White Bread
I don’t think there’s anything like the wonderful smell of homemade white bread baking in the oven to give a kitchen that happy, old-fashioned feeling that both kids and grownups love. Your only problem with this recipe will be keeping everyone away from the white bread until it cools!
White Bread
4 packages dry yeast
2 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2 cups warm milk
1/4 cup warm, heavy cream
4 tablespoons melted butter
8 cups flour
Mix yeast with the salt, sugar, warm milk, and cream and butter, and stir thoroughly until dissolved. Put 6 cups of flour into a large bowl and make a depression in the middle. Pour the yeast mixture into this “well” and knead it with you hands until the dough is stiff, adding more flour as necessary. Then knead again for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Shape the dough into a ball and put in a clean bowl. Flour it lightly, cover, and let the dough rise in a place that is free from any draft for about 30 or 40 minutes, or until it has doubled in bulk.
Remove dough from the bowl, punch it down and knead again briefly to remove all the air. Return dough to bowl, cover and let it rise for a seond time until it has almost doubled in bulk.
Butter four 9×5x3 inch loaf pans, and divide the dough in fourths. Shape it into two compact loaves and place them in the greased pans. Cover, and let rise until the dough reaches the tops of the pans. Place the pans in a preheated oven at 400 degrees on the lowest rack, and bake for approximaely 40 minutes. Thoroughly blend an egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of milk. Brush each loaf of white bread with this mixture to give it a golden brown and shiny crust.