Greetings my fellow loafers ;-)

I have been struggling with my white sandwich bread recipes lately.  I have tried SO many different combinations in my recipes (bread flour, regular flour, vegetable oil, butter, crisco butter flavored, crisco regular, wheat gluten, dough enhancer, organic brown sugar, and the list goes on).

I also have made bread with Hodgson Mill White Bread machine mix.  I will take two boxes of that, add half milk, half water, and butter flavored crisco instead of butter.  The bread comes out fantastic! However, I want to recreate that with my own ingredients, because I feel like a "bread fraud" using a mix! lol  Maybe it isn't as cost effective. Let me do the rundown:

Hodgson Mill method:

two boxes of mix = $3.20

1/2 cup milk = $.20

1/2 cup water -= free

3 tbs butter flavored crisco = $.30

total = $3.70 for two loaves

Home made method:

5 cups bread flour  = $2.50

1 1/2 tbs yeast = $1.00

1/2 cup milk = $.20

1/2 cup water = free

3 tbs butter flavored crisco = $.30

3 tbs organic sugar = $.15

1 tsp kosher salt = < $. 10

total = $approx. $4.15 for two loaves

So, if the bread mix is cheaper, and tastes better, then I would like to go that route.  But to make "real" homemade bread, I feel like I need to use all separate ingredients.  What is it in that mix that makes the bread so good??? It is elastic, smooth, dense, rich, creamy...just all-around perfect bread.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my ramble.  Any advice or ideas are greatly appreciated!

Lynn

There is a bakery in my area (Syracuse, New York) that makes the most delicious and unusual bread as their signature item.  They call it "Stretch Bread," and it is a ciabatta-like loaf (although longer and not quite as wide), with very large holes throughout the loaf.  The crust is slightly crisp, but iif you pull off a piece rather than cut it, it stretches before it tears.  The inside of the loaf is very elastic, not crumbly at all (unless you let it sit out for a day) and the upper crust is bumpy, evidence of the large air bubbles directly under the crust in the dough i