Making Bread

Okay. I'm not a bread snob. I don't always have to have something fresh, organic, whole grain, etc. I enjoy the occasional piece of good old Wonder Bread from time to time. But I do get a little annoyed that my children like to eat bread so much, and the stuff you get from the store has about fifty ingredients. I mean.... why? So anyway, I've been making our bread lately. Since I have a stand mixer now I thought I'd find a recipe I could do in the mixer. This recipe has been a hit thus far, so I thought I'd share it in case anyone was interested. The nice part is that it only makes one small loaf at a time. That's a good thing at the moment, but I'm sure I'll have to start doubling it soon. We can eat an entire loaf in a day very easily.

Streamlined White Bread
1-1/4 Cup warm water
1 pkg. dry active yeast
2 Tbsp. shortening
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
3 cups flour

In warmed mixer bowl, dissolve yeast. Add shortening, sugar, salt, and half of flour. Mix (beater, not dough hook) on medium (4) for two minutes, scraping bowl as needed. Add remaining flour and mix in with a spoon. Scrape batter from sides of bowl. Cover; let rise 30 min. or until double. Stir down batter by beating about 25 strokes. Spread evenly in greased loaf pan. Use floured hands to shape top. Batter will be sticky. Let rise again about 40 min. until close to top of pan. Bake 375* 45-50 min. Loaf will sound hollow when tapped. Immediately remove to cooling rack. Brush top with melted butter or shortening. Let cool away from drafts. Makes one loaf.