Old Fashioned Pioneer Bread

This is an old fashioned light, fluffy white sandwich bread with a beautiful golden crust.

Pioneer Old Fashioned Bread

makes 6 loaves

Ingredients:

• 15 cups white flour
• 1  1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons dry yeast
• 5 cups warm water

Directions:

In a large stainless steel bowl add 2 tablespoons of yeast, sprinkle in 2 tablespoons of sugar then add 1 cup of hand hot water. Give it a stir then let it sit for 10 minutes for the yeast to rise. After the ten minutes, add in the flour, salt, oil, sugar and 4 cups warm water. Mix together by using your hands until it forms a dough, if it’s too dry add a little bit of water, if it’s too sticky add a little flour. Take it out of the bowl and knead the dough for 4-5 minutes until its fairly smooth.

Cover the bowl with a clean dry tea towel or plastic cling wrap for 1 hour, place in a draft free place ( I put mine in the oven (unheated)). Divide the dough into 6 equal balls. Grease your bread pans, you can use oil or butter. ( I like to use cooking oil spray). Holding a ball of dough in your hands, gently pressed it down to remove air (should resemble a large pancake) then fold the sides down. (should look like a small sub bread). Place it seam side down in the pan, cover with a tea towel in a draft free place. Let it rise until it’s double in size about 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, bake for 40 minutes rotating them after 20 minutes cooking. Once cooked, remove from pans and let cool.

If 6 loaves is too much for you, you can make a smaller batch, enough for 2 loaves if you divide the recipe by 3. Or, you can make the full recipe and freeze the extra dough for fresh bread later.

Cheese Bread:

Add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese to the dough in the recipe above.

To Freeze The Dough:

After the bread dough has gone through it’s first rise, shape the bread as noted in the recipe then wrap in 2 layers of plastic wrap. Then place into a large freezer bag. When you are ready to cook the bread, defrost the dough in the refrigerator overnight then add the dough to greased pans. Let it rise for 1 hour then bake at 350 degrees (preheated oven), bake for 40 minutes rotating them after 20 minutes cooking. Once cooked, remove from pans and let cool.

The Author:

Pioneerthinking.com – Ingredient for a Simple Life.