Ingredients:

2 cups of milk
1 stick of butter or margarine
1 cup warm water
2 packages of active dry yeast
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
unbleached, high gluten flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scald milk in saucepan. Remove from burner and add butter. Let cool. In large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water, then stir. Add milk/butter mixture to yeast mixture, then stir in salt, sugar and vanilla. Begin stirring in flour one cup at a time until dough no longer feels sticky to the touch and looks elastic. Allow dough to rise in bowl until it is double in size, then punch it down. Allow it to rise again until it is double in size, then divide dough in half and shape into loaves. Put each loaf in a greased bread pan and let rise again. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until bread is golden brown. Remove from pans and let cool.

If you want a sweet bread you may want to increase sugar to 1/2 cup and put in an egg or two, plus 1 tsp of vanilla.

Smart Tips

My mom also recommends keeping a basic cookbook handy to use as a reference for working with yeast. She also sent me links to the King Arthur Flour Web site, for baking tips. In particular check out the "Yeast Primer."