Fluffiest White Bread EVER!!

I have been making bread for roughly 30 years, my quest to make my familys bread as opposed to buying it was a much bigger challenge than I ever initially anticipated.

Through the years, we have had some successes, many, many failures as my goal was to produce somthing akin to Wonder bread.  Soft, yet substantial enough for a sandwich without the horrible yeasty flavor that seems to overwhelm most homemade breads. At one point I began to waver slightly and even bought a variety of bread machines and tried untold versions of store bought and homemade bread machine mixes.

In the early years I poured through cookbooks, newspaper recipes, magazines, searching for that 'perfect loaf'.  Then with the popularity of the internet, my searching took on a whole new dimension.  I was now able to access the secrets of some of the best bakeries in the world.

I am not going to stake my claim as having developed, 'the best bread in the world' however, I did accomplish my goal, here is my version of Wonder bread.

White Bread

Tangzhong

Ingredients:

1/3 cup flour
1 cup water

Directions:

1. Mix flour and water together and whisk until it is completely dissolved and no lumps remain.

2. Pour mixture into a small pot and turn on medium heat. Stirring constantly as the mixture heats up. It will begin to thicken.  When the temperature of the mixture reaches 149 degrees Fahrenheit, turn off the stove and take the mixture off the stove to let it cool.

3. Pour it into a bowl and cover the top using plastic wrap. Place the wrap directly onto the mixture to keep it from drying out and put it in the fridge for several hours or overnight. The paste does not keep well, so use within a few days.

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Bread 
Yields 1 loaf

Ingredients:

2½ cups all purpose flour * see notes
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 large egg
½ cup scalded milk (1 1/2 cups if using high protein flour, such as Hector or Cerasota)
1/2 of the Tangzhong * see notes
3 tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp butter softened

Directions
1. Combine the flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl. Make a well in the center. Whisk and combine all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong, then add into the well of the dry ingredients. Knead until your dough comes together and then add in the butter and continue kneading.* If you own a food processor, or stand mixer with a dough hook powerful enough to knead dough, I recommend using it. The dough takes a long time to knead. About 45 minutes by hand, 15 minutes by Mixer or Food Processor. The dough will start out extremely sticky.  Keep kneading until the dough is no longer sticky and it becomes smooth and elastic. You should be able to stretch the dough without it breaking right away. When it does break it should form a perfect circle in the middle.

2. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil.  Place dough into greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.

3. Transfer to a clean surface. Divide the dough into four equal portions. Knead into balls.  Cover with plastic wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.

4. Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin into an oval shape.  Fold in the sides of the oval to meet in the middle.

5. Flip dough over with the folds facing down, and flatten dough with rolling pin.

6. Flip dough back over so the folds face up again. Roll out dough to form a rectangle.  Start at the narrow end and roll up into a log. Repeat with each ball and place each of the logs into a lightly greased bread pan. Let them rise for another 40 minutes.

7. Beat an egg+1 tblsp water,  and brush egg mixture on top to create shiny eggwash finish.

8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Note:
*Although I do use an all purpose flour in this recipe, I use a brand that is unbleached, unbromated, non-GMO, high protein, high quality.  If you are using a cheap grocery/discount store,  or generic brand flour, I would suggest you use bread flour or consider paying an extra 1.00 on your weekly flour purchases and get the good stuff!!

*The Tangzhong makes roughly 3/4 of a cup when it's done.  Half of 3/4  of  a cup is 6 tbls, or 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons.  But, all that seems to over complicate this recipe for me and I like simple.   I store the Tanzhong in a bowl in the fridge until I am ready to bake, at that time I take a knife, cut the tangzhong in half, scoop out one half and move on down the road.  ( Simple is ALWAYS better)

*If you are going to knead by hand, grease your worksurface and hands while kneading... DO NOT ADD ANY MORE FLOUR!!! 2 1/2 cups is the TOTAL amount of flour.