Homemade White Bread

I've been chopping things out of our monthly budget left and right lately, in efforts to save up some money for well, life in general I suppose. One thing to get the boot from this weeks trip to the grocery store was bread. Mainly because I forgot about it, but hey, I saved $2.29 by not getting it, so score. 

I've made this recipe a few times. It was actually one of the first things I ever made for Derek, while we were dating (you can read about our 149 day love story here). I've since tried many other recipes, but I keep coming back to this one every time. It's just one of those things where it worked so well the first time, why bother fixing it? Plus, this recipe makes one loaf of bread which is so much more practical for small families than other recipes that feed an army. 

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp dry active yeast

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3/4 tbsp salt

3 cups all purpose flour

Directions: 

In the base of your stand mixer dissolve the sugar into the warm water, and then stir in the yeast and allow it to proof for 5 minutes. Add in the salt and oil and then stir. Add the flour one cup at a time, using the dough hook on low speed. Once all the flour is incorporated, let it knead on the dough hook on low for a few minutes and then transfer to a well oiled bowl. Roll the dough in the oil gently and then cover with a towel and allow it to rise in a warm spot for 1 hour. 

Punch the dough down and knead it for a few minutes before shaping the dough into a loaf shape and transferring it into a lightly greased bread pan. Preheat oven to 350° and cover the bread pan with a towel and allow the dough to rise again for 30 minutes until the dough is rising 1 inch above the pan. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes and cool on a wire rack.