Simple White Bread & Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Directions

• Put 1 ½ cup of water in liquid measuring cup (the water should be warm but not boiling hot…my mom always said if you put your wrist against the running water and can tell it’s warm but it doesn’t hurt, it is a good temperature! But if you really want to be precise, the temperature should be around 105-115 degrees). Pour yeast into water and mix. Let sit while you make the milk mixture below.
• Put milk in a small saucepan and scald (the sides will start to cling a little, but not boiling). Remove from heat, and add butter, salt and sugar. Stir to dissolve.
• This is where the fun begins! My mom always taught me to knead the bread with just my hands (use step 4)….I learned about a year ago that most people use their KitchenAid mixer using the dough hook (use step 5). I was truly amazed. But for some reason…I still love kneading it on my own. So this is where it is up to you!
• If you mix by hand, Pour yeast mixture and milk mixture into large bowl. Add 3 cups of flour (1 cup at a time) and stir using a whisk after each cup. Add around another cup using a spoon to mix until it becomes too hard to mix with spoon. Put the bread on a floured surface (pastry cloth with flour if you have one, or just flour your counter). Start kneading, adding flour as needed (you’ll eventually use around another 2 cups of flour but don’t worry about being exact). Knead for about 10 minutes. You’ll notice the bread dough texture will change and come together around the 10 minute mark.
• If you want to use your KitchenAid, pour yeast mixture and milk mixture into KitchenAid mixer. Add one cup at a time of flour, using dough hook to mix. In all, mix for around 10 minutes (again you’ll see the change in texture/dough coming together).
• Put bread in bowl that was lightly greased/floured, and cover bowl with saran wrap and then lay a kitchen towel over it. Put bowl in warm spot in your house, and let rise for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.
• Punch down then take dough out of bowl and knead for a few more minutes (by hand). Separate dough into two parts.
• This is where you can decide what kind of bread you want to make! You can choose to just form each into a loaf shape and place them into greased bread pans. I chose to do one regular loaf, and a cinnamon swirl.
• If you want to do cinnamon swirl: take one of the loaves and use your hands and/or a rolling pin to stretch out the dough into a rectangular shape. Use fingers to make indents along the small sides of the rectangle. Use pastry brush or spoon to pour melted butter over dough. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over dough, putting extra in those indented sides (one of those will be the center of your swirl). Starting at one small end, roll dough (sort of like how you roll up a yoga mat haha). Use your fingers to pinch the end to close it up and put that pinched end as the bottom of the loaf. Put into greased bread pan.
• Take your bread loaves, and lay a towel over them. Let rise for another hour. Preheat oven to 350 during this time (I end up putting the loaves near or on stove, the heat helps dough to rise).
• Bake 30-35 minutes (sides and bottom of bread should be browned and hard). Let sit for 5 minutes then take out of pans and let cool on rack. Let fully cool before cutting.