Two days later, I am surprised this bread is still on the counter. We finished the first loaf within hours of its debut (out of the oven). The second loaf, we broke into, but managed to save 3/4 for the next day, partially to see how long it will last in the open air.
A simple white bread is a great place to start if you are new to baking bread. With only six ingredients (if you count water, oil, and salt) it is hard to ruin a basic white. It would be fairly easy to spruce up this recipe with herbs or a compound butter. I would recommend rosemary and thyme or cinnamon and brown sugar for a sweeter touch.
Before Proof 
After Proof
Take-Home Tips: Do not let the lengthy instructions scare you. For bread stick to the outline and overall process:
- Ferment yeast: usually involves warm but not hot water, and sugar to feed the yeast.
- Add flour: incorporate the flour slowly until the dough forms and becomes less sticky.
- Knead: move and work the dough to build up the gluten and get a solid structure.
- (Bulk) Proof: do nothing. Let the dough sit and get to know itself better. I like to picture it in the Jacuzzi with a drink. Let the dough finish its drink before you rip it out of the relaxing water. Sometimes this step is repeated, because – second drink.
- Bake: firm up so we can use the bread for something useful. Like sandwiches.
This go around I went for [Step 6] but did not score the bread. I was curious if it really mattered. I think in this case it was fine without scoring, but it is prettier if you do anyway. The neat thing about bread is the footprint does not change much; the bread prefers to rise upward rather than outward. Therefore if you mold it in a particular shape, it will retain much of your design.
Scoring: not to be confused with scoring bread. 9 of 10, per my husband. A nice flavor with a decent crust. It keeps and reheats well. However we tried using this bread for grilled cheese and tomato soup, and the crust makes it a bit painful. Better to soak it in the soup as croutons. Would make again!
Food of the Month 