The Saturday White Bread

This recipe is designed for someone who wants to make good, crusty loaves of white bread from start to finish in one day. Mix the dough first thing in the morning, shape it into two loaves about five hours later, and then bake in the late afternoon in time for dinner. Here you get the taste-good benefits of a medium-length fermentation, resulting in a versatile, delicious bread that’s great as a dinner bread and also works well for sandwiches and toast.

Sometimes I like to make this bread with 10 percent whole wheat flour for the round, earthy flavors it adds. If you want to do that, simply make this recipe with 900 grams of white flour and 100 grams of whole wheat flour.

You can bake one or two loaves from this recipe. If you bake just one loaf, you can divide the remaining dough into two or three dough balls to make iron-skillet focaccia or pizza; refrigerate the dough balls and use them any time during the next two or three days. I love focaccia with olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a sprinkling of herbs, cut into small pieces to share with friends before dinner, or just for snacks.

I recommend using an oven thermometer to confirm that when you set your oven to 475ºF, you actually get 475ºF. Some ovens run hotter than their setting, and some run cooler. (Mine runs 25ºF cooler, so when I want to heat it to 475ºF, I set it to 500ºF.)

Curious about how gluten develops in bread dough? Check out our guide.