Simple Egg Bread

My kids love this bread.  They love it just with butter after school or at dinner, or even more they love it as french toast.  This bread makes awesome French toast! I also love that this is a super simple bread to make, and it makes two loaves so we can have some at dinner and have french toast the next morning.

I start by heating up my milk.  I usually microwave if for a minute to just get it warm. Then I add in my yeast and a little sugar.

I use two teaspoons from my jar that I keep in the fridge, but if you have the packets on hand then one packet will be fine.  Technically one packet is about 2¼ teaspoons, so if you want to take that extra ¼ out than feel free, but honestly I wouldn’t worry too much about it.  I whisk the yeast and sugar in and then let it sit while I get everything else together.  I just toss all of my ingredients into a large mixing bowl, the only special thing I do to any of the ingredients beforehand is whisk the eggs a little bit.  I have some bread flour, all purpose flour, a little more sugar, butter (softened!) salt, eggs and vanilla.

by the time I get these all into the bowl the yeast looks like it is good to go.

I pour that into the bowl and just stir with a wooden spoon.  I stir this for about three to five minutes, the dough starts to get stretchy and that is when I know it is time to start kneeding.

When I pick up some of the dough, it sticks and pulls and is glue like.  We are ready to move on.You will see down below in the recipe that I have 4 cups of all purpose flour, but only three of those are in my bowl.  Reason being is that the rest of it or some of it depending on the humidity will be used here.  I spread just a little onto my counter and plop my dough down onto it.

I sprinkle a little more flour onto the dough as well. Keep the flour at hand so you can add it as you need it.

Now comes the kneading of the dough.  This will take about five to ten minutes.  I start by pushing down with my palms onto the dough.  I don’t push with all of my strength its more of a nudge than a push.

I am pushing the dough away and then I will fold in back towards me.

I do not want my fingers getting into the dough, it is sticky inside the dough, and if I make holes in the dough with my fingers than I will need to add more flour than I want. If you poke the dough don’t freak out, just add more flour and try not to poke it if you can. I use my hands almost like paddles to fold it towards me, then I rotate the dough 90° and push out again.

And I keep going and going until I have a smooth ball of dough.  A quick way to see if you are done is to just gently push down with one finger into the dough, if it is ready, it will spring back.  Then I pop the dough into a greased bowl to rise for an hour or two.  It should double in size.  

I get this dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and then I cut it in half.

I roll one half out.  I roll out to around 9×15, a little longer is just fine, but I wouldn’t go much shorter.

I then roll up my dough.

I brush off the flour the best I can and pinch up the seam, and fold the ends in and pinch though.

I then put the dough into a buttered loaf pan, seam side down.

I do the same thing to the other ball of dough and let them rest for another hour.  

I get this into the oven and enjoy the smell of baking bread.  After about forty minutes I pray for self control to not immediately break into this loaf of bread.  It is so important to let it sit and rest for at least an hour.   I keep it in the pan for ten minutes then get it onto a cooling rack for the rest of the time.

So glad I have two loaves of this yummy bread to enjoy.  The kids were super excited for french toast the next morning.