How about a French bread?
Do you have a food processor? Stand mixer? Or will you eb doing it all by hand.
Linda

Here is one that we don't find crumbly.

White Bread

1 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
5 1/2-6 1/2 cups flour

Combine water, milk, butter, salt and sugar. Add 5 cups flour and yeast and mix in KA with dough hook. If more flour is needed, add a little at a time. Knead in mixer about 10 minutes. Let rise until double in size. Divide and put into bread tins, let rise again. Bake 400 degrees for 15 minutes, lower temperature to 350 and bake and additional 45 minutes.

This is the bread I make most often. Once or twice a week.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

1 package dry active yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
3 1/2 cups unbleached flour (bread flour)
2 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups cold water plus 1/3 or so additional water

Place the flour, yeast and salt in the bowl of the food process. Pulse to mix. Add 1 1/3 cups of water and process until the dough comes together. If the dough doesn't form a ball, add a little of the extra water. Process for about 60 seconds, turn off machine and let dough rest for 5 minutes.

Turn on the machine again and rotate the dough about 30 times under the cover, and then remove it to a lightly floured work surface. it should be fairly smooth and quite firm.

Let the dough rest for 2 minutes and then knead roughly and vigourously. The final dough should not stick to your hands as you knead (although it will stick if you pinch and hold a piece); it should be smooth and elastic and, when you hold it up between your hands and stretch it down, it should hold together smoothly.

Preliminary rise - 40 to 60 minutes at around 75F. Place the dough into a clean dry bowl, (do not grease the bowl), cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place free from drafts. (note the French do not grease the bowl because they believe the dough needs a seat to push up from). This first rise is sufficient when the dough has definitely started to rise and is about 1 1/2 times its original volume.

Deflating:

Turn the dough onto your lightly floured work surface roughly and firmly pat and push it out into a 14 inch rectangle. Fold one of the long sides over toward the middle, and the other long side over to cover it, making a 3 layer cushion. Repeat the operation. This important step redistributes the yeast throughout the dough, for a strong second rise. Return the dough smooth side up the bowl; cover with plastic wrap and again set to rise.

Final rise in the bowl - about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or longer. The bread should be 2 1/2 to 3 times its original bulk. It is the amount of rise that is important here, not the timing.

To Shape,

Cut the dough in half. Set one piece aside and cover with a towel.

On a lightly floured work surface pat the dough into a 14 inch rectangle, squaring it up as evenly as you can.

Fold the rectangle of dough in half lengthwise and using the heel of your hand, firmly press the edges together whether they meet. Seat well. Pound the dough flat. Now repeat - patting the dough out again and folding it over and sealing the edges. Pinch the edges well and Rotate the dough so that the sealed edge in on the bottom.

Repeat with second piece of dough.

Cover with plastic wrap or loosely with a towel and let rise to more than double again at about 75°f.

Place stone in oven and Preheat oven to 450°F. Slash three long cuts into the loaves and place on the hot stone. Immediately toss a number of ice cubes on to the bottom on the oven to create steam. Bake until bread is golden and has an interior temp of 200°F. Takes about 30 minutes.

Making Dough in a Mixer or by Hand

When you are making dough in an electric mixer with a dough hook, proceed in the same general way with the rests indicated, and finish by hand. or mix the dough by hand in a bowl, turn out on a work surface, and start the kneading by lifing it up with a sraper and slapping it down roughly for several minutes until it has body. Let it rest several minutes and then proceed to knead.

Ann, that's the recipe I would have posted had I been at home...
Your bread is always so beautiful!
It is never necessary to use crisco in bread...olive oil or butter is a good substitute for a bread that calls for shortening....but I love a classic chewey 4 ingredient bread....Yeast, water, flour and salt....can't be beat.
Linda C

I just wanted to say thank you to Ann, if she is still around, and give this thread a bump:-)

I did a search for a French bread recipe today and came upon this one. I tried it out this afternoon and love the result!

Here is a recipe that was featured in the New York Times. I have made it, and my family LOVES it. I will never make another kind of white bread. This bread is mosit and chewy on the inside, and crusty on the outside. YUM! Plus, it is very easy to make.

No-Knead Bread

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Far and away the best white sandwich bread I've EVER made is at the link below. The texture is perfect -- a strong white sandwich bread that is still moist -- it slices really well, and makes outrageously good toast! Note that I think her recipe makes 3 loaves at a time -- I've cut it by a third since I only make one at a time...

I'm sreally envious of all you good cooks who make bread! It so intimidates me. Someone please tell me that it's really easy. Learning to bake bread has been on my To Do list for several years. There's absolutely nothing that makes the house smell as good as freshly baked, or baking, bread.

In case I get up all my courage, is there a good wheat bread recipe you can recommend?

I make this Baguette recipe at least twice weekly and sometimes twice daily. It is so simple. I use my breadman on dough cycle and then mold and let rise.

French Baguette

1 cup water
2-1/2 cups bread flour [I use AP]
1 tbsp. white sugar
1 teas. salt
1-1/2 teas. yeast

After 90 minute cycle

Divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf 14 inches long.
Slash the tops or use a scissors. Let rise about 1 hour. Brush lightly with egg yolk wash and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds.
Bake in pre-heated 375 oven. for 25 or 30 minutes. I toss 1/4 cup water into the bottom of the over a few times during baking. The recipe says to roll in out and roll it up into a log but I just mold it into shape.
Got the recipe from alrecipes submitted by Judy Taubert

Hi Sayhellonow,
The no-knead recipe that I listed above is SO easy. All you do is mix the ingredients and let it sit. It comes out so good. Even bread recipes that do require kneading are fairly easy, and the end products is worth it. :)

The one thing I'll say about the no knead bread though, is that if the original poster is looking for something more like sandwich bread, I don't think no-knead is it. Again, not that you couldn't make a sandwich on it, but with the big open structure to it and the crispy crust, at least I don't prefer it for a regular sandwich...

Emily

My personal TIP..... When boiling peeled potatoes for your dinner, save the potato water for bread-making (instead of just plain water). I use it in making regular sandwich white bread and also for making Italian bread.

If you use salt in the potato water; take into consideration when making the bread, so you don't use too much salt in the bread recipe.

Here's one I make all the time in my bread machine. I'm leaving here to make a loaf right now. Hope you like it.
HIGH FIBER BRAN BREAD

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 tablespoons dry milk powder
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
(I use olive oil)
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons honey
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2-¼ cups whole-wheat flour
1-cup bread flour
1-cup whole bran cereal
2-¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
¼ cup 10 grain bread mix
(I use any of the Bobs Red Mill
cereal products.)

Use Whole-Wheat Setting

Share the recipe for the whole wheat bread please, I would like to make that, we are trying to avoid white bread as much as possible.

aaressler: Thank you so much for that information. I will try it. However, as LindaC said, I am trying also to avoid white bread. My doctor recommended I switch to whole wheat bread, and to use very little of it at that. That's torture for me because I love bread!

Ceezaah: Thank you very much for the Bran bread recipe. I want to learn how to make bread with only my hands - LOL. If anyone has a good whole wheat recipe - from scratch, tried and true - please let me know.