Best Sandwich Bread

It took me several months and many tries to come up with a bread that was perfect for my sandwich loving crew.  I started out with Hillbilly Housewife's Family Bread.  While it was tasty, it was a bit dense and crumbly for us.  I then did lots of searching for the perfect bread recipe.  I tried several others and always something was missing - it used too much yeast, didn't make enough loaves, had to be made in the breadmaker*... finally I started playing with the measurements and ingredients of several of our favorites until I happened upon a winner.  The nice thing is that we always have fresh bread which is great for sandwiches, snacks, or as a filler with meals.  And it's inexpensive too!

Best Sandwich Bread

Prep time: approximately 5 hours
Baking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
1 cup warm tap water
2 Tbsp granulated sugar or honey
4 1/2 tsp dry yeast
2 cups warm tap water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp salt
9 cups or so all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 cup warm water, 2 Tbsp sugar or honey and yeast.  Let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes.  Stir in remaining ingredients except 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, slowly adding flour, until dough begins to hold together but is still sticky.  Sprinkle 1 cup of flour on kneading surface and hands, turn dough out and knead until dough is smooth and elastic.  Add more flour as needed.

Coat ball of dough with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, return to mixing bowl and cover with damp cloth.  Let rise until doubled, approximately 2 hours.

Grease 4 bread loaf pans.  Punch dough down and knead lightly as you form 4 loaves.  Place loaves in prepared bread pans, cover with warm damp cloth and let rise until doubled, approximately 2 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom, about 20 minutes.  Turn out onto wire racks and cool completely.

Please note that some metal pans will cook faster than others.  I recommend checking your bread at 18 minutes.

*Breadmakers have their place, but not in my kitchen.  For the amount of yeast it takes to make one loaf of bread in the breadmaker, I can make 4 loaves of bread.  Plus there's just something that puts me back to basics when I have to knead the dough myself.