Homemade Amish White Bread

I'm not sure that there are many smells better than that of freshly baked bread. I'm still waiting for Yankee Candles to come out with that one! :) In a time when money is tight for everyone, I was thrilled to find this recipe for a basic white bread. All of the ingredients were things that I typically have on hand. It was fairly inexpensive to make, came together more quickly than I had ever imagined, and yielded two really nice sized loaves. The first day, we ate the bread fresh (seriously had to muster up some self control not to finish off the loaf!), the next day we made garlic grilled cheese sandwiches, and tomorrow I plan to make some french toast with it. I highly recommend this recipe, and plan to make it on a regular basis.

Homemade Amish White Bread

1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast

6 cups bread flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam. Stir the 1 cup of warm milk in now. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Using the dough hook on a mixer or with a wooden spoon by hand, mix in flour, one cup at a time. Knead until smooth.

Place dough in well oiled bowl; turn to coat top. Let rise about 1 hour.

Punch dough down, knead a few times. Divide dough in half. Shape into loaves and place into 2 greased 9x5-inch loaf pans. Allow to rise 30 minutes or until dough has risen about 1" above pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from pans immediately. Brush the top of the loaves with a little melted butter right after you take them out of the pans so that the crust stays nice and soft.

Source: Amanda's Cookin'