White Bread (Tasha's Recipe)

1 ½ cups warm water 1 cup warm milk
2 Tbsp. Sugar 2 Tbsp. Sugar
1 pkg. Yeast (1 Tbsp) 1 Tbsp. Salt
6 ½ cups flour 3 Tbsp. Oil

Combine water, sugar, yeast, and 2 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Cover and let rise until light and spongy. Mix together remaining ingredients except flour. Stir down yeast mixture; stir in milk mixture. Stir in remaining flour. Knead until smooth and elastic. Let rise until double. Punch down, divide in half. Put in 2 large or 3 small, greased and floured loaf pans. Cover and let rise. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes.

Tips:
*It is better to have too warm of water than too cold.
*Kneading helps the bread to be tasty, don't be afraid to knead a lot
*Before you shape your dough and put into bread pans, make sure it is the consistency that you want. Consistency is the key to good bread. At least that is what I believe.

Fun variations:
*try adding herbs/spices for an herb/spices bread (add with last flour)
*before putting into bread pans, roll it out and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar (or Parmesan cheese and garlic, or whatever you would like) onto the bread. Then roll up like you are making cinnamon rolls and put on a greased cookie sheet. Gives you a french looking loaf with yummy goodness rolled inside.

Healthier variations:
*substitute applesauce for the oil (same amount basically, but could effect the amount of flour, go for the perfect consistency)
*replace ½ of the white flour with wheat (if you want to use all wheat flour, a recipe for wheat bread is better) note: I find that wheat flour is drier than white flour so it could change the amount of flour you need just slightly
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NOTES FROM TODAY:
- Higher altitude means a little more yeast should be added
-I pkg yeast = 2 and 1/4 teaspoon yeast
-You can dye bread to make pumpkin looking breadbowls, but it's a lotttttta dye, and you can also google "natural dyes" to find some alternatives to the regular dye.
-You don't have to put the dough in bread pans. You can let it stay in an elongated form (like how italian bread is sold in the store)
-you can score the loaf before hand (cut very shallow streaks or designs on the top of the raw bread loaf) to make it look really cool when it comes outta the oven.
-WAYS TO TEST wheat dough elasticity (stretchiness) of bread to see if it's a good consistency: 1) Poke it and see if it bounces back. 2) "Window Test" where you pick it up, pull it apart (like you're pulling saran wrap outta the box, not just pulling) and see if it stays together and stretches (but doesn't break right away). 3) Should start to pull from the side of the bowl and form a large stuck-together mass.