In my opinion, one of the greatest pleasures in life is eating a slice of freshly-made warm buttered bread. I don’t know if it is the siren call of that perfect slice, working with the dough, or the anticipation of watching loaves rise–all I know is that I love to make and eat homemade bread. In an effort to make most of the Fuji family bread from scratch, I’ve been working on several bread recipes that I can use when I am running short on time. One is a recipe for the bread maker which you’ll be seeing here in the near future, and the other is the recipe I’m sharing with you today.
What I love about this bread is that you can be in and out of the kitchen in about an hour with two gorgeous loaves. The bread itself is soft and moist with just a bit of chew. It makes great sandwich bread (we ate our BLTs on it recently!), wonderful toast, and is just as good eaten on its own.
My FIL just spent a week visiting us, and while he was here he shot a video of me demo-ing just how easy this bread is to make (you can have the majority of the work done in the time it will take you to watch the video).
Print This Recipe
Makes 2 loaves
5 1/4 cups white bread flour
2 – 4 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. (rounded) saf-instant yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp. oil
2 cups warm water (somewhere between 100 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit)
1. Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Mix for 1 minute and then check the consistency of the dough. The dough should be very sticky. If it is too dry, add more water.
2. Mix for 5 minutes. (Do not add any more flour after the dough has finished mixing.)
3. Spray kneading surface with cooking spray and turn dough out onto surface. Knead dough briefly until it has a smooth even consistency (this will only take several turns of the dough to accomplish).
4. Divide dough into 2 pieces (or more if you wish to have smaller loaves) and shape loaves into desired shapes and place on greased baking sheets. Cover with a large dish towel and let rise for 25 minutes.
5. While loaves are rising, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When loaves are ready to go into the oven, use a sharp knife (you can lightly spray your knife with cooking spray to prevent dragging) to make several slashes in the top. Make each cut about 1/4-inch deep at a 30 degree angle. Bake loaves for 25 minutes, or until they are golden brown.
* Why bread flour? In short, bread flour helps make bread loftier and chewier. For a more longer explanation, read this article on the difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour.
* Why saf-instant yeast? Saf-instant yeast is a high-potency, fast-acting yeast that can be added directly to your dry ingredients without it having to be put in a starter first.
* Why slash the top of my loaves? bread101 explains, “First, for a beautiful visual appearance and second, this scoring allows the dough to expand quickly during baking so it reaches its maximum volume. It also prevents a ‘blow out’ from happening if bubbles appear under the crust and then burst.”
* Thank you to my FIL for putting together such a great video for LFM! We did this in one take without any cue cards–not bad!
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
Next Comments →
Wow that's one fast, efficient, and sexy looking loaf :-) Love the slashing.
This is so great! I love your video. My husband is trying to get me to do a video post and you've given me a little more inspiration! The bread looks awesome, too :)
The video is a GREAT idea – fun to see the recipe in action. Do more of them!
Looks great! I like the video – I haven't gotten brave enough to attempt any videos on my site yet. I definitely want to give this a try… I have been trying to learn to make my own bread lately, and this sounds like a good recipe for me!
Wish I would have found this a week ago for our BLTs!!!
awesome!!! love it!
Move over Martha!
We have the fabuleux La Fuji Mama!
TK
Great looking bread! I can't see the video though :-(
LOVE the video! What a great tutorial. Thanks for posting!
Love this!!! The video is great!
YAY! So great to see you cooking away! FujiPapaInLaw did a killer job shooting the video and you did a great job cooking (as always).
I never thought to use cooking spray on the work surface! Can you do that with any bread recipe or just this one?
You can knead dough on an oiled surface instead of a floured surface to prevent adding too much flour to the dough. I’ve kneaded pizza dough that way.
What a terrific video. You did a really nice job with it. I love your bread. Your photo tutorial make it possible for anyone to put this together. Have a wonderful day.
That looks awesome! I wonder if I could do it. My kitchen is generally the place where bread comes to die. ;)
Val
While I'm a fan of 2-3 day breads filled with lots of grains, an easy 1 hr bread would be nice occasionally. Great looking bread to have in your back pocket for times like that!
Um, what is this? Why has one-hour bread not entered my life until now?? I think you might be my new best friend.
Ive been using this recipe now for over a year. I am cook for hunting lodge and I needed a bread that was fast and always good! Not only do I make bread but this recipe makes amazing cinnamon buns, cheese and ham buns and much more. Garlic fingers .. lol seriously I could go on and on. For anyone who has never made bread this is is the perfect one to start with!
Thanks Rachael for making my job much much easier!
I know this is an old post but hoping for answer. I want to make cheesy garlic bread…..when you made the cheese and ham buns did you add it to the actual dough before baking? If so did you adjust the recipe any?
wow one hr very cool
Fresh bread with butter is sooo good! A good friend of mine would bake bread all the time and invite me over. I have been wanting to make bread for a while now. This is a great reminder to actually do it!
Good job with your video! C'est magnifique!
Just when I'm trying to swear off bread to drop some pounds you present this little lovely! There is a battle going on in my head right now!
looks great! i'll have to give this a try soon.
Okie, dokie . . . I'm realy thinking I can do this. Especially if I borrow Katie's kitchenaid!
Great addition to your blog that video is – ONE TAKE?? I'm impressed. Eileen
Great job on the video AND the bread!
Well done! I was wishing I could have that slice straight out of the oven with just a 'little' butter too. I loved the video. Aren't you clever?
These loaves are simply gorgeous!! They look perfect!
Cute video! How do you stay looking so thin and gorgeous with all this good food you make? ;) The bread looks awesome and since I'll be entering the "mommy-of-two" club with you soon, I'll definitely have to try this time-saver recipe! Thanks!
SEE!! this is exactly what I'm talking about! your blog ALWAYS has projects I want to do!! *SIGH*
Actually, all joking aside – I've always been afraid of trying to make breads because of the yeast but this one looks simple enough for me to do!!! can't wait to try it!
that`s a gorgeous looking bread! I use the same (well similar) recipe for my bagels too. Ill try this one!
This looks delicious and I am SOO glad you like the cake. Let me know if you have another challenge a la Macaroons – I love stuff like that! :)
Amazing that you made bread in an hour! I must muster the courage to try making this myself!
WOW! That really is fast bread! Love the slashing . . . You should submit to yeastspotting.
GREAT looking bread and nothing beats fast and easy, too!
That bread looks sublime. Great video. ;)
Thank you for the great video showing the steps to make 1 hour homemade bread. I will try it in the next couple of days.
Your bread looks so delicious! And they are oh-so-fluffy.
They remind me so much of French bread… :D
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I just made this bread, and am eating my second slice. It is wonderful! Great recipe, thank you so much!
mmm thats looks SO good! I would to make it this weekend! Do you think the recipe would turn out right if I threw it into the breadmaker? (On the dough setting)
Also, could I substitute regular yeast? I cant seem to find the other one anywhere! :S
Thanks a lot!:D
Angie– I'm so glad you like it! Thanks for letting me know that you made it!
Zahra– This particular recipe isn't really designed to go in the breadmaker–it comes together a lot quicker than a dough made in the breadmaker. You cannot substitute regular yeast without making substantial changes to the methods used in the recipe. The particular type of yeast used (saf-instant yeast) does not have to be proofed, so it can be added directly to the dry ingredients. It also only needs 1 rise, unlike a regular yeast which normally requires 2 rises. Saf-instant yeast can be found (in the US) in some kitchen/bakery supply stores or online (it isn't normally found at a regular supermarket). Hope that helps!
Beautiful loaves! I'm so glad I clicked don the video because you've given me the perfect solution for keeping my SAF yeast. I have it in the original bag inside of a ziplock, with the yeast kind of all over the place. I saw your mason jar and went, DUH! what a perfect solution. So thanks. :)
Great recipe. For my taste it was a little to sweet with only 2Tbsp of sugar and not salty enough.
I will try it with some modifications and post my results.
Thanks.
They didn't have Saf-Instant yeast at my supermarket. Is Fast Rising Instant yeast the same thing? It says "No need to dissolve".
Thanks for your help. I enjoy reading your blog!
I made this bread today. I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH! I'm gonna do a quick entry on my ghetto site because more people need to get to your site and try this recipe. thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I finally tried it yesterday and my kids and my husband raved about it. I'm so glad you posted the video, too, because I learn better from watching things. Anyway, I wanted to let you know I blogged about this awesome recipe and your video and linked to you on my post. Thanks again! Erin
http://nagle5.blogspot.com/2009/09/really-good-bread-in-just-one-hour.html
This is so beautiful, I have to try it!
Congratulations for your win :)
Congrats on your win Racheal, you deserve it!!
Quetion about the yeast. Can I use Fleishmann's instant, the Rapid Rise brand?
Amanda– I don't have any Fleischmann's Instant on hand to check, but I do believe that it would work. The reason I use saf-instant is because I've found it to have a better shelf life, and I think it rises a bit better. If you do try it out with the Fleischmann's I'd love to hear about it!
I used Fleischmans and it worked out really well. I also used 3 cups of white and 2 and 1/4 cups of whole wheat flour. I even made a couple of mistakes along the way and the breads still turned out!! It is fool-proof. It is delicious. Thank you so much!
Katherine– Somehow your comment slipped past me (I've been noticing that not all of the comments have been forwarded to my email lately–grrr!)…without being able to look at your specific yeast, I will give a tentative yes. It sounds like the correct kind of yeast. As I just told Amanda above, the reason I specifically use saf-instant is that I find it to have a better shelf-life and that it has better rise. If you do try it, I'd love to hear about it!
The Fast Rising Instant yeast worked! I'm not sure how it compares to saf-instant (which I want to try), but the bread was delicious. I've made it twice already, and I plan to make it again tonight (to have with the Kabocha soup). I posted a link to your recipe on my FB page, and several friends have thanked me for passing it on. Thanks so much!
Sorry — the comment above was left by me.
I made this bread today and it is wonderful..I didn't have bread flour so used all purpose and it tasted awesome. Next time I will try with bread flour..of course there will be a next time:)
Great video..I watched it and thought 'okay we can have fresh bread for lunch'! My family loved it!!
Thanks for a 'keeper recipe'.
Katherine–YAY!!!!
betty r–Thank you for letting me know! I'm so glad you liked it!
I just made this and used my kitchen aide mixer.no work at all.it raised good and is baking good.thanks for such an easy recipe