BBA Challenge #40: White Bread

As kids, we had tons of white bread. Like more than should ever been good for any child. Hamburger Buns, Hot Dog Rolls, morning toast. Well, probably not the morning toast part, but definitely anything that had to do with Sandwiches.

As a child, my favorite thing was Peanut Butter and Strawberry Preserves. Actually, it wasn't so much preserved strawberries, as it was jam with chunks of strawberries. I still remember the huge jar my dad used do buy. White label, red oval with white letters in the middle. It was a generic brand, but one of the good ones. My dad, on the other hand, loved Pineapple-Apricot preserves, and would buy it whenever it suited his fancy. Which was often. The thing was, I don't ever think we had both jams at home at the same time, since the jars themselves must have been at least a liter of jam. While I never cared for his favorite jam, just remembering those jam wars takes me back, back to the time when we had white bread.


Because I wasn't really planning on doing this bread, it just sort of came spontaneously, I ended up with variation 2 in the book. Buttermilk and sugar are the only non-readily recognizable items in the mise en place.


A quick go-round in the ol' Electrolux N26 mixer.


And a not-so-dizzying picture of what the dough looks like when it's not spinning.


Here's where I have to stop for a moment and look back on my bread journey. This dough above represents the basic bread I began with, a white dough, but with a few additives I never would have thought of had I continued on my bread path.

The thing is, I had been making variations on white bread for years, measuring by cups and occasionally throwing in a bit of butter or milk. But an egg? A bit of sugar? Fresh yeast? I never would have dreamed of it. And yet. And yet. Here I am, various breads and kilograms of flour later. Making White Bread.


I decided to make a bunch of rolls in my springform cake pan. Oddly enough, I see springform cake pans everywhere, and have only seen non-springform pans at that one kitchen specialty shop.


I had expected some expansion, but sometimes when you visualize the bread as nearly double when you shape it, you expect something smaller. Still, I thought it would be nice to have pull-apart rolls.


This is the last bread and the last post where I will mention my broken oven. It was fixed a while ago, but this bread was the reason I even realized it was broken. The bottom stuck to the pan and was nearly raw. I just kept calm, and sliced off the bottom! Problem solved.


But the problem remained that, even though I tend to bake with dark flours, I absolutely loved this loaf. Even Amy couldn't help breaking off chunks of bread. It was like a bread pillow! I felt guilty eating this bread, which never, ever, happens. But it was so good. Maybe because I never bake bread this white? With flour this white? I mean, it has buttermilk and white flour, it's like the candy of bread.

And the best thing about this bread? Eating it with strawberry jam. And mustard, and plum jam, and, and, and!

Other bakers who have already completed the BBA Challenge and baked this dangerously delicious bread:

Oggi from I can do that!

Paul from Yumarama

Sally from Bewitching Kitchen

Cathy from Bread Experience.

ap269 from Family and Food