Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
The Best White Bread and How to Make It
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
In a large bowl, combine warm water and sugar. Sprinkle yeast on top and let it sit for 5 minutes until frothy.
Add salt and flour gradually, mixing until a dough forms.
Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes until smooth.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Shape and bake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Punch down the dough and shape it into a loaf. Place it in a greased loaf pan.
Let it rise again for 30 minutes.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
- Active dry yeast
- Ferments sugars to produce carbon dioxide, which makes the dough rise.
- Warm water
- Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast, forming the dough.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Salt
- Strengthens the gluten and controls the yeast's rate of fermentation.
The step that matters
Kneading the dough. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps gas from the yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense, while the dough should become smooth and elastic.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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