Wow. That bread is fantastic! I'm going to make this recipe a staple around our house. I used 1/2 cup of honey, and it was a very subtle flavor, I also increased the salt by 1/2 tsp and exchanged one cup of white flour for another of wheat. I had to allow for very long rising times since it's winter - they were a full inch above the pan when I put the in the oven. The result is a beautifully fluffy texture that's full of flavor. I just made this a second time, and added a 1/2 cup of quick oats. This made for a heartier texture, great for sandwich bread!
Great recipe. Every time I make it, the two loaves are gone within a day. We like it with double the amount of honey. The only suggestion is to make sure you cook it in a freshly heated oven. Don't try baking it after cooking something else in a higher temperature. Even if you reduce the temperature, the oven is still too hot and the outside of the bread cooks faster than the inside, therefore making a doughy inside. I'm fairly new at bread baking and have found this to be an easy and tasty bread.
this is a great bread - the texture is just like store bought and it's really easy to make. ***** 5 stars = "the best"
I read that some people said it took too long to rise - i use to have that problem with baking my own bread, too - but i don't anymore - all you have to do is let it rise in a warm oven - i put my at 50-degrees C. for 45 minutes for the first rise and 30 minutes for the second rise. it's turns out perfect every time. this recipe also doesn't use egg or milk - it's super tasty, too - hmmm mmm good!
The quest is over! This recipe has replaced store bought bread for my family. It has a great texture, a short ingredient list, and uses honey as a sweetener, which I can get locally. Goodbye store bread with weird chemicals packaged in plastic bags shipped to me from who knows where! :)
I have to give this recipe 5 and a half stars. This was my first time making any kind of bread. I read at least 40 reviews to get different perspectives. I followed all the directions to the tee. I made sure to have all my things together so I could move along smoothly. I used a baby thermometer to make sure my water was 110 degrees. I know this sounds absurd but I just had a baby and I have at least four new ones sitting around the house. I was really scared that the water would be too hot or not hot enough. I waited about two minutes to add the honey. I added the flour one cup at a time. It was easy to stir when I added the three cups of wheat flour. Once I got to the third cup of all purpose flour I started to worry that I was stirring it too much. So I transferred the mixture to my stand mixer with the dough hook. I added the last two cups of flour and let it knead for 10 minutes. I am glad I decided to put the dough in a gigantic plastic bowl to rise instead of leaving it in the mixing bowl because it would not have fit once it rose. I cut my oven on pre heat and cut it off after two or three minutes. Just enough to get it warm. I sutck the dough in to rise. After punching the dough down I made to loaf shapes and put them in the greased pans. I needed the oven to begin to pre heat for baking so I put them in the microwave this time. I didnt cut it on just stuck them in there. It took 30 minutes for them to rise again. To my surprise when I took them
Very good bread. It was easily halved to use in my bread machine, and it came out nice and soft. Bf liked it, which means I will probably make it again because he's not a big fan of wheat bread. I did use a 1/2 c more of wheat flour, modifying the amount of white flour in response.
I bake a lot of bread & have found that the most reliable way to measure flour is by weight. 4.5 oz. = one cup. Using this method will keep you from adding more flour than the recipe intends. If you have no way of weighing the flour lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cup & gently level without compressing the flour. Also don't feel you must use all the flour the recipe calls for. Once it has a soft consistency & has lost the tacky feel you've probably added all the flour you need.
Great recipe. This was my first bread and it was very easy and delicious. I doubled the honey as per the other reviews and it was very good. I'll make this again.
Wow. I'm new at bread, and this recipe has really boosted my confidence! It always comes out perfectly, even in my little toaster oven. My husband raves about it and brags to all his friends at work about his homemade sandwich bread... and you can imagine the points I gained with my new mother-in-law! It makes nice French toast after a few days... but don't count on there being any leftovers. I've been making it twice a week to rave reviews. Thank you!
For all you newbie bread bakers: the proportions on this recipe are all wrong. You can't put in 7 freaking' cups of flour and 2 cups of water and have it turn out. It needs to be 3 1/2 cups of water. (Also, the picture at the top is of bread that was allowed to over-rise. My husband used to be a commercial baker -- he knows his stuff.)
