White Bread Coolrise©

I bake all the bread we eat as a family. I personally prefer crusty, hearth-baked breads, but my daughters quickly found out that this is not what goes on in most homes. They always wanted to eat plain American white bread, the type they saw on all their friends sandwiches at school. There has never been any kosher white bread available in our local stores, so I promised to find a recipe for white bread that would satisfy my standards and yet approximate the oblong, white, thin-crusted American bread. The following recipe has satisfied both the girls and my culinary demands. It's a simple and convenient white bread that uses the method developed by Bernard Clayton and written about in his The Complete Book of Breads. Essentially the method allows you to prepare the bread dough a few hours or a day in advance, have the dough rise in the refrigerator, and bake it just when you need it for a meal.

Ingredients

Method: Oven: 400° F. , 35-40 minutes
Yield: 2 medium loaves

Measure 2 cups flour, yeast, salt, sugar, and oil into Cuisinart. Pour in the water, and mix for 1-2 minutes. Add remaining bread flour (or more, if needed), and proceed to mix until "ear-lobe" consistency. Cover with towel or plastic wrap and rest for 20 minutes. Shape into 2 round loaves, put into loaf pans, brush with oil, cover with plastic, and refrigerate for 2-24 hours. Remove, and bring to room temperature for 10 minutes. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
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