White sandwich bread recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make white bread more flavorful? ›

If you're looking to ramp up the taste of your favorite bread recipe, we recommend adding a bit of fat. A fat like butter, olive oil or coconut oil in small quantities will help your bread achieve a higher rise and it will also boost its flavor by tenfold.

Wheat flour

White bread / Main ingredient

Too much flour and not enough water can cause crumbly bread – people often do this if the dough is too sticky and they add more flour rather than kneading through it. Other culprits can be overproving or not kneading enough – the things you need to do to get a good structure.

American sandwich breads have historically included some fat derived from the use of milk or oil to enrich the bread. Thin-sliced breads, wherein the bread is sliced somewhat thinner than customary, are often labeled as "sandwich bread".

Butter, technically a dough enrichment, tenderizes bread dough and limits gluten development, yielding a softer, more tender crumb and a richer flavor. The butter in this sourdough babka dough makes the interior tender—and delicious. Photo by Maurizio Leo.

As the name suggests, bread flour is used for making various bread types, like sourdough and white bread. It is also ideal for other recipes where you desire more structure and a chewier consistency, such as pizza dough, flatbreads, pretzels, and bagels.

The umpteen ingredients in a typical, plastic-wrapped loaf from a factory, in addition to flour, salt, water and yeast, include some or all of the following: “Improvers” such as E481 (sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate),E472e (mono- and diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids)E920 (l-cysteine) ...

A “tight crumb” aka small holes in the interior of your bread can be the result of different factors: under-fermenting, over-fermenting, and a lack of gluten development.

The color indicates the day of the week the bread was baked. Typically, commercial bread is baked and delivered to grocery stores five days a week. This gives bakeries two days off–Wednesdays and Sundays. The color system helps the store staff as they rotate in the freshest bread and remove the older loaves.

Can you over knead bread? ›

Bread Loaves made with over-kneaded dough commonly end up with a hard crust and dry interior. Often upon cutting, slices will crumble. If your perfect bread loaf turns into a crumbly mess, don't worry. The overworked dough will work great when used as croutons or breadcrumbs.

That said, most homemade breads are likely healthier than store-bought breads, which are often high in sugar and preservatives. One benefit of making your own bread is that you can control the ingredients. For example, you can use whole wheat flour instead of white flour, or add healthy toppings like nuts and seeds.

To choose a beneficial bread, you can look for varieties made from 100% whole-grain and/or sprouted-grain flours. Make sure your bread is low in added sweeteners. A few good options include sourdough, rye, flax, and oat breads.

In a nutshell, if you're buying basic, cheap sandwich bread, it's probably cheaper than you can make it at home. But if you compare two loaves similar to what you could make at home — one made with high-quality ingredients as opposed to one made with lesser quality ingredients — home baking becomes much cheaper.

Extra ingredients, like sweeteners and butter, can change (and improve) the taste of any loaf.

Your bland bread could be the result of rushing the process. Try a slow overnight rise in the refrigerator. Plan ahead to proof your loaf overnight. This hands-off time in the icebox will slow the fermentation process in your dough and result in a complex-flavored loaf.

It's tough to say what is causing the bread to be bland. Letting it sit overnight, usually helps in that department, but also an addition of salt. As you add salt though, you will probably want to add yeast as well, not much mind you, but a little extra of each could be beneficial.