Lean White Sandwich Bread Recipe

Learning how to make a lean white sandwich bread is essential when it comes to portion control. Since white flour is stripped of a lot of nutrients during the processing, it's not as good for you as whole wheat bread. But there is nothing wrong with eating white bread on occasion. Just be aware it's one of those "empty calorie" foods. It's better to eat these in moderation as you just don't get a lot of nutrition and it's not very filling which makes it easier to over indulge.

If you have allergies or are watching your diet, many of the sandwich breads out there have added fillers such as sugar, oil, and other preservatives. This is called enriched dough or enriched bread. This isn't always a bad thing as preservative lengthens the life of your bread and gives it some flavor. But it can be a bad thing if you have allergies or want to cut calories. In contrast, a lean dough or a lean bread is flour, water, yeast and salt. It will not last as long, but it's less in calories and oftentimes fat free. So bonus points for all you weight watchers out there.

However, I don't like to add calories unnecessarily and can always find recipes to deal with leftover bread such as croutons. That or I feed a bit to the chickens as an occasional treat. Let's face it, fresh bread rarely lasts past a couple days and if it does, you obviously have more self control than I do! Let's get to making that lean white sandwich bread, shall we?

If you need more help on learning how to knead dough, watch this brief video! It goes through the basic process in detail.

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Lean White Sandwich Bread

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This is the easiest way to learn how to make sandwich loaves without a lot of ingredients or time. It's a recipe I make often.

Prepare: 15 minutes mins

Bake: 45 minutes mins

Additional TimeRest Time: 3 hours hrs

Total: 4 hours hrs

Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 3 ⅓ cups (500g) white bread flour
• 1 ¼ cups (300g) water
• 2 tsp (7g) yeast
• 1 - 2 tsp (5 - 10g) salt*

Instructions

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• In a large bowl, stir together flour, yeast and salt.
• Add water.
• Using the handle of a spoon or your hand, stir the mixture until a shaggy dough forms.
• Turn out onto a clean surface and begin kneading by folding the dough over in half and pushing it down flat away from you. Do this for approximately 5 - 10 minutes or until you can stretch the dough without it immediately tearing and it is smooth to the touch.
• Return dough to the bowl and cover with a cloth, clingfilm or loose fitting lid and let sit at room temperature for 1 - 2 hours or until the dough no longer springs back when pressed.
• Place dough onto a lightly floured surface or work on a dry surface. This is up to you. I prefer not to add flour as it can make the loaf too dense. Fold the dough into a rough rectangle and place in a lightly oiled loaf tin, seam side down.
• Cover and let rise until it reaches the top of the pan. This can take around 30 - 60 minutes.
• Preheat oven 400F (200C.)
• Bake 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. Center of bread should read 212F (100C.)
• Let cool completely before slicing to let the bread crumb set and prevent drying out.

Notes

*Two teaspoons is traditional and gives you a french bread type taste.  However, if you use 2 tsp, sodium is increased to 387.5 grams per slice.  Nutrition information as shown is 1 tsp of salt.

An important note on dry yeast: Instant dry yeast is used in this recipe, which can be mixed directly into the dry ingredients or dissolved in water before mixing. If you're using active dry yeast, modern varieties generally don't need to be dissolved in warm water first, although some manufacturers still recommend it. Rapid-rise yeast may affect rising times.

Always check the manufacturer's instructions on your yeast package for the best results.