Recipe: Bread Machine White Bread

Bread Machine White Bread.

Bread Machine White Bread came from needing a fresh loaf for leftover roast beef sandwiches, in a hurry. I started with the Pain de Mie recipe on page 104 of Rustic European Breads from Your Bread Machine but made substitutions for ingredients I didn’t have on hand. The result was a very nice sandwich loaf: flavorful in a quiet way with a very soft crumb. Makes one 1 ½ lb loaf.

Ingredients:
3 ½ c all purpose flour
½ c rye flour (replacing semolina flour called for in the recipe; in both cases to add body)
2 T sugar
2 T unsalted butter at room temperature
¼ c sourdough starter (see note)
1 ¾ t whole milk (original recipe uses water and dry milk solids)
2 t instant yeast

Moist and tender… bread machine white bread crumb.

Method: follow the directions for your bread machine to add ingredients; typically you start with wet ingredients, then add the flour, then yeast on the very top. If your machine gives you the option to pause after the initial mix of ingredients, do this BEFORE adding yeast and let the sourdough develop for anywhere from 1 to several hours, then add the yeast and proceed. (If your bread maker doesn’t offer that option, or you’re in a hurry, skip this step.)

Note on the sourdough: because I was in a hurry, I added unrefreshed starter straight out of the refrigerator, and didn’t follow the additional proofing step above. As a result the only contribution of the starter was a slight hint of tartness, but it certainly didn’t hurt.