This soft, homemade white bread is perfect for beginning bread bakers! Delicious for toast, sandwiches or just hot and fresh, oozing with melted butter. It rises three times to make it extra soft and fluffy.
0 Stir the sugar and butter into the warm milk and set aside.
2 Sprinkle yeast, ginger and a pinch of sugar on the water.
4 Stir to dissolve and let it stand until bubbly.
6 Add to milk mixture and stir in 3 cups of flour.
8 Stir in the salt.
10 Beat at medium speed about 2 minutes or stir by hand until batter is smooth.
12 Add enough remaining flour to form a dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.
14 Turn on to lightly floured surface, cover and let rest 10 minutes.
16 Knead until smooth and elastic-about 10 minutes.
18 Round up into a ball and oil all sides.
20 Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with a tea towel.
22 Let rise in a warm place until doubled about 1 1/2 hours. (The inside of the oven with the light on is perfect). This is the first rise and will take the longest.
24 Punch down or gently deflate the dough.
26 Cover and let rise again until doubled, about 30 minutes. You may omit this second rise if you are pushed for time. It does help the texture, however.
28 Shape dough into a loaf and place in an oiled loaf pan. To do this roll or pat out into a rectangular shape and then roll up, pinching the seams tightly together.
30 Lightly oil the tops.
32 Let the dough rise until almost doubled, and top of the dough is rounded above the pan, 30-45 minutes. This is the last rise before baking.
34 Bake at 375 for 20 to 30 minutes, or until loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
36 Cool in pan for 5 minutes, remove from pan, and finish cooling.
38 If a soft crust is desired cover the loaf with a clean tea towel during the cooling process.
39 Once cooled completely you can slice the bread with a sharp serrated knife.
