping tablespoons of sugar and I use only shortening for both.