This is the soft white (mostly) sandwich bread I make every week for my family. I do sourdoughs and ciabatta and various French breads too, but this has been the staple for years.

2 teaspoons dried yeast

2 cups warm water

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons margarine

1/4 cup dried milk powder

1/4 cup dried potato flakes

5 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup wheat flour

Do everything in the same big mixing bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the honey, salt, margarine, milk powder and potato flakes and stir until dissolved. Sift in the flours. Knead, and keep kneading. It’ll get sticky, then taper off to where you can handle it easily again. When it’s “smooth and elastic,” as the bread cookbooks say, leave it in the bowl with a dishcloth over it and let rise for an hour and a half. Punch down. Divide into two, and put into two buttered loaf pans. Let rise 45 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or so.

I was given cast-iron loaf pans for my birthday last year and love them. They give the bread a crunchier crust.