mudlady, bread flour is just a higher protein flour, I use any recipe I like for white bread and just substitute the bread flour. My family's favorite is still Grandma's old Farmhouse White, I make it with all purpose or with bread flour with similar results. It's a rich, eggy bread, because we always had milk and eggs to use up.

BREAD (GRANDMAÂS RECIPE)

1/3 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs
1 pkg yeast
1 tsp salt
4  4 ½ cups flour
vital wheat gluten (optional)

Mix milk, butter and sugar, heat until butter melts and liquid is very warm. Add eggs, then beat in flour, salt and yeast until stiff dough forms. Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 7 Â 8 minutes. Turn dough into greased bowl and let rise in warm place until double. Punch down dough, shape into loaves or dinner rolls and let rise again. Bake at 350 until done (25 - 30 minutes for loaves, 12-15 minutes for dinner rolls)

Makes 1 large or two small loaves or 18 dinner rolls

I've also used it to make Sol's Honey Rolls:

Honey Rolls
1 cup milk
½ cup honey
½ cup butter [1 stick]
2 teaspoos salt
1-2 tablespoons granulated sugar*
2 pkges. dry yeast
½ cup warm water [110º-115ºF]
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 - 6½ cups AP flour
Heat the milk, add butter and salt. Set aside while butter melts. Stir in the honey.
In another bowl, combine the warm water, yeast and sugar. Let it sit until yeast is completely dissolved, about 6-7 minutes.
Combine milk mixture with yeast mixture. And stir in the beaten eggs. Beat in 4 cups flour. Add enough remaining flour to make a soft, but not sticky dough.
Place dough in greased bowl, turning to coat both sides. Cover and allow dough to rise 1 hour. Punch dough down, and allow to rise another hour.
Punch down again, and shape dough into rolls. Let it rise again 45 minutes to an hour or until doubled in volume. Preheat your oven to 375ºF and bake rolls for 25 minutes or until a deep golden brown. For a very soft crust, brush rolls with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven.
Note: You could omit the sugar from this recipe altogether. I sometimes use about a teaspoon of the honey called for in the recipe to feed the yeast instead of the sugar.

And I've used it in French Bread, I use the Julia Child recipe, I think it's the same one that Ann T uses.

Frankly, I don't see any reason why bread flour wouldn't work in any yeast bread recipe you have an already like. I don't use it for cakes or quick breads but I've used it in cinnamon rolls, danish and all types of yeast breads.

Annie

Just use the bread flour...it will work just fine....you may need to knead (!!) in a little less as the bread flour will have a slightly higher protein content than all purpose flour, but chances are you won't know the difference.

AND in the interest of avoiding a thread like the yeast one, I will say that there are differences in the kinds of wheat used for making different flours, and that bread flour makes better textured bread than all purpose, but I will say I use them interchangeably if I don't have both kinds in the house.

White bread:
1 cup milk, scalded and cooled
1 cup water
2 Tl. sugar
2 T vegetable oil

mix 2 packages (or equivalent) of instant yeast with 2 cups of flour and stir into liquid until smooth. Stir in 1 1/2 tsps salt and add enough flour to make a stiff dough ( about 1 1/2 more cups)...turn out on a board and knead until smooth and elastic ( about 8 to 10 minutes, adding enough more flour so the dough doesn't stick to the board or your hands ( about 4 cups flour total.)
Place in rising bowl and cover and let rise until doubled. Turn out on a board and de-gas and flatten,s hape into a ball, cover and let rest 10 minutes, form into 2 loaves, let rise until double and bake 375 until browned and hollow sounding when tapped.
Linda C

Thanks annie and lindac. Duh--it's been so long since I made bread that I didn't even think about kneading and adding flour as needed. I may even make a loaf tonight. I have some , hell--a lot--of health issues as well as depression and I think making bread will be a good tension releaser. It won't be quite the same as when I made bread oh so many years ago. When my first son was a toddler and able to stick his nose into my business he found kneading and punching down fascinating. I used to tell him the bread was bad and let him smack the "bad" bread. Looks like I may have a great breakfast!

mudlady, any breakfast with homemade bread is a good breakfast, and I think anything homemade without all those chemicals and preservatives is better for us than the store bought stuff.

Annie

Mudlady, as Linda and Annie said, just go ahead and use the bread flour. All-purpose flour in Canada tends to have more protein than US bread flour. You can use your bread flour to make any type of bread.

Ann

And beating on bread is good for "what ails ya"...I made a huge batch of bread on 9/11....watching tV and beating up on the dough!! LOL!
Linda C

Annie--The one package of yeast in Grandma's recipe--is it the cube of yeast or a package of the dry stuff?

mudlady, it's a package of the dry stuff. It started out as a cube of yeast, became a package of yeast and now I buy my yeast in bulk at Sam's Club, so it's about 2 1/2 teaspoons in my kitchen. It doesn't matter if it's instant yeast, rapid rise, bread machine, whatever, it all works about the same for me in that recipe.

My kids used to love that recipe cut into circles, rolled flat and then filled with pizza sauce, ham, mushrooms and mozzarella and folded over and sealed like a tart or hot pocket. I didn't even let them rise a second time, just stuck them right into the oven, they made great lunch box sandwiches.

Annie

And also....it really doesn't much matter how much yeast you put into your bread....as little as 1/2 a teaspoon will work, but it takes longer for the rise....and as much as 4 packages is fine too....but the bread really pops up fast!!
I sometimes add only a little bit of yeast....and let the dough rise over night....never added double the amount on purpose....but, accidents do happen! LOL!

Time to come clean--it didn't rise, not even a litle. All I can think of is my "very warm" was too hot. Putting it together was easy and it kneaded really well. I did consider that my house was too cold, but I was sweating and I put it on top of the frige as I always used to do, figuring heat rises. I had never made bread in which the yeast wasn't proofed in a little liquid so maybe I did something wrong while beating in the flour, salt and yeast. I'm going to try again and use a thermometer, both to test the temp of the liquid and then the top of the frige.

Guess where I mixed and kneaded the dough. On top of my ceramic top stove. I built a double wide for my retirement castle and there is almost no counter space. Also, the cats walk all over the counter. I washed the top and put masking tape over the area where the ceramic and the metal stove top meet so no flour would creep into a crevice and I had a perfectly clean surface on which to work.

Seems like you killed the yeastey beasties...
When you notice that as youa re kneading and the bread doesn't seem to have bubbles beneath the surface....andw hen you let it rest and no rising happens....'pat out the dough flat as possible, sprinkle on some dry yeast, roll up and let it sit for 10 minutes...then knead to mix ti up, cover and see if it will rise.
Chances are huge that it will!
Linda c

Thanks, Linda c--

The poor doughy mess is in the bottom of the kitchen trash and I hope I never wreck another loaf again. When I was a young mother (sons are now 36 and 39)and I had demanding kids in the kitchen, I never wrecked any bread I made. Guess I'll blame today on old age.

I agree, a sprinkle of yeast (as long as your yeast isn't old or extremely outdated) will usually resurrect that dough, although you might get a slightly more "yeasty" flavor.

I never proof yeast, but I bake so much bread that my yeast never has a chance to get old, I store it in a quart canning jar in the refrigerator.

That's a really good idea to use the stove top for kneading, although that would be too tall for me, LOL. And as long as you aren't strong enough to break it!

Annie