Perfect White Bread

Perfect White Bread 1 cup Milk , 110F. If you have sour milk you can use that. 2 tablespoons Sugar 1/4 teaspoons Ginger, it is a yeast activator, you wont taste it. 2 teaspoons Salt, I use kosher salt – if you use table salt use about 1/4 teaspoon less 2 tablespoons Butter, room temperature 2 packages Active dry yeast 1/2 cup Water 5 cups All-purpose flour, you may need a bit more Oil, to grease pans Stir the sugar and butter into the warm milk and set aside. Sprinkle yeast, ginger and a pinch of sugar on the water. Stir to dissolve and let it stand until bubbly. Add to milk mixture and stir in 3 cups of flour. Stir in the salt. Beat at medium speed about 2 minutes or stir by hand until batter is smooth. Add enough remaining flour to form a dough that leaves the sides of the bowl. Turn on to lightly floured surface, cover and let rest 10 minutes. Knead until smooth and elastic-about 10 minutes. Round up into a ball and oil all sides. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled about 1 1/2 hours. (The inside of the oven with the light on is perfect). Punch down. Cover and let rise again until doubled, about 30 minutes. You may omit this rising if you are pushed for time. It does help the texture, however. Shape into a loaf and place in an oiled bread pan. Lightly oil the tops. Let rise until almost doubled, and bread is rounded above the pan, 30-45 minutes. Bake at 375 for 20 to 30 minutes, or until loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, remove from pan, and finish cooling. If a soft crust is desired cover the loaf with a clean tea towel during the cooling process. Notes Variations Add 1 1/2 cups of raisins during kneading for raisin bread. Use honey for the sugar. Use brown sugar. You can substitute almond, soy, oat, or other non-dairy product for the milk. You can even leave the milk out and use plain water. You can use any light flavored oil instead of butter. Pinch off balls of dough and use as dinner rolls. Add an envelope of dry onion soup mix during mixing for onion bread or rolls.