make a good crust special
June 6, 2010
The first cookbook I decided to use was put out by the Trinity Lutheran Church Ladies Aid Society, Elkhart Indiana, circa 1975. Two lifelong members of the Ladies Aid Society were mrslovey’s great-aunts, and they had given a copy of the book to mrsloveymom, who later passed it to mrslovey. Based on other recipes of the aunties that I’ve tried, I figured that any cookbook they endorsed would be safe to use for this experiment. In addition, I really liked one of the sentences in the intro: The recipes in this book have not been tested in laboratories but have been tried and tested by a special group of tasters; our family and friends. Sounds like exactly what I’m looking for! I decided on Old Fashioned White Bread, by Barbara Brumbaugh, and got to work.
I was interested in the butter and milk added to the dough, and wondered how they would impact the final result. I also really liked the ‘makes a good crust special’. Really, how could I resist that?? Well let me tell you, this bread is DELICIOUS. Nice golden brown crust, and a light, airy fine-grain crumb that has just the slightest hint of sweet to it. This bread will be perfect for sandwiches. The only modifications I made were to use butter instead of margarine, and I used the liquid milk option instead of the dry milk. Other than that, I followed it totally as written. You should make this bread soon, and you should make it often. I know I’m planning on it!
OLD FASHIONED WHITE BREAD
6 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons soft margarine (or butter)
1 1/2 cups warm water plus 1/2 cup milk
-or-
2 cups very hot water plus 2 tablespoons & 2 teaspoons dry milk
- Mix 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast and dry milk in large bowl. Add margarine and very hot tap water. Blend and mix with electric mixer for 2 minutes at medium speed. Scrape bowl occasionally. Add 1 cup more flour and mix at high speed for 2 minutes. Stir in remaining flour until soft dough. Turn out and knead for 8-10 minutes. Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk about 1 hour. Punch down dough. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. Divide dough and shape into loaves. Place in greased pans. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Bake in hot 400F oven about 25-30 minutes or until done. Remove and cool on wire racks. Brush with butter when removed from oven. This makes a good crust special. Makes 2 loaves in standard loaf pans, or 6 mini loaves.
loveysoven 
Thanks to Barbara Brumbaugh & to lovey for sharing this recipe – it inspired me to try my first yeast bread ever. This was a good recipe to cut my teeth on – minimal ingredients and basic knowledge of what the end result should taste like. I had to look up a few things along the way (punching the dough & how to properly form a loaf), but all in all it was pretty easy and the results were VERY satisfying! This bread is very tasty – the fam devoured an entire loaf w/ dinner 😉 Now I’m off to peruse lovey’s recipes for my next challenge!!
In case anyone reads this going forward – I’ve also had excellent success substituting white whole wheat for half of the all-purpose flour.