Morgan’s Grandma’s Pull-Apart Bread “White Bread”
I borrowed this photo from King Arthur Baking Dot Com to give you an idea of what the loaf should look like. —Samin
Total Time: 3 to 4 hours (including lots of inactive time)
Yield: Two 9-by-5 inch loaves of bread
Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups milk
1 pkg active dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons sugar
5¾ to 6¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt
1 tablespoon butter, plus more for greasing
Directions:
Lightly coat two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans with butter and set aside.
Scald the milk: In a small saucepan heat milk all the milk to just under a boil. Remove from heat and pour about ¼ cup of the milk into a small bowl or heat proof measuring cup. Pour the rest of the milk into a large bowl, add the sugar and whisk to dissolve, allow to cool while you proof the yeast.
Proof the yeast: Allow the ¼ cup of milk to cool until just warm to the touch (90°-110°F). Add the yeast, stir to dissolve and let stand for 5 minutes until foamy.
Add the yeast mixture to your larger milk mixture, stir to dissolve.
Add 5 ¾ cups of the flour plus the salt to the milk mixture and using a stiff wooden spoon or your hand knead the mixture together in the bowl until it comes together in a shaggy ball.
Once you have it at the shaggy ball stage, lightly flour a cutting board or work surface, dump your dough out onto your board (wipe out and save your bowl) and begin kneading by hand. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes by hand until the dough is smooth, adding more flour as you need a few tablespoons at a time to keep it from sticking to your hands or the surface.
Lightly grease your reserved bowl with butter and transfer your dough back to your bowl, turning once to lightly coat. Cover with a damp towel or inverted plate and let stand until doubled in bulk, about 1 ½ to 2 hours in a warm, draft-free area.
Lightly flour a cutting board or work surface. Depress your dough and pull out onto the surface in front of you. Lightly flour the top and form into a loose rectangle, then roll into a larger rectangle, approx 16-by-16 inches. Melt the butter and brush the entire surface of your dough (reserve remaining butter to brush on after they are in your tins). Measure and mark along the edges of the dough at 4-inch intervals. Then using a pastry wheel, pizza wheel, or knife, cut the dough into 4-inch square pieces, you should now have 16, 4-inch squares.
Fold each piece of dough in half (like a taco) and nestle into your pan starting on one end and ending at the other. You should fit 8 folded squares into each pan. Brush with remaining melted butter.
Cover pans with a damp towel or loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, 30-45 minutes. When pressed with a finger the dough should hold an impression rather than bounce completely back.
When the dough is close to ready, preheat the oven to 375°F and situate a rack in the center of the oven.
Bake the loaves in the oven side-by-side for 40 minutes until the loaves are golden brown, rotating once after about 25 minutes to ensure even coloring (tent with tinfoil if they are coloring too rapidly or drop temp by 25 degrees). Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
Serve warm-straight out of the pan, or unmold and serve whole, pulling pieces as you go.
Original Recipe Card:
Oven 375 degrees
Bake 40 minutes
"White Bread"
5 3/4 to 6 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 pkg dry yeast
2 1/4 cups milk or butter milk
2 T. sugar
1 T. butter or margarine or shortening
1 1/2 tsp. salt