Keri’s Basic Bread

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water, and let sit for about five minutes.  Dissolve honey in 2 1/4 cups warm water.  Add flour and salt to the large mixing bowl of an automatic mixer*** which has the bread dough hook attachment installed.   Start mixer and add yeast-water mixture and honey-water mixture to the flour/salt mixture.  Mix until a ball forms.  If too sticky, add a little more flour.  After about 5 minutes of kneading, add the butter in bits.  Add more flour if necessary.  Let the machine knead the dough for for about 20-25 minutes more.  In a luke warm place, let bread rise, covered for two hours.  

The dough should have about doubled in size by now.  

Many recipes will tell you to "punch" the dough down.  This has always felt a little too violent--like you're taking out your frustrations on the dough.  I prefer to carefully pull the dough away from the sides of bowl, letting the air sort of "wheeze" out.  Gently form the dough back into a ball, cover again and then let rise in a luke warm place for about 1.5 hours. 

Deflate again and divide into loaf pans and let rise for 1 hour. 

I usually use two large or one medium size loaf pan and then 3-4 little loaf pans.  Once fully cooled after baking, I place the little loaves into freezer-safe bags and freeze them for several weeks, to be pulled out and defrosted when a loaf of home made bread is in order.

I usually do all my proofing in the oven--it's just a convenient place that I can keep at a gently warm temperature and where the bread is protected from drafts and such.  

I don't preheat the oven.  Once I think the bread has risen enough, I remove whatever cover I have on the bread and start the oven.  The bread will rise a little more as the oven heats up, but not a lot.

Turn oven on to 350* and bake for about 30 minutes, or until bread is golden brown.  Turn out onto a clean dish towel and let cool for a few minutes before devouring warm with butter and perhaps even some cheese.