Sandwich Bread Recipe

I was asked to share the recipe I use for making my bread. This is actually a recipe I got from a fellow member at Frugal Village. If you would like to look at the original recipe, you can click here. This recipe makes 3 loaves of awesome sandwich bread. I buy my flour at Aldi's for about $1.50 for five pounds (Sam's Club has a really good price on theirs also - 25 pounds for around $9) and I buy 2 packages of 1 pound yeast at Sam's Club for about $5. Keep the other yeast in the freezer until you are ready to open it. This will extend the life of the yeast past the expiration date.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of sugar
3 cups of warm water
9 cups of flour
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter, shortening, or oil

Directions:
1. In large bowl, add 1 tablespoon of sugar, the yeast and 1 cup of warm water. Let set for 10 minutes.
2. Mix the yeast in well. Then add the 2 cups of water, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and butter or oil. Mix together. Mix in 3 cups of the flour, one cup at a time. At this point, I use a whisk to get it really mixed well. Then mix in the remaining 6 cups of flour, one cup at a time. When it starts getting too hard to mix with a spoon, use your hands.
3. Place dough on floured surface. Knead well for about 4-5 minutes or until dough becomes elastic.
4. After kneading, put the dough in a large oiled bowl and flip to coat both sides with oil. Loosely cover bowl with plastic wrap, and place in a warm place. Let it rise for 1 hour.
5. Punch down dough to remove air bubbles and divide into 3 loaves. I do this by shaping into a circle and making a peace sign type shape to divide the circle into thirds. Then since I do not have a dough cutter, I use a pizza cutter - this works great!
6. Shape into loafs and put into greased loaf pans. I shape mine by making it into a rectangular shape with my hands (you can also use a rolling pin but this doesn't work well for me). I then roll the dough up, while folding in the ends once in a while - kind of like making a burrito or soft taco. When I get to the end, I pinch the seams together, then pat down the seams and place in loaf pan. If that doesn't make any sense, please see the pictures.

7. Cover pans with dishtowels (I also place the plastic used earlier underneath the towel) and place in a warm area for another hour. Loaves should double in size.
8. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

It is ready when it turns golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped! Remove from pans and cool on a cooling rack!

If you have any problems cutting it, stick the loaf in a freezer bag for an hour and then try to re-cut. Or, you can just wrap and freeze without slicing.