Today, I am on a mission. A mission to finally find the best homemade white bread recipe. I have been quite unsuccessful in recent attempts which has made me quite frustrated. I'm not sure if it's the recipe or me and I have to find out. So, I turned to the internet, typed in "best homemade white bread recipe" and of course, found quite a few sources. However, I am only choosing those recipes that have been rated very highly by others and here's what I've decided to try:This first recipe is a bread machine recipe, which is awesome, because I have a bread machine and haven't been too happy with the quality of bread that's come out of it, (based on the recipe book that came with it). But this White Bread I recipe has 161 reviews - 4 1/2 stars):
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/White-Bread-I/
Next is a 5 star - 3,232 people reviewed recipe. In a word, "WOW". Let's hope that's what I'll be saying after I take a slice and slather it with butter:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Amish-White-Bread/
Next, Julia Child. Need I say more (but with 47 reviews with 4 and what looks like 3/4 stars):
http://www.food.com/recipe/julia-childs-white-bread-9032
And a recipe that runs in my boyfriend's family. His grandmother's homemade white bread/rolls recipe. And I can tell you, even though I've never made it myself, I've tasted hers and they are DELISH!!
Let's get started!
I'm going to start with the bread machine recipe White Bread I, get that out of the way and let it do it's thing. Milk, sugar, salt, butter, flour, and yeast. Seems quite simple.
It makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf and will take approximately 3 hours. Something interesting about this recipe is that it calls for all-purpose flour and not "bread flour" or even "bread machine flour". Happy about that because we all know that those flours are more expensive than all-purpose. And I'm all about saving money! * After seven minutes of the bread machine doing it's magic, I'm already noticing that the texture of this recipe is much better than my old. I don't have to add any water. In my previous recipe I had to add a few teaspoons of water because the dough had dry clumps on the sides. So, this is good!
That was painless and now we're off to the next test: Amish White Bread
Water, sugar, salt, oil, bread flour, and yeast. This recipe calls for bread flour. I made sure the water was 110 degrees and the yeast indeed became quite creamy and frothy. That's a good sign. It came together quite nicely with about 5 minutes of kneading, now it's proofing in a 90 degree room in a well-oiled bowl with a damp cloth over top. Off to the next one!
Julia Child's White Bread. This recipe from Food.com is very well laid out with steps clearly defined. I'll be absolutely honest here, I've never made anything from Julia Child. This is my first. I'm pretty excited and I have high expectations that this will turn out fabulous. It is also done 100% in the mixing bowl, no hand kneading. I like that too.
Hmm, first step is to mix 1/2 cup of the water with the yeast and sugar until foamy and then let it sit 5 minutes until creamy. I've never done it that way, but we'll see.... Step 6 says to add ALL of the salt and then mix for 10 minutes on medium speed. Again, odd....
White Bread I is coming along quite nicely in the bread machine. Amish White Bread has not risen one iota after 45 minutes. Something must be wrong.
Back to Julia Child's White Bread. This is indeed a strange one. Added the butter (Step 7) after 10 minutes of mixer-kneading. That was a nightmare. It looked like drywall paste and it had to knead forever and change the paddle to a regular mixing paddle (from the dough hook) and then it was just wrong from there. Got it to a semi-dough looking state, changed back to the dough hook, placed it on the counter, formed it into a ball and put it into a greased bowl, covered with plastic wrap and it's now rising.
White Bread I is looking fabulous! It smells delish and it's getting huge!
I put the Amish White Bread into the bread pan to rise for the second time. This time, however, I put a dry tea towel on it rather than a damp cloth. Let's see what happens.
Memère's Bread. Now this one, I am so very anxious to try. Simple recipe, flour, yeast, oil, salt, sugar, water. Nothing fancy. But I think the secret ingredient was love. No doubt that's why Memère's rolls were the best around. So, nothing crazy here, simply put it together and now it's rising for the first go round.
Alright, the Amish White Bread is ready to hit the oven.
It rose a little bit more on the 2nd proofing, but it's rising like crazy in the oven. So, wiping the nervous sweat off my brow, it just might turn out like it's supposed to.
Julia Child's White Bread is ready for it's second proofing. It rose a little bit, but we'll just have to wait and see if the second proofing with be similar to the Amish White Bread and rise in the oven rather than in the pan.
Wow! Pleasantly surprised at the Amish White Bread. It rose very well in the oven and has a beautiful golden top. The true test, of course, will be if it tastes any good.
Memère's Bread has risen well above the bowl after it's first proofing! Wonderful! Now we need to get that into the loaf pan for the second rising.
I am truly, truly shocked at how high Julia Child's White Bread is rising in the oven! Amazing! Highest so far.
But hold the phone! Memère's Bread is out of control! It's at least 3 inches above the pan! WOOHOO! Here are all four loaves of bread. Left to right: White Bread I, Amish White Bread, Julia Child's White Bread and then Memère's Bread. Incredible!
Now, is the true test. How do they taste? I've gathered Gilles and Drake to tell me what they think.
Gilles: WINNER: Amish White Bread; Second Place: Memère's Bread; Third Place: White Bread I; and Last Place: Julia Child's White Bread
For Gilles, the texture and flavour of the Amish White Bread was far superior to the others. Although it was the lowest rising, it was his favorite.
Drake: WINNER: Julia Child's White Bread; Second Place: Memère's Bread; Third Place: White Bread I; and Last Place: Amish White Bread.
For Drake, the flavour and texture of Julia Child's White Bread was just what he'd look for in a slice of bread. Ironically, his least favorite was our number 1 pick! Just goes to show how tastes differ.
For myself, I concur with Gilles. The Amish White Bread was delicious. However, since the White Bread I was really tasty as well, and for the fact that it uses all-purpose flour, and is made in a bread machine, I would say that I'll probably continue making that recipe (pictured below) on a regular basis and the Amish White Bread on special occasions. Ultimately, I'm just really, really happy to have done this experiment and to have discovered some very, very good homemade white bread recipes!
Thanks for stopping by! Keep checking in to see what I've got up my sleeves!
Colleen
