Ginger White Bread

There is so much stuff on every surface these days that I had to use the office desk to photograph the bread, but you don't need to see all the cables and pens and that kind of thing.

I spent yesterday morning helping a good friend bake her first loaf of bread, Tassajara Basic Bread. It came out beautifully, and we had a great time together. This morning, the son of another good friend asked me what bread it was as he enjoyed it on an after school hangout at the first friend's house.

"Dad, you got to make a loaf!"

Can there be any better feeling to know that your helping a kid nag his parent into doing something for them?

I decided to do something a little different for my own sandwich loaf that afternoon.

The original recipe over at Allrecipes makes two smaller loaves (8x4" pans), but I decided that one larger loaf met our bread eating needs better, and WOW! it came out large! As usual, I used butter and honey instead of shortening and sugar, and stuck it in my really really big baking pan.

The hint of ginger is a delicious aftertaste! You can add more ginger if you want a bolder taste, or even I would think freshly grated ginger. Make it your own!

Ginger White Bread
allrecipes
makes 2 smallish loaves

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees to 115 degrees)
1 cup instant nonfat dry milk powder
3 tbs butter
2 tbs honey
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (original recipe calls for 1/4, but I like a lot of ginger)
6 cups all-purpose flour (I used 5 1/2 cups)*

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. 

Add the milk powder, butter, honey, salt, ginger and 3 1/2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. 

Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. 

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. 

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. 

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; shape into a loaf. 

Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60 minutes or until golden brown. 

Remove from pan to wire racks to cool. 

* you can substitute 1/2 the total flour with whole wheat flour for a different taste. I think it would be a lovely combination of the nutty whole wheat and the slight ginger tang.

And yet another submission to yeastspotting. I know it's nothing fancy, but there MUST be other people out there who don't bake fancy bread.. Right? Is it just me?